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We’re taking a break from shooting on the documentary while the winter weather keeps us out of vineyards, and so we’ve started preproduction on a narrative feature film called Vintage. We’re big fans of food in the movies, from Big Night to Ratatouille. This will be our attempt at a classic food and wine film done on a shoestring budget.

It will take us a year or three to make this feature as we simultaneously wrap the documentary, but we’re hoping to shoot the opening scene and some teaser material this winter to help with fundraising.

The lead and key roles will be non-union, paying gigs (incl. meals) while extras will be unpaid. We’ll be shooting from 2012-2013 as funding allows.

• Bruno [lead] – 40s-50s – a washed-up, frumpy restaurant critic and frustrated former bestselling writer who manages to retain some residual charm, and wh0′s about to get one last shot at resurrecting his career
• Anna – 35-45 – Bruno’s estranged wife, trying to hold it together, still has a soft spot for the overgrown child who is her ex-husband
• Sylvie – 30s-40s – French wine grower, hardworking farmer with a touch of class and business smarts
• R. Michaels - 30s-50s – Bruno’s rival wine critic; smooth
• Grovnick – 50s - Squirrely newspaper editor]
• Aleksie - 40s – 70s – Russian restauranteur and mob boss
• Chef  Berteau  - 30s-50s – No bullshit restaurant owner
• Cab Driver - 30s-50s -
• Drizzle – 20s – 40s – loan shark, wannabe rap star
• Waiter - 20s – 50s

Anyone interested should drop us a note. We’ll be casting in January, with auditions in PDX and Corvallis.

We’ve also secured our location, a church in Monroe, Oregon. It looks like the facility will be available on the dates that we need. The church building, which will be 100 years old later this year, will add some amazing character to the film.

It’s been a productive weekend.