By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The feature movie “The Ride to Nowhere” has taken filmmaker Anthony Wright to Los Angeles, Culver City, California, and Las Vegas.
Having played the legendary Chinese Theater in Hollywood, the film will be screened at another iconic venue, Howard’s Club H in Bowling Green. “The Ride to Nowhere” will be shown at the club Thursday April 3 at 7 p.m. The free screening will be followed by a question and answer session.
This screening is special, Wright noted, because a scene was filmed in the club.
The film follows Jimmy (Ben Kunec) on a road trip to reconnect with an ex-girlfriend, and “a bunch of surprises happen along the way.” His roommate Zak (Youseff Baddar) comes along for the ride.
Drawing his inspiration from John Hughes’ classic 1980s movies, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Stand by Me,” Wright said he “wanted to make a movie that was both comedic, but also had more heartfelt and dramatic moments,” Wright said during a recent interview.
Wright, 29, started writing the script in the winter, 2022. He shared drafts with a few friends throughout the writing process.
It took him seven months to get the final draft completed.
Working with Film Toledo he set about casting the movie and then it took nine months to film it.
Baddar was one of those consulting on the script, and he also helped shape his character. Zak is “trying to find his way in the world despite all the setbacks, life is thrown at him,” the filmmaker said.
Jarrett Cunningham penned the score for the film as well as mixing and editing the sound. He and Wright are both film graduates from the University of Toledo. Wright graduated in 2018 and Cunningham graduated in 2020. Cunningham also worked on Wright’s two previous features: a slap-stick comedy “Renegade” and the sci-fi drama “Monarch.”
“Since I was eight, visual storytelling has been my greatest passion,” Wright said, “One of my biggest goals is to make content that bring people joy.”
He started in comedy. His cousin Patrick McCarty, now known as The Guy from the 419, asked Wright when he was about 8 to do stunts that he would tape on VHS.
Wright continued on his own, borrowing his family’s VHS recorder and filming his own backyard versions of “Indiana Jones’ and “Star Wars.”
“I just loved telling stories,” he said.
Cunningham, 27, eased into film. He was interested early on in theater then the visual arts and graphic design. He attended the Toledo School for Arts studying music and music production. But he loved film projects,though at the time the school didn’t have a film major. Still “film had always sort of been in the background of everything,” he said.
Throughout this time at TSA, he played bass in jazz combos. Later he toured with Jump, a Van Halen tribute band.
Tired of life on the road, he returned to the Toledo area where he works on a variety of projects.
His background in jazz influences his work on the film.
“Jazz is, a lot more focused on in-the-moment expressions,” Jarrett said. “So in the live production sense, it definitely requires just quick interpretation of what’s going on around you … and then fitting it into whatever you’e working with.
“But in order to get to that point, you got to have a lot of built-in knowledge to know how the different changes work together.”
The music gave him the grounding in music theory he needs to write for film.
For “The Ride to Nowhere,” Wright was looking for the same sonic vibe as the John Hughes films he loves as well as the more contemporary “Stranger Things” series.
When not making feature films, Wright works as a freelance video producer, taping sports, weddings, high school musicals, and more.
The increased sophistication and availability of film technology such as the Red Komodo camera he used on “The Ride,” makes working locally possible.
“Everyone expects they’re going to pick up a camera and then everything is going to fall into place,” Wright said. “They’re going to make it to Hollywood overnight. But it’s a long process. There’s some bumps in the road sometimes. But those bumps in the road determine your character and whether you’re going get back up and keep moving.”
And who’s to tell where that ride make take you.
