Advertisement
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)