FILMMAKER MAGAZINE | Fall 1998: PRODUCTION UPDATE

PRODUCTION UPDATE

Robert Bogue and Kevin Lsola in Kieran Turner's 24 Nights Photo: Julia Van Vier

First-time filmmaker Kieran Turner won’t complete his NYU MFA until next year, but he’s already got his first feature in the can. 24 Nights is an edgy gay romantic comedy that starts with the premise that Santa Claus exists and is just as likely to deliver a boyfriend to a lonely young city guy as a new bicycle to a youngster.

Twenty years after an oddly memorable childhood encounter with a department store Santa, Jonathan Parker pens a letter to St. Nicholas asking for a lover. When the East Village bookstore he works at hires Toby, a shy midwesterner, as its new clerk, Jonathan believes that Santa has answered his wish. Unfortunately Toby already has a boyfriend, Keith, to whom Jonathan takes an instant dislike. Everyone’s stars wind up crossed until a Salvation Army Santa arrives to sort things out.

"Jonathan’s parents are dead and his belief in Santa Claus is an extension of his hope that his mother is still out there somewhere," says Turner. "24 Nights will probably be pigeonholed as a gay film, but nobody comes out, nobody explains anything, nobody questions their sexuality. It’s really a Christmas romance."

Turner’s made three shorts including two – Romeo’s Flavor and Momentary Lapses – that toured the various gay fests. Originally a child actor, he spent ten years doing commercials and TV shows before switching to the other side of the camera as an NYU directing undergrad. The screenplay for 24 Nights took second place at NYU’s first Wasserman Screenwriting Awards in 1996. "I wanted to get out of NYU with a feature and couldn’t see putting the time into a thesis short," he says. Turner put together the financing to shoot 24 Nights in 16mm from private investors; cast and crew include a healthy complement of NYU grads, including up-and-coming actor Kevin Isola, who stars as Jonathan.

24 Nights was shot over 20 days in Greenwich Village in late ’97; a few key scenes scheduled for a post-holiday shoot early this year ended up postponed until June so that Stephen Mailer, who plays Keith, could take a part in Ang Lee’s new Ride with the Devil. Turner expects to screen a finished print in mid-September; all rights are available.

Cast: Kevin Isola, Aida Turturro, Stephen Mailer, David Burtka, Robert Bogue, Mary-Louise Wilson, Mark Bateman. Crew: Producer/Screenwriter/ Director, Kieran Turner; Associate Producer, Kimberly Hall; Cinematographer, Scott Barnard; Costumes, Julia Van Vliet; Editor, Rachel Chancey. Contact: Kieran Turner, Cynical Boy Productions, 61 East 8th Street, # 317, New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 769-7166, Fax: (212) 685-7902.