{"id":17134,"date":"2019-11-27T16:07:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17134"},"modified":"2019-11-27T16:19:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:19:04","slug":"miracle-on-maine-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/miracle-on-maine-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Miracle on Maine Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=dec19_flipbook_for_web&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=30&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Director <b>Michael Nickles <\/b>talks up his new Christmas film, <em><b>Holly Star<\/b><\/em><i>,<br \/>\n<\/i>featuring Katlyn Carlson and Brian Muller.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">December 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>By Sofia Voltin<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-17153\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Holly-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"DEC19 Holly\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Holly-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Holly-200x120.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Holly.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>F<\/span><span class=\"s1\">rom New York to Los Angeles to\u2026Saco? Writer and director <strong>Michael Nickles<\/strong> held fast to his dream of a Christmas comedy movie for over 20 years. <em>Holly Star <\/em>finally began filming in December 2016. The film has made its debut on Netflix and this holiday season will screen at select local theaters. On <strong>December 21<\/strong> at Biddeford\u2019s <strong>City Theater<\/strong>, a behind-the-scenes video will premiere after the movie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>How would you pitch <em>Holly Star<\/em><i>?<br \/>\n<\/i><\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s about a young woman whose life flashes before her eyes during a near-death experience. She discovers a buried memory about a bag of money hidden somewhere in her home town. Enlisting the help of her best friend, she goes on a treasure hunt. She starts to question her obsession and wonders if the \u201ctreasure\u201d might actually be something\u2014or someone\u2014else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Why did you write this movie as a Christmas story?<\/span><span class=\"s1\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s1\">The title. It was the first thing I had. At first, I was convinced it had to be a noir story. I imagined it on a ragged paperback book like some Dashiell Hammett novel. I got obsessed, which meant I didn\u2019t allow other ideas to flow. When I finally accepted defeat, I realized the answer was there all along\u2014the title evokes Christmas. I needed to change the genre. There\u2019s a lesson there, and it became a theme in the film.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhen Michael started shooting in Maine, it was clear the film had finally found<br \/>\nthe right home.\u201d<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u2014<b>Edward Burns<\/b>, executive producer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>After so long, how did this project finally get made?<\/strong><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">At the end of <em>It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em>, George Bailey receives a note from his guardian angel: \u201cRemember no man is a failure who has friends.\u201d George is saved by the generosity of the small town. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">I tried to make <em>Holly Star<\/em> for decades. I wrote the script to be a big-budget studio film. It got some attention. I met a lot of producers. There was cast attached, I went location scouting\u2014it fell apart. I picked up the pieces and knocked on more doors. Kept hearing \u201cNo.\u201d I went through this over and over.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It wasn\u2019t until Mark Adam, president and CEO of <strong>Saco Cinemagic<\/strong>, signed on as executive producer that it became a reality. Soon after, I met with officials in Saco and Biddeford to talk about shooting in the two towns. Coming from Los Angeles, I\u2019m trained to expect \u201cNo\u201d after pretty much every production question I ask. I was nervous, expecting the worst. But something about these conversations didn\u2019t feel like any I had in the past. It finally dawned on me: \u201cThey\u2019re wondering how they can help you.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">From there, it was a series of remarkable moments of kindness each day\u2014whether it was someone giving us production space, allowing us to shoot in their home, or letting us store our equipment and warm our bodies in their office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">Saco and Biddeford remain supportive, welcoming us back for screenings. They may turn it into an annual event, which would be a dream. I\u2019ll forever be grateful for everyone\u2019s generosity. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">n<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\"><em><strong>Holly Star<\/strong><\/em> <i> will screen at Portland Media Center on December 13, Grand Theater in Ellsworth December 19, and City Theater in Biddeford on December 20 and 21. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Michael Nickles on his indie film Holly Star.<br \/>\nInterview by Sofia Voltin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[615,614,617,612,127,613,203,618,616],"class_list":["post-17134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-city-theater","tag-ed-burns","tag-grand-theater","tag-holly-star","tag-maine","tag-movie","tag-movies","tag-portland-media-center","tag-saco-cinemagic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17216,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17134\/revisions\/17216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}