Provo substituted for Spokane in film

PROVO — First it was real life, then a Brigham Young University play and now a Christmas movie.

The Lifetime television channel airs "Together Again for the First Time" Sunday and Monday evening. The movie has its roots in a real-life experience of Reed McColm, who, with BYU film professor Jeff Parkin, wrote the script.

Producer James Huntsman, brother of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., bought the script with a storyline based in Spokane, Wash., but decided he'd rather film it in Provo. That was two years ago.

Final edits were made last year and then James Huntsman shopped the movie around until Lifetime picked it up.

"That was a great victory for us," he said.

First, Huntsman had to find a place to shoot it. It was a choice between shooting in a studio or finding a suitable home. Because of budget considerations Huntsman opted to find a Provo house that looked like it was in Spokane, associate producer Tom Morrill said.

Morrill owns a local production company, Ampersand Pictures.

Huntsman finally decided on the home of Elaine and Mark Smith in the Riverbottoms. Smith, author of "The Owner Builder Book," built the home several years ago and used that experience to write his book, now in its fourth printing.

The film stars Julie Duffy, David Ogden Stiers, Larisa Oleynik and Joey Lawrence. The storyline is about a blended family of adult children that comes together for the first time since the parents' marriage seven years earlier.

That may be chaotic enough, but these stepbrothers and stepsisters don't like each other, which adds to the drama/comedy.

Making the movie was equally tough on the house, which wasn't built for a film crew and heavy film equipment. One of the first negotiations was with Smith's homeowner's insurance, which wanted to cancel his policy, but Huntsman assured the insurer that the production company would see that anything damaged would be repaired or replaced.

The damage incurred included worn carpet, a splintered front door and a burnt-out air conditioner. The film company also had to winterize the yard by taking the leaves off of trees. Smith wrote about the production's wear on the house on his Web site.

Most of the production crew were film students from BYU. Parkin estimated about 50 of them worked on the film.

"It helped start the careers of several of them," he said.

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com