Producer says all’s quiet on the Eastport front

EASTPORT – Mum’s the word in the city about the made-for-television movie, “Water’s Edge,” that soon will be filmed in this seaside community.

Although there has been a lot of speculation about the story line, the film company, Final Stretch Productions, has revealed little. But the locals are having a ball talking about what the subject matter might be. There is speculation that it may be based on a local murder, but no one could figure out how Hollywood types would have heard about it.

Supervising producer Leslie Radakovich said Wednesday that she reports to the executive producers, Bob Fisher and Gordon Cassidy, who soon will be in Eastport. “It’s a pilot right now. We don’t know which network. We don’t have an airdate, so hopefully we are going to make this, see how it turns out, and someone will put it on. We hope it will be a huge success, and we will make more,” she said. All she would confirm is that it’s a modern-day drama.

Radakovich said she has been very impressed with the people in Eastport. She was pleased when she learned how positive the comments have been about the production company. “People have been friendly. They’ve been welcoming. Part of the fun of doing things on location is getting to know the local people,” she said. “We get to live in someone else’s world for a while.”

By the time they are ready to begin production, she said, more than 100 people will be on site, including actors and crew. She said none of the actors is familiar to the public, but that could change if the series is a success. “We have some really great actors coming in. Some of them new to TV, and some new to film, but they are really good,” she said.

Radakovich said they would be shooting in a documentary style, “which means we have smaller crews and a number of camera crews shooting,” she said. “It’s not like your big-dollar kind of film show. It’s a smaller group where you shoot a lot of footage and see what you get afterward,” she said.

She said she expects shooting to begin in mid-April. “A lot of it depends on the weather and when we can get started,” she said.

The supervising producer said she only had been in Eastport since Monday, but said she would recommend Eastport to other production people. “I would recommend it to anyone who is doing a movie. You can’t ask for more accommodating people … this is a great place,” she said.

Once the filming is completed, postproduction will take several weeks. She said she was not certain when the production would air. “We don’t have it sold yet. It could be fall, it could be summer, it could be winter, it depends on if they love it,” she said.

The 34-year-old supervising producer said the film crew would be shooting in a number of areas, including a former retail store building that has been turned into a newspaper office.

Assistant director Robin Oliver also was in the makeshift newspaper office Wednesday. The two were watching the crew “dress the set,” while men were moving desks and tables around. Props included computers and back issues of the Bangor Daily News.

The crew expects to remain in Eastport through the end of May.