Red carpet rollout: 'Chocolate Lizards' premieres at Paramount

Imagine sitting in a movie theater in downtown Dallas, seeing your novel come to life on the big screen.

That was the magic moment recently for Cole Thompson, whose book "Chocolate Lizards" was published in 1999. Close to 25 years later, it's a movie.

"It's very amazing and gratifying," said Thompson, who saw the movie screened at the Dallas Film Festival. It would win the award for audience favorite. "The movie is really good. I am very proud to be associated with it."

Actor Rudy Pankow, who plays a young man who ain't from aroun' here in the movie, said, "I think that even if you're not from Texas, you'll enjoy this film."

Director Mark Bristol said there was "an electric energy in the room" at the premiere. The laughter was uproarious. The tears in the end ... you couldn't have asked for a better reception. It was a wonderful celebration."

But don't take their word for it. At a gala Wednesday evening at the Paramount Theatre, "Chocolate Lizards" makes its Abilene debut.

Right where this whole thing started.

The author: 'Lizards' has heart and emotion

Thompson's book is about the heyday of the oil business the way it was in the 1970s and 1980s. It has a solid story but thrives on the over-the-top characters and situations.

The screenplay by Abilene's Julie Denny has been tweaked over the years since she first wrote it, then acquired the rights.

"The movie has more heart in it, more emotion in it," said Thompson, the Cooper High grad who has some first-hand oilfield experience. He currently teaches writing at McMurry University. "The book is more dry humor. The movie still is funny but it has a depth to it that I really like."

It's the story of an unlikely bonding between a young aspiring actor (played by Rudy Pankow, (the hit streaming show "Outer Banks") and an old-school oil well driller (Thomas Hayden Church), both looking to find success in their lives.

In Thompson's story, the driller, Merle, makes his new friend, Erwin, an official Texan by giving the novice roughneck a pair of boots - dark brown and lizard skin. Hence the title.

Merle regards Erwin as his "savin' angel" for his help making the oil strike that he so badly needs.

"The acting is excellent," Thompson said, pleased to see the characters created in his mind portrayed by real people.

He had seen the movie previously, wondering what all the tinkering would do to his story. He gathered his wife and inlaws to watch on a big TV screen.

"We all cried. It was just amazing," he said. "The core story of the young man and the old oilman forming an unlikely pair, like a father-son relationship, is still there.

"There was a good story they were able to work from."

The movie, he said, will appeal to wider audiences. They may not believe characters such as Merle Luskey (Luskey's was a western wear store that sold boots back in the day) and others in the story really could exist, though West Texans would argue otherwise.

What a journey for Thompson, once "sitting in my pickup truck, writing a scene" for his book.

"All of a sudden, now, here it is, up there on the big screen," he said.

Thompson said he at first declined to go to the filming in Bartlett, a small town near Austin that subs for Buffalo Gap. Filming here, to lend authenticity, gave way to filming near a movie city, where crew were more accessible and production costs would be lower.

"I felt a little intimidated," Thompson said. It also was during the pandemic, which forced cast and crew to take extra precautions.

But then Denny called and told him to hold, she had someone who wanted to talk to him.

That was Pankow.

"He said, 'Sir, I've never gotten to meet the author of a story that I was acting in. I really wish you'd come down here,'" Thompson recalled, laughing. "I said, 'Well, I'll be there tomorrow.'"

It was worth the trip.

"(Pankow) is such a sweet, down-to-earth person. It was really wonderful to meet him. I got to see him again in Dallas and hug him, and that was wonderful," Thompson, noting the chemistry between Pankow and Church is evident.

"And Carrie-Anne Moss adds a softness and classiness to it," he said. Moss plays Faye, who works at the local dinner.

Thompson's book has come to life.

"The muses were smiling on me when I wrote that book," he said. "It does work."

The actor: Pankow saw a lot of Erwin in his life's journey

Pankow attended the Dallas premiere, breathing in the audience reaction to the movie.

It's always super fun ... to be there to witness an audience enjoying a film," the young actor said. While he has been in other films, this is his biggest movie role to date. He is a central character in the Netflix teen drama series "Outer Banks."

"It's always a thrill. It makes you feel good."

Pankow was born in Alaska, so he's not a Texan. He shot a short film in Texas before "Chocolate Lizards."

He's 24, so close to the age of what Erwin might be.

What drew him to Erwin?

"I saw a lot of Erwin in myself," Pankow said." It's a little bit of a meta feel where he's an actor, I'm an actor and we're pursuing a dream. But it wasn't so much that as the kind of self-confidence that someone goes through at that age. Where they need to find who they are and where that confidence is in who they are. Erwin goes through that journey that I resonated with.

"I enjoyed portraying that character for that reason."

