The red carpet premiere of Bethany Ashton Wolf?s Little Chenier was surprisingly refreshing for Los Angeles. Held at the Santa Monica club 2020, the casually dressed cast and crew arrived looking happy and proud before rushing inside to enjoy the Cajun themed evening. Instead of the habitually designer clad stars that pout and preen for the camera?s, this cast cozied up to not only their co-stars but cast alike, seeming more like old friends or relatives then coworkers.
A ruggedly handsome Jonathan Schaech, best known for his role as a teen heartthrob in Tom Hanks “That Thing You Do” beamed at his co-star Fred Koehler, who has an impressive IMDB resume as long as your arm, as they joked and posed for photographers. If the two seemed like brothers it was for good reason. They spent a month filming on location in tiny adjoining boats surrounded by alligators and snakes in sweltering 110-degree heat.
Little Chenier is the story of the Beaux Dupuis, played by Jonathon Schaech who is struggling in the small Cajun town of Little Chenier to raise his mentally retarded brother Pemon. Little Chenier isn?t your average small town. Isolated by a swamp in the Louisiana bayou and consisting of a string of houseboats, it?s more of a kind of floating trailer park if you will. Being left twenty years earlier by their mother with an alcoholic father, Beaux struggles to raise his brother in a relatively normal way, making ends meet at their local bait shop. The gumbo hits the fan when Pemon, played by Fred Koehler, is accused of a crime, leaving Beaux to protect his brother against all odds.
Directed, written for screenplay and produced by Bethany Ashton Wolf, the film is based on the people and places she and her brother remembered from her own Louisiana upbringing. ?My brother and I grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana and both have always had an insatiable love of the bayou and its people. For years we had both wanted to make a film that embraced Cajun culture in a way that had never been presented on film before. Years before, my brother had written a short story about two brothers, Beaxregard and Pemon, living and fishing on the bayous of Louisiana. I had a few projects under my belt and was looking for my next screenplay to write and I kept coming back to his short story. So we flew home, got in an old boat we borrowed from a friend, and just motored out to all the magical places we had encountered as kids?a floating gas station, grocer store, alligator nests, cluster of houseboat villages, and the most unforgettable sunsets we had ever seen.?
Also in attendance to celebrate the films premiere was also Scott Wolf of TV hit The Nine, Chris Mulkey of North Country, Adrienne Franz of The Bold and the Beautiful, The Shield?s Kenny Johnson and so many more fans and friends of the film and it?s cast and crew. Guests danced to lively cajun music by the films very own Abe Manuel Band and laughed and reminisced over drinks and southern themed appetizers. Find out more about the film and see photos of the production process at .
