“Durant’s Never Closes,” a film inspired by the life of famous Phoenician and restaurateur Jack Durant, successfully reached its Kickstarter campaign funding goal.
Filming will begin March 21 at the Warehouse Studio Space in downtown Glendale, Travis Mills, director at Running Wild Films, said. The movie will be shot in 10 days and will be around 85 minutes long.
Tom Sizemore, known for his roles in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down”, will portray the mysterious Jack Durant. Michael Richards — made famous as Cosmo Kramer on the TV show “Seinfeld” — Dina Meyer, Pam Grier, and Peter Bogdanovich are other cast members in the movie.
“We are going to start submitting to festivals as soon as June and July, and it would be great to have a limited theatrical release in some select cities,” Mills, said. “I want to put it on the screen for Phoenicians, but also for people who have never heard of Durant’s or Jack Durant.”
Mills said he is hopeful that this movie and its strong local ties, will put Arizona filmmaking on the map.
“I think that we need a big boost and I’m hoping that this is it,” he said. “I’m hoping that this excites people about making movies in Arizona.”
Running Wild Films has used Kickstarter as a platform for fundraising with other films, but the goal was set much higher for this production.
“We needed some extra money for this project that we didn’t have from investors,” Mills said. “It was a scary goal to go after $100,000, but we decided to do it.”
The campaign began on January 5, and it took only 30 days for 459 backers to surpass their $100,000 goal. Depending on the amount of their pledge, backers will receive incentives including digital downloads and invitations to private screenings.
“The Kickstarter campaign is brilliant,” Wayne Rainey, a Phoenix native and cast member, said. “It gives the public a chance to be involved in an important piece of art and history here in Phoenix. The cast is amazing. These are people that are the very best at what they do.”
Rainey said he hopes the film will encourage viewers to look at Phoenix in a new light.
“I would hope that they get a new perspective on how incredible Phoenix is, because it often gets overlooked as a major city,” Rainey said. “If you came to Phoenix in the sixties or seventies, you would be surprised to find a world class steakhouse like Durant’s, with the sophistication that you would normally find in San Francisco or New York.”
Durant opened his namesake steakhouse in 1950, located at 2611 N. Central Ave. Sixty-five years later, it remains popular and family-owned. While Durant’s was not involved in the Kickstarter campaign, the space has been used for the preview scenes.
“The preview scenes that appear on the website were filmed here at the restaurant, right at the very bar that Jack Durant held court at,” Carol McElroy, owner of Durant’s, said.
McElroy’s father-in-law, Jack McElroy, came up with the idea for the restaurant with Jack Durant in 1950. She said that idea is still thriving 65 years later.
“It’s part of the Phoenix story and it’s part of Arizona’s history,” she said.
Contact the reporter at rbouley@asu.edu
