Source: Fort Mill Times.com
Article By: Jonathan Allen
Date: October 27, 2005

FORT MILL TOWNSHIP — For two days a Charlotte film crew turned part of the Anne Springs Close Greenway next to Steele Creek into an Ecuadorian village to film scenes from an upcoming movie, “The Ultimate Gift.”

The Film Foundry, a Charlotte production company, is producing the film and Michael Sajbel (pronounced “Sable”) is directing.

The film stars Drew Fuller as 24-year-old playboy Jason Stevens, an heir to ailing billionaire Red Stevens, his grandfather, played by James Garner. The two have a strained relationship, and Red decides to leave Jason a series of challenges he must complete in order to receive his inheritance. The challenges are designed to teach Jason some life lessons, and make him a better person.

Fuller was a cast member on “Charmed,” a show on The WB, and Garner has starred and appeared in many films and television shows for decades.

“This has been a great opportunity to shoot in the Carolinas and stay home,” Executive Producer Rick Eldridge said. The tax incentives in both states also helped bring the movie to town, he added.

According to greenway Director Bill Steele, “The Ultimate Gift” isn’t the first production to use the land. He said a number of commercials have been filmed on the greenway including truck and tire commercials and it was used for a number of movies in the past.

Steele said greenway employees spent Monday returning the shoot location to it’s normal appearance.

“The Ultimate Gift” is set in Charlotte, Texas, and the jungles of Ecuador, but the crew is shooting the entire movie in the Charlotte area. Filming began at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens Sunday, Oct. 16, and moved to the greenway to shoot last Wednesday and Thursday.

Tropical plants, thatched roof huts, goats, a llama, donkeys, chickens, dozens of extras and even a World War II era U.S. Army Jeep set the stage around a village feast for the scene shot Thursday night. The production also made use of the suspension bridge that crosses Steele Creek at the filming location.

“We hope to have a product at the end of the day that will stand up,” Eldridge said. “It helps to have a strong story and strong talent, and I think we have both.”

The movie is based on a book of the same name written and self published by Jim Stovall, a motivational speaker and financial planner form Oklahoma City, Okla. He sold more than 2 million copies.

Eldridge’s son got a copy of the book from a financial planner who was mentoring him. Eldridge read it on a business trip a few months later and knew immediately that he wanted to bring it to the big screen. He bought the film rights from Stovall and brought him in to work with the screen writers.

Director Sajbel said he knew how he wanted to film the movie before the producers interviewed him for the job.

“Making a movie out of a book is a big challenge because books explain a lot of things for you and your imagination takes over,” he said. “In a movie you have to put it into a three-act structure and show people the story.”

One of the first decisions Sajbel made was to change the setting of the book from Boston to Charlotte.

“It’s tough enough to fake Texas and Ecuador I didn’t want to attempt faking Boston with Charlotte too,” he said. “Besides I think it’s a compliment to Charlotte to set the movie here.”

The terrain around the Charlotte area made it possible for the entire movie to be filmed here, Sajbel said.

“Within a 50-mile radius I can make people believe they are in a large urban area, Texas and Ecuador, with occasional computer help,” Sajbel said.

Sajbel credits production designer Stephen Storer for making the locations believable. Storer has also worked as a production designer on ABC’s “Lost.” He used local animals for the scenes including the llama and some goats from the greenway.

The movie will be a combination of styles, both comedic and dramatic, and will be a movie for a family audience. Sajbel said he has been exposed to a “who’s who” of Hollywood directors over his career, and picked up techniques from many of them. Sajbel has worked on a number of movies throughout his career including “The Ice Storm,” both “Hot Shots” movies “Speed” and “Broken Arrow.” He has also directed six films since 1993. He said he’s known since he was 14 that he wanted to work in the movie business, and he’s known for almost as long that he wants to stay behind the camera.

“I acted in two movies for friends and it didn’t take me more than two minutes to realize it was a dreadful mistake,” Sajbel said.