The Rural We: Michael Maren
Filmmaker Michael Maren's new movie, "A Little White Lie" is being screened locally this weekend, and he'll be there.
“A Little White Lie,” a new film by journalist, filmmaker, and former aid worker Michael Maren, will be released next weekend at The Moviehouse in Millerton and the Bantam Cinema in Litchfield County. Based on the book by Chris Belden, it’s the story of a down-on-his luck handyman who gets mistaken for a famous writer who’s been in hiding for more than 20 years. It stars Michael Shannon, Kate Hudson, Don Johnson and Zach Braff. Maren, who lives in Bethlehem with his wife, the author Dani Shapiro, will be present for a Q&A following the screenings. The film’s production trajectory is a saga in itself. Producing an independent film is not for the faint of heart, he says. “It’s like trying to build a house of cards from the top down.”
I first came across this book, Shriver, at The Bookstore in Lenox. I heard the author, Chris Belden, reading the first chapter. I thought it was really funny. I bought a copy of the book, waited for him to sign it, and told him I would make a movie of it. I had him sign the agreement on the front page. That was in 2014. It took a year and a half to get the script done, and there was a ton of interest in it right away. I decided I was going to direct it.
I brought in a producer in 2017 and began shooting in the spring of 2019. A delay with one of the producers actually saved my life. I was diagnosed with cancer and would not have stopped to deal with it until I had completed the film, and the cancer would have metastasized. I was in chemo for a long time, followed by radical surgery. It took me a better part of the year to recover, so by December 2019 I was ready to start up again. Kate Hudson and Michael Shannon were attached to the film, and the rest of the cast fell in pretty quickly. We prepped for two weeks — location scouting, costumes, production design — then shot from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at six o’clock I was out looking for other locations. It was completely insane.
At the end of February, when we were filming in Burbank. Kate Hudson was reading something on her phone, and asked us, “Have you read this article?” The headline in The Atlantic said “Cancel Everything.” Within an hour, Tom Hanks announced he was positive for Covid, then we heard they canceled the NBA season. We kept filming, but within a day or two SAG shut us down. If we hadn’t filmed for almost three weeks, somebody would have pulled the plug on the whole thing.
Four hundred days later, we were able to bring the cast back together, but could only get them for six days. I rewrote a couple of scenes on the spot. With all the mask protocols, everything slowed us down — we were lining up for Covid tests in the morning. It was another massive obstacle to try to overcome.
We have a movie now that I’m really proud of. It’s screening in New York on Friday (March 3), but we’re not doing the red carpet thing. The movie theaters in Millerton and Bantam do a lot for the community and I’m happy to do something for them. I love being based in Bethlehem. Litchfield County has lots of other writer/filmmaker hybrids, as well as visual artists. It’s a very welcoming community.
I’m now adapting my wife’s memoir, Inheritance, as a screenplay. Killer Films is producing it and Polish director Agnieszka Holland has been signed on to direct.
