It had snowed in Toronto just days earlier, forcing the beach volleyball scene in Daydream Believers: The Monkees' Story to be filmed on wrap day, April 14. The sun was out, but it was chilly. Still, the teenage extras had to sit for hours in bikinis on Lake Ontario's Sunnyside beach. For the discerning viewer, only their lily white skin betrayed the fact that this was not Los Angeles, September, 1966.

"Amazingly, Toronto has not only stood in for California, it's stood in for Manchester, London, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Hawaii," marvels the film's director Neill Fearnley (Escape From Mars, Dogmatic, Johnny 2.0), who is making the film on a budget of $3.4 million.

The cast -- Canadians George Stanchev (Davy Jones) and Jeff Geddis (Mike Nesmith), alongside Americans L.B. Fisher (Peter Tork) and Aaron Lohr (Micky Dolenz) -- are assembled on a blanket for the Beach Pavilion dialogue scene in which they discuss the craziness of the past year.

"The show's not even on the air yet and every teenager girl in America wants a piece of him," says "Mike" of Davy.

"Davy" complains about a girl who breaks into his dressing room. "I found her naked on my couch."

The made-for-TV movie is produced by Toronto's Pebblehut, a division of Montreal's Muse Entertainment Enterprises, which acquired the rights to the Monkees' music in 1999 from Rhino Records as well as to the Harold Bronson book, Hey Hey We're the Monkees, on which Ron McGee's screenplay is based. "The genesis is from that book," says Fearnley, "and then we've added other things."

Many viewers will be surprised to learn that Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees and Jack Nicholson wrote the band's psychedelic full-feature release Head. The cast also discovered some idiosyncrasies that personified the original actors.

Lohr (Newsies, Mighty Ducks 2 and 3) was given leeway by the director to improvise in the movie, such as wearing the baby's hat or putting toys in his mouth, because Micky was so playful. "I wanted to capture his essence, his charm and child-like qualities," Lohr explains.

Stanchev, who has his own pop album out on Bulgaria's Ka Music, had to master Davy's dance. "Everybody [on set] started comparing it to Axl Rose's little sway thing," he laughs.

Apparently Peter had a dual personality. "There was a difference between Peter Tork, the character, which was the dumb, fun-loving guy, and Peter Tork, the person, who was the serious musician, the intellect," says Fisher, whose acting credits include Felicity and ER. "He also smiles a lot and wore his belt buckle sideways, so it didn't scratch his guitar."

On a darker note, Geddis, who plays the first victim in Friday the 13th Part 10, due in October, reveals that there is a bit of blood shed in Daydream Believers. "I do one scene where I punch a hole in the wall and I've got a little bit of blood on my knuckles," he says.

The story follows the prefab Sixties pop group through the audition process for the TV show, its cancellation, the creation of the box office disaster Head, and, finally, the foursome's realization some months later that it had been a fun ride.

"So it ends on an up note," says Fearnley.

The film is scheduled to air in the summer of 2000 on VH1 in America, and on TMN/Superchannel in Canada.

KAREN BLISS
(April 22, 2000)