Abilene on screen: Locally produced, full-length thriller premieres Saturday at Paramount

Lauren McDonald hasn't seen the new movie from Abilene-based Beyond Star Films.

In fact, few people beyond the production team have done so.

And not the lead actress. Thus, she is looking forward to her first look Saturday evening in Abilene.

McDonald, a graduate of Abilene Christian University who today lives in Kingsville, will be back in Abilene for this weekend's premiere of "Dangerous Ones" at the Paramount Theatre.

Her co-star, ACU grad Joshua Logan Alexander, will miss the red carpet night, needing to be in Los Angeles. His wife is dance captain for the touring production of "Jagged Little Pill."

"Y'all are going to have to party without me," he said during a Zoom call this week with the Reporter-News.

But, he said, it would be a challenge to watch himself on the big screen. Especially since filming was July-August 2021 - more than a year ago.

McDonald agreed.

"I am so excited. But I am also slightly nervous. I'm like, 'Oh, man, I'm going to have to watch myself for two hours and 10 minutes,'" she said, laughing. "With so many people around me. It's so crazy that I can't wrap my head around it.

"I've read the script. I'm in this movie but I haven't seen the movie. So I'm going to be like, 'What's going to happen?' like everyone else. But it's my face on the screen."

Friday is her husband Ryan's 25th birthday. He's an extra in the movie, she said.

Rankin Dean and Sam Castillo, who met in 2015 at Western Texas College in Snyder, co-created Beyond Star Films in 2007.

The film will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Paramount. The location is appropriate for three reasons:

• A dance performance scene was filmed there.

• It's Abilene's local showplace venue.

• Playing a bad guy who narrates the trailer is George Levesque, the theater's executive director.

With his family, he's both anxious and apprehensive.

“I’m nervous about seeing the film, honestly," he said, echoing the thoughts of the two actors who are a couple on the run in the movie. "In a play. you see everything come together.  I’ve never even met most of these actors. Saturday night, I’ll be seeing it for the first time, too!”

This trio is not new to films. Levesque, for example, was in "At the End of Eight," another Beyond Star film. It was directed by Dean. who wrote and directed "Dangerous Ones."

Castillo and Dean are two 'Dangerous Ones'

It's a film about a couple from New York City - some filming was done there, the rest in Abilene or in nearby Callahan County - that come to Texas.

"Unknowingly, they cross paths with the wrong people," Castillo said.

Dean came up with the story idea in fall 2020 and began his script in February 2021.

"He told me the idea and I saw the draft. He showed it to a few other people and we really liked it," Castillo said. "We moved forward with it."

Production began in July 2021. A dance performance was shot one evening at the Paramount, with Jordan (Alexander) in the crowd watching Sidney (MacDonald) on stage. Filming continued into early August.

"It was a pretty good turnaround," Castillo said.

With the premiere, a friendship that began seven years ago comes to a milestone.

Castillo and Dean were in an English class at WTC, then met in an art class.

The icebreaker was Castillo asking if anyone knew someone who was interested in filmmaking and movies?

"He turns to me and said, like, 'I do. I like to make movies,'" Castillo said. "From then and there, we shook hands and in 2017, we created Beyond Star Films and established it in Abilene. We've had each other's back all the way through.

"And here we are, making movies."

For the new movie, Castillo was producer, stunt coordinator, first assistant camera and sound engineer.

"Dangerous Ones" is the next step, the duo hopes, for their company.

Castillo said money made with 2019's "At the End of Eight," which can be found on Amazon, helped pay for this project.

"At the End of Eight" also brings thrills.

Participating in a popular but illegal game, three contestants enter into the home of strangers and must stay there for eight hours without being discovered. If successful, a player could win $10,000.

Besides Levesque and Dean, that cast ACU theater students such as Andrew Gilliland, Corban Gilliland, Griffin Jones and Jeremiah Taylor, as well as Trey Smith and Bridgett Mistrot, both of whom were at Hardin-Simmons.

Castillo called "Dangerous Ones" a more ambitious project.

"It's our biggest film to date," he said. "We pushed the boundaries of what we've done previously."

How did the filmmakers find their leads?

Castillo knew McDonald from a short-film project titled "Turtles All the Way Down," adapted from the book by John Green.

As for Alexander, Castillo did not meet the actor until the first day of filming.

However, when Castillo and Dean relocated to Abilene, "we randomly went to the Paramount and they were having the ACU filmfest and we both saw Joshua," Castillo said. The film Alexander was in was titled "Bizarre Tales of the Intergalactic Mind."

"I was in that film," Alexander said, laughing. "Probably too much."

He's in "Dangerous Ones" a lot more.

His story

Alexander is a native of Louisiana who grew up mostly in Texas, he said. He lived for a time in Stephenville and is a Keller High grad. He graduated from ACU in 2017.

"I just fell into performing," he said. He had played basketball but knew that wasn't going to be his career.

"I loved doing some film projects with some guys who went to ACU," he said. That included two students who did "Intergalactic Mind."

Another film was "Ultra Super Secret Spy," which also was popular at ACU's film festival.

Alexander lived in New York City for a few years.

Dean then contacted Alexander about auditioning for "Dangerous Ones."

Why not, he thought.

"I was just hanging out," he said. So he sent samples of his work, and Dean must have liked what he saw.

"He said, 'You want to do it?' and I said 'Sure,'" Alexander said, describing an obviously simple process.

"That's my story. I'm sitting here riding the wave."

