Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.
"Standing Still" is the name of the first film produced by a fledgling Las Vegas-based film company.
"Perpetual motion" should be the name of the company, Insomnia Entertainment, which seems to be staying awake around the clock to make its mark in the film world.
"Standing Still," a comedy about young adults reuniting after being apart for several years, will be released in about 20 theaters around the country Friday, five in Las Vegas.
Next week a second film, "Bachelor Party Vegas," will be released on DVD.
And company founder Trent Othick is busy looking at more projects for Insomnia.
He said he's in the middle of closing a deal on a movie, "Finding Amanda," which is written by director Peter Tolan.
Tolan is the co-creator of the hit FX series "Rescue Me," starring Denis Leary, the other co-creator.
"And we are in discussion with Miramax on a script they own, 'Mississippi Mud,' " Othick said.
But this week Othick is sleepless as he focuses on the birth of Insomnia's first child, "Standing Still," which he describes as a low-budget, independent film with the look of an expensive production, thanks to the quality of the cast and crew who came aboard for this maiden voyage.
Among the cast is Mena Suvari ("American Beauty"), who was brought into the project by her then-husband Robert Brinkmann, the film's cinematographer, and James Van Der Beek of "Varsity Blues" and TV's "Dawson's Creek."
Unwilling to talk about the budget at this point, Othick said that while it didn't cost a lot by today's standards, "It's not an art house film."
Many low budget films these days are shot digitally.
"This was shot traditionally, on film," Othick said. "We got a cast and crew willing to work for low wages."
He said the production came together in a few months.
"We bought the script in September (2003) and started shooting in November," Othick said.
He feels that one of the elements that drew so many quality film people to the project was the script.
"The thing that appealed to me is that it's a movie about youth, about growing up," Othick said. "When I was growing up, the John Hughes movies, like 'The Breakfast Club' and those kinds of movies were popular.
"They didn't have giant budgets; they were just movies about people."
Othick said "Standing Still" is a funny film, but it has some emotion.
"It's definitely a combination of worlds - a commercial comedy mixed with a little bit of art film and a little bit of heart."
He said the end product turned out well.
Othick said the project arose right after Insomnia Entertainment came into being .
Many of the names of the partners in the company are well known in Las Vegas.
In addition to Othick, who returned to his hometown about three years ago to shoot films here, are Tom Breitling and Tim Poster (former owners of the Golden Nugget) and brothers Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III (Station Casinos owners/executives).
Othick was the executive producer of Fox's "The Casino," which was shot at the Golden Nugget.
"We wanted to work quickly, to get a film in the theaters, to let people know that we are serious about making films, not just talk, like a lot of Hollywood companies," Othick said.
After he bought the script, Othick began recruiting the talent.
"Several actors fell out in the process, but this one guy, James Van Der Beek, flew out and met with me and told me how serious he was about wanting to appear in the film," Othick said. "I impressed on him that we had an independent film budget, to make sure he was game."
Van Der Beek signed on and others quickly followed.
"That got the process started," Othick said. "We hired a casting director, and she hit the ground running, bringing in talent."
He says he was extremely happy with the cast.
"They all turned out to be really nice kids," Othick said. "I'm still friends with all of them."
He said he saw some commercial potential for the film.
"The fact that we've gotten it into some of the megaplexes tells me I was right. Could it have been done to be more commercial? Probably, if it lost its heart, and we didn't want to do that."
Othick said quality actors and technicians aren't going to do a film for an independent pay rate if the producers' only goal is to make money.
"I think they came aboard for a combination of reasons," he said. "Once the word got out, everything quickly steamrolled - we even turned away several really good young actors."
Othick said as much as possible, Insomnia films will be made in Las Vegas.
" 'Finding Amanda' will mostly be shot here, although we may shoot some scenes in Los Angeles," he said.
Another film that shows promise is "Yonker's Joe," about a dice hustler who reunites with his Down syndrome son.
"Because of scheduling, we haven't been able to get everyone together to do it," Othick said. "That's one of the problems with independent films."
But Othick isn't going to lose any sleep over it.
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