The Good Times Roll for Festival Attendance,
Screening of Comedic "Niagara Motel"
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Yates Works Magic in Canadian Film;
See Event Schedule and Film Schedule for Tickets

Calabasas, Calif., April 3, 2006 - Consider the obstacles faced by director Gary Yates in filming Niagara Motel. The film is not only set in Niagara Falls, but the famed falls are a focus of the story.

"We didn't get the permits to film in Niagara Falls," said Yates with a laugh. "Once they got a look at the script, that was pretty much that."

The script follows a collection of struggling losers at a low-rent motel, not the image a tourist mecca wants to project, said Yates. And, one of the characters goes over the falls in a suicide attempt that, of course, fails. "A body over the falls pretty much does it," said Yates of the permits.

So, Yates said, he rented a honeymoon suite with a view of the falls and shot with the longest lens he could find. He also mixed footage from scenes shot in Manitoba. One of those scenes has Craig Ferguson, perhaps best known as Drew Carey's boss in the long-running TV show, swimming in a river before plummeting over the falls.

"Craig wanted to do his own swimming and we used the Red River," said Yates. "We didn't tell Craig it was full of agricultural runoff and other pollutants. But, he got a little concerned when medical folks wanted to give him a tetanus shot after he got out."

In a Day director/writer Evan Richards with star Lorriane Pilkington.

Despite the obstacles, Yates and cast delivered a hillarous, well-paced comedy that has the potential to become a cult classic of sorts. Together with In a Day from the United Kingdom, Monday's screenings continued a trend of strong films that have attracted record attendance in the Festival's eighth year overall and second in Calabasas.

"We sold out our Friday, Saturday and Sunday night screenings," said Festival Director Don Franken. "That the first time we've done that. In general, our attendance is probably up about 30 percent this year, and that may be a conservative estimate."

Franken said several factors are behind the increase in addition to the quality of the films.

"I think people in the local community have learned about the Festival this year," said Franken. "Last year, was our first year in Calabasas and they didn't know we existed. This year, there's a lot more community acceptance."

The Festival continues today with Diversity in Film Night and the presentation of the Method Fest Career Achievement Award to Kevin Pollak. Last night, Pollak played a con man in Niagara Motel trying to entice a young waitress into doing a low-budget porn movie. Like every other character in the movie, he failed. But, he did it so well and comically that it became another highlight in a long, distinguished career.

Tickets for the Festival, which runs through April 7, are available online at brownpapertickets.com, or at the door of the Louis B. Mayer Theatre and the Carlson Family Theatre at Viewpoint School. Please see the Event Schedule and Film Schedule pages for more details. Some 23 feature films and 40 shorts from around the world are featured in this year's Festival.

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» See full story about the Festival lineup of films. » See a synopsis of each film, short.

For more photos of the Reception, please see the Gallery. Additional photos are on the Events Page.

Michael Cavalieri of the short "Livewire."

Veteran actor Martin Landau, honored at the 2005 Method Fest Awards Ceremony in Calabasas, joins a noted list of distinguished honorees on the festival's awards lists. In fact, taking a scroll through the lists reveals how the Method Fest has contributed to the careers of emerging and established stars, producers and others in the industry. See the Archives Page for a look at the all-time list of Method Fest award winners.

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