April 16, 2003
Zeppa makes 'Filthy' movie
Dan Zeppa debuts his spoof of Dirty Harry character in Traverse
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
After nearly two decades of germinating, Dan Zeppa's vision became reality this weekend.
With the Livonia and Traverse City debuts this weekend of his movie "Filthy Harold," Zeppa realized his dream of spoofing Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character and creating an entertaining movie on its own merits. The Howell resident plays Filthy Harold, Livonia's sloppiest cop, who bumbles his way through solving a string of murders. Armed with donuts and a plastic .44 magnum dart gun, Inspector Harold Calavan finally brings the infamous Pie-Cses killer to justice.
The premise of "Filthy Harold" shows Zeppa's facility at scripting with a twist: Dirty Harry faced off against a vicious killer called Scorpio. Zeppa kept the zodiac theme but made this killer strike using pies.
"Public access cable frowns on violence so we used plastic guns and pies," Zeppa noted.
The film begins when a youth in Livonia mysteriously dies on a high school sports field. While investigating, Filthy Harold spies telltale piecrust crumbs in the stands overlooking the field. Back at the stationhouse, he makes a report:
"Was she shot to death," asks Lieutenant Biggs.
"No, worse than that, she was pied to death," deadpans Harold Calavan around a donut.
Rolling the tape Sunday for ten people Sunday afternoon at Horizon Books, Zeppa relaxed and watched his baby - which represented six months of script writing, eight months of shooting and 350 hours of editing.
Nearly three years in the making, the idea for "Filthy Harold" began when the Livonia native was just out of high school. He kept the vision in the back of his mind as he built a career, made other films, got married and started a family.
Currently a stay-at-home dad in Howell, Zeppa sandwiched his work on "Filthy Harold" around family duties and running the horse farm he and his wife own.
Through all the moves over the years, a few items always went with him.
"The plastic dart gun I bought in 1986, I knew it was right for this," he recalled. "The sun glasses I bought back in 1984, I knew I wanted to do this film one day and they were just like the ones Eastwood wore in the film."
Dave Fortin of Traverse City appears in the movie as the Mayor, playing an egotistical, preening mayor constantly polling for direction. Fortin, a senior reporter for TV7&4, had met Zeppa when he worked at the station a few years ago.
Fortin's background in acting and interest in reviving that career prompted him to participate in "Filthy Harold." Zeppa's skill and vision as a writer and director were also a lure.
"I just trusted that Dan could do something pretty good," Fortin said. "And of course, I do believe that he is someone we're going to see. It may take time, but I truly believe he has the talent and ability to become bigger and bigger over the years."
Zeppa's previous works include four years of a talk show called "The Comical Mystery Tour," which aired on public access downstate in the early 1990s. He and some friends traveled around the Detroit suburbs in a bright yellow van to film a variety of short pieces.
"They still show some of those episodes on Livonia cable because they are not time dated," Zeppa noted.
Next, he made a full-length documentary on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The documentary meshed years of photos and footage he had collected about the event. Next, he and some friends made a spoof of the movie "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" called "The Good, The Bad and The Clumsy."
Zeppa wrote that script in six months and filmed it during the fall of 1998, again setting it in Livonia. After a successful airings on public access cable in Livonia, Farmington and Redford, Zeppa was encouraged enough to purchase a digital camera and computer editing equipment.
Zeppa tapped family and friends as actors and production crew for "Filthy Harold," just as he has in previous pieces. The bevy of automotive engineers in his supporting cast also helped solve other production problems like location. The scenes in a police squad room were shot after hours in a Livonia-based engineering firm.
"The guy who played Lt. Biggs was my former boss in that company and he let us in late at night," Zeppa said. "The big wigs in the company didn't know we were there and still don't."
"We just had to vacuum up the crumbs when we were done," noted Zeppa, referring to the ongoing cops and donuts gag.
With "Filthy Harold" in the can, Zeppa envisions a series of documentaries about small towns in Michigan called Hometown Michigan. These half-hour films would explore the history, people and places of an area. Another idea is to incorporate his love of golfing into some short films on the sport.
"I do know golf and have written some short stories about golf, so I'd like to do that," Zeppa said.