Alexander said the scope of the film was a challenge. Factoring into making a feature-length movie was doing that while COVID-19 still was affecting the nation.

And there was the task of building a relationship with McDonald, whom he didn't know.

Both actors agreed the unfamiliarity was a good thing, and they chose to create a back story for Sidney and Jordan.

"I really had a new and exciting and challenging experience, but overall, a very positive one," he said. "I definitely grew through it. I definitely got better at all this."

Alexander said he has been cast as the bad guy, "the mean one, or the goofy one, so this was a nice middle of the road opportunity to play a pretty average guy who's out here trying to support his gal and trying to do the right things."

Her story

McDonald had worked previously with Dean, and when he asked her to be Sidney in "Dangerous Ones," she was ready with her answer.

"Heck, yeah," she said. "I love the way his mind works and I think he's a phenomenal director, and also an actor. So the way that he writes and the way he directs, it's just so much fun to work with him."

In addition to "Turtles All the Way Down," McDonald did a short work titled "Sacred Space" in 2019.

In that, she also helped with choreography. MacDonald took advantage of ACU adding a dance track to its theater program.

"I got to collaborate as well," she said.

She is a December 2020 graduate of ACU, who married two weeks after that. She came to ACU as a homeschooled student who trained at Humphrey School of Musical Theatre in Houston.

"The training I received there was incredible and my love for theater and performing grew exponentially," she said. "I took their college audition prep class and worked with Dave Clemmons. He was the one that encouraged me to audition for ACU. "

Today, she and her husband are in South Texas. She started Kingsville Dance Company in partnership with the city's parks and recreation department. She also is the assistant coach and director of a high school drill team there.

Through Pastorini Bosby Talent Agency, her work is submitted for auditions.

She said her interest in film began in high school , when she was in a film by Cross Wind Productions. Her love of theater and dance led to an auditioning class at ACU, and then work in "Sacred Space" with Dean.

"I’ve always been told that my eyes are very big and very expressive, and so I loved that the camera picked up the nuances and minute details that often get lost on stage," she said.

More recently, she was in "The Jones's New TV" with J Wade Austin Creations and "Ghost Light" with Freeland Creativ.

Their story

McDonald and Alexander had to "collaborate" as romantic leads.

"It was kind of fun that I didn't know him," she said. "We had nothing to go off of. I really respect Josh's process because it leans toward improv."

They created their characters.

"Where they were coming from. What they were stepping into," Alexander said.

Jordan, for example, knew Sidney's favorite color. But later, Joshua had to ask Lauren her favorite color?

"We got to know each other through our characters," she said. "That was something about this specific process that I really enjoyed."

Alexander credited an ACU philosophy adjunct professor at the time he was on campus, Ryan Massie.

"Any good stuff I do in the acting realm I have to give credit to him," Alexander said.

Alexander went so far as to type Sidney Newman into his phone with MacDonald's number.

"I wanted to create, at least for myself, something to lean on," he said. At ACU, actors knew the others actors, he said. The familiarity has advantages and disadvantages, he said.

"You walk in with a lot of baggage," he said. "You know who they are. You know what they did yesterday. Who they're dating. As a character, that can be hard to separate.

"I was excited not knowing who my co-star was. We were going to build this thing from the ground up. Everything I got to know about her I could utilize in a scene."

He called McDonald "an exceptional professional. She was so willing to jump on that bandwagon with me."

Alexander said that those involved in making the movie gave them the space "to do those things and experiment with a scene. They were like, 'Try something different.' The whole production was on board with just trying."

What the heck, let's use Levesque

Castillo said another actor was lined for the key bad-guy role but there were scheduling conflicts.

"We were like, we don't know who to go to," he said. Then they recalled Levesque's role as a newscaster in "The End at Eight." We were like, 'Why don't have him as this character? He'll have good screen time. It's a good character.

"We asked him and he was so willing to jump on board," Castillo said.

"Who wouldn’t want their daughter to see them acting on the big screen?" he said.

Efforts were made to shoot his scenes early on. Levesque's "positivity" was key during one difficult location shot, filmed in the early morning hours.

"When we finished it, it was perfect," Castillo said. "In my opinion, it's one of the best scenes in the movie. He was really good to work with."

It was a time commitment for Levesque.

“Two of my scenes were shot during regular hours," Levesque said. "One in the middle of the day, and another at 9 p.m.  However, the last shoot was in the middle of the night, and I think I finished shooting at 2 or 3 a.m. I’m too old to keep doing that."

Levesque plays a bad guy, known as Lone Lobo.

“Being in this film was a ball.  I mean it.  Rankin and his crew were incredibly well-organized and efficient," Levesque said. "I’d do it again.”

Big night almost here

Those attending the premiere Saturday no doubt will have a critical eye. Many will know the actors or be looking for landmarks, such as the Paramount. Or grading the film for its West Texas authenticity.

That was done with the movie about Abilene High's 2009 state championship, with many moviegoers disappointed in how the city was portrayed and a historic football projected.

Castillo said "Dangerous Ones" is an original movie that is fictional.

"We're not putting out a lot of facts about Abilene," he said.

What they are presenting is a movie, a "neo western crime drama," that is "jam-packed with action." Castillo said.

It's set here. Done by Abilene guys. Starring actors with Abilene ties.

If You Go

What: "Dangerous Ones" premiere, a Beyond Star Films production

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St., Abilene

Tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for military and students. Go to paramountabilene.com or buy at the box office. Doors open at 6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene on screen: Locally produced, full-length thriller premieres