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September 23, 2008
The long wait for ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ is over
By IRENE NOLAN  The feature film “Nights in Rodanthe” is scheduled to open nationwide on Friday, Sept. 26. Many of the folks on the Outer Banks who worked on camera as extras or behind the scenes of the feature film, “Nights in Rodanthe,” will get a private screening of the movie at R/C Kill Devil Hills Movies 10, two days after its Sept. 22 star-studded premiere in New York City and two days before the public release. The event is invitation only, and Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, said that about 210 invitations have been mailed to Outer Banks residents who were part of the production as extras, musicians, consultants, security, caterers, and in other roles. “Nights in Rodanthe,” is based on the best-selling Nicholas Sparks novel by the same name and is being released by Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie was filmed in North Carolina, much of it on Hatteras Island and other areas of the Outer Banks during May of 2007, and the rest at studios in Wilmington. The movie is Sparks’ fourth romantic novel that has been adapted to the big screen. Two of the others – “Message in a Bottle” and “The Notebook” -- became major Hollywood hits. Richard Gere and Diane Lane star in this tale of a surgeon who is struggling with an operation gone wrong and an estrangement from his son and a woman whose marriage has fallen apart. Their paths cross at the fictional Inn at Rodanthe, where Lane, as Adrienne Willis, has escaped to contemplate her life and run her friend’s bed and breakfast for a week. Gere, as Dr. Paul Flanner, has come to Rodanthe to make amends with the family of a woman who died of complications on the operating table and to contemplate his own complications in his relationship with his son, also a physician. As it turns out, Flanner is the only guest at the inn, and he and Willis get “a second chance of a lifetime,” or so says the film’s publicity trailer, and fall in love as a hurricane comes ashore. (In the book, it is a northeaster.) They cement their new romance with a party with local folks after the storm at Rodanthe Pier and then separate with plans to meet again. Much of the movie was filmed on location on Hatteras Island, mostly in Rodanthe. Serendipity, the northernmost house in Mirlo Beach at the northern edge of Rodanthe, was all gussied up by the Hollywood construction crews to become the inn. Other scenes were filmed at JoBob’s Trading Post, the Hatteras Island Fishing Pier at Rodanthe, the Rodanthe beach, Highway 12, and the Hatteras Inlet ferry docks. Some scenes were filmed in Manteo, and the interiors were finished in Wilmington.  Many islanders were excited to be hired as extras in the various scenes. They spent a lot of time being outfitted and waiting to be called to the set, but none seemed to mind. Now they all want to know if their scenes made the final cut and into the film. Also featured playing music at the post-hurricane party are island musicians, including Ocracoke’s Jule Garrish, who sings the ballad, “Before I Met You,” which is the slow waltz that Gere and Lane dance to at the post-hurricane party on the Rodanthe Pier. The production crews and the actors spent weeks on Hatteras in May, 2007. Their time here was lengthened by – a storm. In an interesting case of life imitates art, a spring northeaster delayed the start of filming in Rodanthe by almost a week – but also produced some good storm shots and surging tides for the hurricane scenes. Ironically, many of the hurricane scenes were shot on a bright sunny day with large screens filtering out sunlight and the Chicamacomico Banks Fire Department’s truck providing the rain. Islanders spent a good deal of time waiting for a glimpse of stars Gere and Lane, who pretty much kept to themselves and gave no interviews to the local media. Most of the attention focused on heartthrob Richard Gere. Local women gathered at many sites where there was filming, but didn’t get very close to him. The film is produced by Denise DiNovi Productions and was directed by George Wolfe, whose credits include a Tony Award for “Angels in America” and a Director’s Guild Award for “Lackawanna Blues.” It was an interesting couple weeks of moviemaking last May as Hollywood met Hatteras Island. Hatteras islanders and Ocracokers who appear in the movie will have to travel to Kill Devil Hills to see it in the theater, since the only movie theater on the islands, in Avon, closed on Sept. 2. And, islanders who are invited to Wednesday’s screening are watching the weather closely. If the predicted northeast winds of 30 to 40 with gusts to 50 or 60 materialize, it is unlikely that anyone on Hatteras or Ocracoke will be driving off the island Wednesday night. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EXTENDED TRAILER FOR “NIGHTS IN RODANTHE” CLICK HERE TO VIEW A SLIDE SHOW OF SCENES FROM THE MOVIE |
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