SPOKANE, Wash. — A movie starring some big names in Hollywood, including Zooey Deschanel and Casey Affleck, has begun filming on Spokane's South Hill.
"Dreamin' Wild," a new musical, independent drama, features the real story of musical duo Donnie and Joe Emerson, two brothers from Fruitland, Washington. Photos have been popping up on social media from spots around the neighborhood where the shooting is taking place.
According to the Focus Features website, the movie follows the real-life story of musical duo Donnie and Joe Emerson, whose family leveraged their farm in the 1970s in order to produce the brothers’ record, "Dreamin’ Wild."
"Dreamin' Wild" focuses on how the two brothers recorded an album that was unearthed and rediscovered in the 2010s, becoming an underground hit, while living in rural Washington, according to an article published by The Hollywood Reporter. The film is set in two time periods and begins when the album that the Emerson brothers recorded as teenagers is rediscovered almost 30 years after its release, and meets critical acclaim and an unexpected music career for the Emerson brothers. Donnie is forced to confront ghosts from the past and grapple with the emotional toll his dreams have taken on the family who supported him, The Hollywood Reporter article says.
The "Dreamin' Wild" cast includes Oscar winner Casey Affleck, Emmy and Grammy winner Beau Bridges, Emmy nominee Zooey Deschanel best known for her roles in movies such as "Elf," “New Girl” and “500 Days of Summer," Emmy winner Walton Goggins, American actor Jack Dylan Grazer, British actor Noah Jupe, and American actor Chris Messina, according to an article published by Deadline.
PHOTOS: Spokane neighborhood where the 'Dreamin' Wild' is filming
Affleck and Jupe will play the adult and teenage versions of Donnie, and Goggins and Grazer will portray those of Joe. Deschanel will play Donnie’s wife, Nancy, with Bridges as Emerson patriarch Don Sr., and Messina as Light in the Attic Records executive Matt Sullivan, Deadline reported.
There isn't a confirmed date for when the film will be released but it is possible the movie will be out in theaters by 2022.
Jane Jackson lives across the street from one area where the movie is being filmed on Spokane's South Hill. She and other residents are hoping to get a glimpse of the stars.
Jackson said movie producers even asked her to rent her 1989 Audi, which matches one of the timeframes in the "Dreamin' Wild" movie.
"I have to see how it turns out and see if my house and my car is in there," Jackson said.
“We knew something was going on," Caryl Haase, another South Hill resident, added. “I think it’s exciting for Spokane of course to have some of kind of exposure to the rest of the country, and we do all exist here and we aren’t awful.”
Other movies filmed in the Inland Northwest include "Boon" in 2021, "At Middleton" in 2013, "Camila Dickinson" in 2012, "The Hit List" in 2010, "The Ward" in 2010, "Home of the Brave" in 2006, "Why Would I Lie"' in 1980, and "Benny and Joon" in 1993, to mention others.