Film Making Dream Comes True for former Lincoln City Resident
A scene from the movie 'The Flyboys' written and directed by Rocco Devilliers who grew up in Lincoln City. DeVilliers plans a special screening of the movie at the Bijou Theatre this Saturday. (Courtesy photo)
By Larry Coonrod For the News-Times
LINCOLN CITY--Rocco DeVilliers' dream of making movies comes full circle this Saturday at the Bijou Theatre in Lincoln City, where he'll screen his film "The Flyboys."
"To be back at the Bijou with my own feature film is such a thrill for me. I saw so many films there," DeVilliers said.
"The Flyboys" is a tale of two 12-year-old boys who find their courage tested when they accidentally stowaway an airplane owned by the mob.
"The reason I made this film is it's the kind of film I would have liked to see at 12," DeVilliers said. "I don't feel Hollywood is making that kind of film anymore. It's a very old-fashioned adventure film, lots of action, lots of peril, very little CGI. It's old school, real stuntmen doing real stunts."
DeVilliers, 39, grew up in Lincoln City, where his love of cinema started at the age of five, when his parents took him to see "Jaws" in 1975.
"I was hooked on sharks and cinema," he said.
If there was any doubt DeVilliers was going to be a filmmaker, George Lucas sealed his fate two years later.
"Everything changed when I saw 'Star Wars' in 1977," he said.
He made his first film in junior high school - a 15-minute "Star Trek" featurette - with his friend Vincent Hokes and a video camera they borrowed from Hokes' father.
DeVilliers credits his teachers in Lincoln City with encouraging him to seek a career in cinema, singling out Debra Gassney as being one of the most influential.
"She was such a phenomenal teacher. She did so much to inspire me at a young age to pursue my dream," he said.
At 17, DeVilliers wrote, produced and directed "Bounding Overwatch," a 40-minute film about a Marine patrol fighting its way to an extraction point.
In 1995, with just $15,000 and his friends as actors, he filmed the action movie, "Pure Race."
The inspiration for "The Flyboys" came from memories of visiting his grandfather, a crop duster, in Blackfoot, Idaho as a boy.
"I remember crawling inside his plane and making up all these adventures," he said. "I always turn to my childhood for inspiration."
Now living in Salt Lake City, DeVilliers produced "The Flyboys" outside the Hollywood system. Writing, finding independent financing, shooting and editing the film took about two years. And in one of those plot twists that any good movie has, the sound mixing was done at the production facility of the man who inspired him.
"One of the biggest thrills of my life was being invited to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch," DeVilliers said. "We mixed the sound on the same stage where they did 'Saving Private Ryan.'"
"The Flyboys" has picked up 70 awards on the film festival circuit in the past year. Saturday's screening is the only chance moviegoers will have to see the film until it is released nationally sometime in the next year.
DeVilliers said he hopes to make a Flyboys sequel and possibly a television series based on the film. Eventually, he hopes to shoot a film in this area.
"My dream is to shoot a film on the Oregon coast," he said. "I had a very magical childhood here and have such fond memories of the whole area."
Perhaps "The Flyboys" will be the film that calls another young person to the magic of the silver screen. If so, DeVilliers offered a bit of advice.
"First thing, don't ever let anyone tell you can't do something. Just go for it," he said. "Just get out there and practice your craft. If you're good enough, someone will notice."
