A Richmond husband and wife duo are bringing their vision for a fantasy musical to the silver screen that urges youngsters to put down their cellphones and gaming controls to discover what it’s like to be kids again.
Terry Wolfe and Marlene Dixon shot and produced Kids from Camelot, an independent film, in and around New York’s Spanish Harlem, then enlisted the talent from Richmond Youth Honour Choir to pose as kids finding it hard to break the addiction of their electronic devices.
They travel back in time to Camelot to find out if an old sword in their storage locker is really King Arthur’s long lost Excalibur.
During their journey, the youngsters discover what childhood should be about and start a revolution against TV and cell phone addicts.
The idea for the story started back in the mid-1980s when Wolfe was a lawyer.
Originally, he set it in Montreal. And later the premise drew the interest of producers looking for a live entertainment matinee at the Excalibur hotel in Las Vegas.
Wolfe said it was a million-dollar deal he walked away from, because the logistics of running a daily show with a young cast was problematic.
Undeterred, he continued with his law practice while still harbouring dreams of getting into show business.
And it came to fruition a decade later when he retired.
That’s when he and Dixon, a long-time publicist for the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver, collaborated in 2008 to produce their first indie flick Elvis, Mozart and Me.
According to IMDb (Internet Movie Database), it’s a zany, romantic musical comedy about a retired lawyer trying to persuade his wife to invest in a low-budget movie.
“That was an experiment that taught me the pitfalls of making an ultra-low budget feature film,” Wolfe said.
“... I licked my wounds for a year, all the while thinking that I should go back to a story that brought a million-dollar offer.”
For the past four years, the couple has worked on Kids From Camelot. For tickets to its April 23 premiere at the Van City Festival Theatre, email [email protected] or call 604-241-7303.
