Kirkwood's Buskirk-Chumley Theater hosted the launch of "So Cold the Vodka" and the screening of "So Cold the River" Friday.
(Devan Ridgway, WTIU/WFIU News)
The Buskirk-Chumley Theater hosted the final public screening of the book-adapted movie, “So Cold the River” last Friday featuring the launch of Cardinal Spirits’ “So Cold the Vodka”.
The event featured a cocktail hour, red carpet photo opportunities, a movie screening with an introduction from producers, a live Q&A and an afterparty.
The film produced by Pigasus Pictures was a group effort, said Zach Spicer, co-owner of the Indiana film company. He gave a special thanks to Cardinal Spirits and the Cook Group for organizing the event.
Cook Group was founded in Bloomington by Gayle and the late Bill Cook. Their son, Carl, is the company’s CEO and Pete Yonkman is the group’s president. They run the French Lick Springs Hotel and the West Baden Springs Hotel, the setting for the movie.
“Pete and Carl who had the vision of what everything could be, and then we had been making movies here in town ever since, and we had gotten to know each other,” Spicer said. “They reached out to us.”
Indiana is at the heart of production. Not only did Zach Spicer attend IU, but IU alum Michael Koryta wrote the book and fellow alum Paul Shoulberg directed the movie. It was shot in French Lick at the West Baden Hotel.
Zach Spicer and Paul Shoulberg have known each other since 2005, Spicer said.
“He [Shoulberg] wrote the very first play I ever acted in when I was at IU,” he said. “We just like all came back together and came to Bloomington to make a bunch of movies together.”
Pigasus Pictures began when Spicer acted in Shoulberg’s movie, “The Good Catholic.” That film was shot in Bloomington and premiered at Buskirk-Chumley almost exactly five years before Friday’s screening of “So Cold the River,” making it more special for the producers.
This movie was Shoulberg’s first book adaptation and his first horror-thriller movie, he was unfamiliar with the book before it was given to him to direct.
“I was given the book because I was told that they were going to make this into a movie, I didn't know anything about the book at all,” Shoulberg said. “When I read the book, I was just drawn to the story so much.”
The story follows a filmmaker’s research in a peculiar town, digging up evil in a resort.
Shoulberg was worried about cutting parts of the book out, but Koryta had made screenplays in the past, and understood the difficulty. He supported Shoulberg through the whole production.
“Going into something this dark, it's a departure from what I normally do,” Shoulberg said. “It's very different from the book.”
Shoulberg said he focused on “capturing kind of the essence of what I thought mattered thematically to the author.” Koryta liked his adaptation, and so did many viewers.
Bloomington residents Laura Karcher and Scott Karcher were among the audience Friday.
“It is fun because natives know French Lick and have sort of been to places that we’ll see in the movie which is exciting.” Laura Karcher said.
The Karchers said they were familiar with Cardinal Spirits, but unfamiliar with the new vodka until coming to the event.
“Cardinal does a really nice job of trying to make titles of their different drinks and their liquors relevant to Bloomiongton,” Laura Karcher said.
Spicer said the relevancy to Bloomington was a collaborative effort.
“The whole spirit has been built on collaboration, we reached out to Cardinal Spirits and they partnered with us and the hotels down in West Baden to create this “So Cold the Vodka”,” he said. “In commemoration of the collaborative nature that it took for all these things to come together.”
In fact, Spicer said there is a QR code on the bottle that you can scan. It will direct you to links to buy or rent the movie and find information about staying in the hotels featured in the film.
A movie premiere at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater is full circle for both Spicer and Shoulberg.
“That kind of hospitality, that Hoosier hospitality that we're kinda famous for, you just don't see that in the coasts,” Spicer said. “It's a testament to the place it was made and the people here that enable us to make it, that's really something special.”
Shoulberg said that shooting the Midwest in big production cities like Los Angeles loses the region’s authenticity. Few people have shot in Indiana, making it so unique.
“If you go anywhere outside of Bloomington or West Baden, it's all these places that are just begging to be shot,” he said.
Pigasus Pictures has two movies in post-production. The company, now part of Constellation Stage and Screen, is also lined up to make five more films in the next few years.
