THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2008
Movie Director's Love For Film Started Here
By TODD WESSELL
Journal & Topics Editor
For the first 18 years of his life, Matthew Wilder would spend many of his free days attending movies at what then were local theaters in Des Plaines, Arlington Hts., Mt. Prospect and Niles.
"I was there all the time," said Wilder. "Really, all my love for filmmaking and all my formative experiences happened in Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, Arlington Hts. and at places like the Golf Mill Theater."
Now, while most of the old theaters (with the exception of the Des Plaines Theater) are gone, having been replaced by mega-plexes, Wilder's interest in movie making has only become stronger.
Wilder will join dozens of other filmmakers in Las Vegas June 12-21 to premiere his new film, "Your Name Here".
They and movie lovers will be attending the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival at the Palms Casino Resort. The festival is a platform for artists and art lovers who are drawn to the edge. Actor Dennis Hopper is chairman of the CineVegas Creative Advisory Board.
Wilder, 40, says that "Your Name Here" is a move about shifting identities of a science fiction writer in the 1970s. Starring Bill Pullman as the writer, he's a man who slips into different identities throughout the movie always questioning which is real and which is fantasy.
"He's trying to always figure out where the truth lies," said Wilder, creator of the film, who explained that he came up with the idea several years ago.
"I've written stuff for others like Oliver Stone. Now I'm focusing on things for myself."
He said his next movie will focus on 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace.
"These movies are kind of inverted bio pictures. They're like bio-pics on their heads. These are about people who it was thought you couldn't make a movie about."
A graduate of Yale and North Shore County Day School in Winnetka for high school, Wilder now lives in Los Angeles. Single, he keeps in touch with his parents who live in Morton Grove.
"Hopefully, I will continue to do bigger movies," Wilder explained. "This movie was made on a shoe string budget. The cast was incredible and all were working for peanuts."
When Pullman agreed to play the lead, that attracted others who wanted to be involved.
"It's a difficult time for specialty movies. It's a narrowing world to be sure. There are a lot of good people doing good work in this arena."
As for "Your Name Here", Wilder says, "I have high hopes. A recent screening in New York City produced positive reaction. "It is a weird movie. It got a lot of laughs and people hung in there. Hopefully it will be coming to Chicago. We're trying to get a good solid theatrical life for it. I don't think anyone expected it would go where it has. We didn't expect to get anyone near the caliber of Pullman."
"It's not clear where it will go next," added Wilder. "It will be playing at a festival in Ireland. We'll see what happens."