A new movie loaded with veteran Hollywood talent has Lancaster stamped all over it.
Ernest Borgnine is still acting at age 91.
Greg Swartz will direct "Another Harvest Moon."
Live guitarist Chad Taylor
"Another Harvest Moon," to be shot starting this month in central Pennsylvania, is being headlined by Ernest Borgnine and produced by Aurora Films on North Queen Street.
The director is former Lancaster resident Greg Swartz.
One of the producers is chart-topping Live guitarist and Aurora Films partner Chad Taylor.
While 90 percent of the filming will take place in Harrisburg, Taylor said Friday during a phone interview from California, he expects some off-location work to be done here.
"Another Harvest Moon" is based on the play of that name by West Coast playwright Jeremy Thomas Black.
The indie drama stars Borgnine as Frank, a man who suffers a debilitating stroke and contemplates suicide. He confides in three elderly nursing home companions, Ella, June and Alice, played by Anne Meara, Piper Laurie and Doris Roberts.
Taylor said the big news last week was that Golden Globe Award-winning actress Cybill Shepherd has signed with the cast, which also includes Richard Schiff ("The West Wing") Amber Benson ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Clay Bravo ("Bewitched").
Taylor, a dyed-in-the-wool film fan who joined Aurora six years ago, said his dream is for the film to win Borgnine another Academy Award.
The actor received his first such recognition for "Marty," a 1955 indie film produced by Burt Lancaster.
"Marty" was the first movie of its kind to take home an Academy Award, Taylor said.
Shooting for "Another Harvest Moon" starts June 10 and continues for a month.
During that time, Taylor added, you're quite likely to encounter stars, such as Borgnine, eating in local restaurants or strolling down the street.
The actor is a regular guy, by all reports.
"He prefers to be called Ernie," Taylor said.
Shining moonTaylor said the stocky, gap-toothed Borgnine was the catalyst for the film.
"Ernest Borgnine, at the age of 91, woke up [one day] and said 'I want to do this movie.' "
The Hollywood icon helped draw in the other actors, said Taylor, but Swartz gets the credit for choosing the cast and forwarding the promising script to Aurora about a year ago.
Of course, Taylor's own high profile in the music industry has not hurt the project.
He said he was particularly excited last week to engage legendary 65-year-old Philadelphia jazz pianist Kenny Barron to write and perform the movie score.
Taylor's role as producer is to recruit and protect investors, some of whom he said also helped nurture Live in its early days.
This "family" of patrons makes it possible to create "a $600,000 movie with elite stars," Taylor explained.
"This is very much a regional production," added Taylor, who was touring with Live last week but lives in Lancaster.
Helping to steer the project to Pennsylvania was a concerted effort by Harrisburg — especially state Sen. Gib Armstrong — to make investments in independent filmmaking tax deductible, Taylor said.
Pennsylvania is also allowing the filmmakers to use the imposing Harrisburg State Hospital, which closed in 2006, as a nursing home set.
Meanwhile, Taylor added, Aurora's state-of-the-art equipment has erased the "technology barriers between Lancaster and Hollywood."
Digital cameras allow more efficient shooting and editing, Taylor said. "We'll literally look at cuts of the movie by the end of the day to know what we've captured."
"Another Harvest Moon" is the first cinematic feature for Aurora, a full-spectrum production company that serves Lancaster General Hospital, Scheffey Integrated Marketing and many other clients.
Aurora partners, which include Taylor and Dr. John Slovak, Brad Kenyon and Live drummer Chad Gracey, will continue to pursue corporate projects.
But Taylor said the Aurora principals are fulfilling their longtime artistic objective of making a feature-length movie.
"We're coming into our own," Taylor said. "I'm sure we're going to make many, many more" movies.
The company is also realizing its goal of marrying investors with creative young talent such as Bob Black, an Aurora producer formerly with Oxygen Media, and Swartz, who previously directed one feature-length film, "Hollywood, Pennsylvania."
Nobody knows just how brightly "Another Harvest Moon" might shine.
But Taylor said the theme and the high-caliber cast have sparked early comparisons to the hit 1985 sci-fi drama "Cocoon," which also brought together an ensemble of Hollywood elders and examined weighty issues.
The film is expected to resonate most vividly with baby boomer audiences.
But it might produce a good show for locals even before it hits the silver screen.
"The filmmaking process is extremely entertaining once you get all the talent in town," Taylor said.
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
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