Pankow said Texas is a great place to shoot a movie and "there's definitely that Southern hospitality that shines through when you're there."

As he sees it, there is so much space in Texas, it needs to be filled. And Texans do that with personality.

"A range of personalities," he said. "There are big personalities, but they're unique in their own way."

There is plenty of that to be found in "Chocolate Lizards," including the local sheriff and the owner of the land where Merle believes he'll find oil.

Pankow offered a range of accents through Erwin.

"I studied several people on set that Mark (director Mark Bristol) told me to, and some that he didn't tell me to," Pankow said. Some accents were thick, some less apparent.

"Trying to find Erwin's Texas accents. That's what fun about the film. Erwin has to become certain people, which goes back to Erwin finding who he is."

Pankow said movies always are more organized than something shot for TV.

"When you're filming for seven months on a show, a lot can happen in seven months. But when you're shooting a film, there is more of a plan. Everything has to go according to that plan, which it usually does," he said.

Except when it doesn't, such as making a movie with COVID-19 lingering. Bristol was proud to say that pandemic precautions on the set allowed for uninterrupted filming.

Bristol, coming from a long background of storyboarding films ("Mission Impossible" movies and "Top Gun: Maverick") provided storyboards to cast each day, Pankow said. That preparation set forth an organized day on the set.

"That was a really cool idea. It gave us a visual of what the day was going to look like."

Pankow connected with Church and it was not all work and no play.

"There definitely were a lot of comedic moments," he said, laughing. Jokes on set or driving around in Church's truck are memories for him.

As Erwin learns from Merle as their, Pankow picked up a lot working with veteran actors such as Church, Moss and Bruce Dern, who plays the land owner. "That in itself was a blast."

"Lizards" is a step forward for Pankow.

"As of right now, Erwin Vandeveer is kind of the debut of Rudy Pankow in a lead role in a film," he said.

The director: This is the movie that was meant to be

The recent premieres for film festivals bring Bristol full circle.

Years ago, Denny tabbed him to direct, figuring that an experienced storyboard guy would make a great director.

The project lolled and Bristol went onto other things. He then re-entered the project and saw it through.

"I knew we had a really fine film but you never what it's going to be like when you see it with an audience," he said of the premiere. "We had shown it to small groups of people, and we did a test screening while we were still editing to get feedback."

But there's nothing like seeing the movie in a theater.

"To have a packed out respond to the film so enthusiastically was just phenomenal," he said. "You can't beat seeing a movie in the cinema."

Bristol, who has directed only one other feature film (a dark comedy called "The Monster Hunter") and 20 years ago, said he watched the movie through their eyes, rather than as the director. He watched it as if for the first time, though he said "I've watched it probably 1,000 times."

Though turning "Chocolate Lizards" took years to make, Bristol said he had grown as a director.

"And we laugh that if we had made this 20 years ago, Rudy Pankow would've been 4 and we wouldn't have cast him," Bristol said - laughing. "It absolutely was the right time to get this remarkable cast and crew.

"This is the version of the movie it was supposed to be."

Bristol said the book is "a wonderful portrait of larger-than-life characters" but the story needed to be updated and "we concentrated on more of the drama. It's still a hilarious movie but we made it very authentic and we really enhanced the dramatic elements between Merle and Erwin."

And in the movie, Merle's unrequited love is for Faye rather than for a kind-hearted dancer named Tex-Ann.

"We stayed true to the core of the story. Julie was our great barometer so we never strayed too far from the spirit of the book," Bristol said. Having Thompson give a thumb's up on the movie underscored the accomplishment.

Bristol knew what he was getting into. He grew up in Austin, so understood people who come across as larger than life.

"Yes, that intrigued me, " he said. The audience gets a look at them through the eyes of Erwin, who's an outsider.

"I had the opportunity to unveil the beauty of the people and the landscape," he said, adding he came to Abilene to get a feel of the area. He even went to an oil rig with Thompson.

In fact, they were in Abilene again, with co-producers Melissa Kirkendall and Koen Wooten, when news came that Church was on board. The other pieces soon fell into place.

Filming was in October-November 2021.

Bristol said he welcomed input throughout the project, even in the editing room.

"I want to get the best ideas out of the people who are on the set," he said. "I made it clear. There were no bad ideas. I think that's important to enhance your team's collaborative spirit."

He drew on "It's A Wonderful Life" to show a community rallying behind Merle.

"The movie sought to reveal the best in us," Bristol said. "I love small-town Texas."

If You Go

• What: Abilene premiere of "Chocolate Lizards." Screenplay by Julie Denny, based on Cole Thompson's book

• Where: Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St.

• When: 7 p.m. showing

• Tickets: About 150 balcony tickets for the public remain. Cost is $17 plus fees

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Red carpet rollout: 'Chocolate Lizards' premieres at Paramount