Community Corner

North Shore Movie Shoot Features 'Rudy' Star Sean Astin

Mimi Rogers and Chris Mulkey also star in "The Surface," set and filmed in Milwaukee.


If you saw a boat being towed down Lake Drive on Tuesday afternoon by a car with large black contraptions strapped to it, you were watching a movie being filmed.

Those contraptions were cameras, the movie is an adventure-drama called "The Surface," and filming will continue for the next few weeks at various North Shore and Milwaukee locations.

Writer-producer Jeff Gendelman said the movie, set in his native Milwaukee, will be "an indie gem" and he plans to enter it in Sundance, Tribeca and other major film festivals in 2014.

Stars include Sean Astin, who played "Rudy"Β that film and also starred in "Lord of the Rings" and "The Goonies". Astin was part of the scene being filmed Tuesday.

Other stars are Chris Mulkey ("First Blood," "Rain Man") and Mimi Rogers ("Austin Powers," "Lost in Space")

Gendelman said nearly all the technical crew is local, and he effusively praised their work. The crew was camped out in the parking lot of Wheel and Sprocket in Fox Point on Tuesday.

Jimmy Sammarco is the director of photography and co-producer, and Gil Cates Jr. is the director.

The film should be complete near the end of 2013. Gendelman said an international distributor is lined up, but North American rights are being held back in hopes of landing something big after the film festivals.

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