One of the
co-stars in Matthew Mishory’s new film about James Dean is not an actor, but a
place: Joshua Tree.
“We wanted
the desert landscape to be a sort of character in the film, to set a mood and
tone,” says Writer/Director Mishory about Joshua
Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean.
Starring
James Preston as James Dean, the film is shot in black and white with stunning
high noir imagery and captures a time in Dean’s life before he became a
Hollywood icon. It screens twice during the final weekend of the Palm Springs
International Film Festival - Saturday, Jan. 12, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 13,
1:00 p.m. at the Annenberg Theater. Mishory and Edward Singletary, Jr., one of
the producers and actors in the film, are expected to attend the screenings.
During pre-production
research, Mishory learned Hollywood studio executives had sent Dean to the desert
to tan before the East of Eden shoot.
He liked the idea of making a James Dean film that was not set in New York, and
not entirely in Hollywood either, but set partially in the desert. So he moved
Dean’s desert trip up a few years and wrote his script with Los Angeles and
desert locations.
“We went
to the desert and were inspired to make the film,” says Mishory. “People often
ask which parts of the film are factual and which parts are more fictionalized
and it’s usually the opposite of what people think. The sequences in the city
are almost entirely taken from the history and recollections of the people who
knew him. The sequences in the desert become a symbolic and an emotional
landscape.”
Searching for
an isolated desert landscape, one of Mishory’s producers knew of the Zircon
Circus ranch outside of Joshua Tree National park. The compound had a series of
small structures - a little house and garage – that were contemporary of the
period. Built in the 40’s, they already had the bones of a desert motel, so the
production’s art department went in and nipped and tucked here and there to
finish the transformation.
“We stayed on that ranch for the duration of
the shoot in the desert and we shot at locations on the ranch and locations on
unincorporated land that has incredible vistas,” says Mishory. “There’s one
shot from a hillside where you can literally see for miles and miles and
there’s nothing there but desert.”
For
Mishory, the film screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival is like
coming full circle. “It’s quite literally in our backyard of where we shot the
film, and some of the crew was staying in Palm Springs as we were shooting the
movie. It’s kind of a homecoming for the film so we’re very excited for these
particular screenings.”
The film also stars Dan Glenn, Dalilah Rain, and Edward Singletary, Jr.
Mishory’s
is already at work on his next project, a film called Disappear Here. A political thriller, it’s a star vehicle for James
Duke Mason, son of Belinda Carlisle, lead singer of the Go Gos and grandson of
the great James Mason of Lolita and
other Hollywood movies of the 50’s and 60’s. Duke’s father Morgan Mason who produced Sex, Lies and Videotape came out of
retirement to produce the film.
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| Writer/Director Matthew Mishory |
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