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Actor with Seminole roots returns home

Jim Fitzpatrick has set up shop in a Largo business to make a film, which has cast members from Clearwater and Safety Harbor.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 27, 2005

As people hurried home one recent evening, the night's work was just beginning in a long-vacant church.

A machine was filling the cavernous space with clouds of eerie fog for a supernatural thriller that was in its second day of filming.

The person behind the Hollywood project is a local man, an actor and producer who recently returned to his Seminole roots with his actor wife and two young children. The movie filmed at the historic First Congregational Church of Christ in St. Petersburg is the first of five projects Jim Fitzpatrick said would be made in the Tampa Bay area.

The cast draws talent from Clearwater and Safety Harbor, and a business in Largo is serving as a temporary headquarters for the production.

The rental truck pulling up to the property around 3 p.m. Wednesday was the first indication that something was happening at the former church at Fourth Street and Third Avenue N, but the call for "action" would not come until about 5:30 that chilly evening.

Waiting in costume to act in his first movie was Fitzpatrick's father, James G. Fitzpatrick, 67. The older Fitzpatrick, who has acted for more than 40 years in musical theater and plays in the area, lives in Clearwater. He said his role in the movie, The Belly of the Beast , was that of a priest, Father Palermo. His part called for him to speak in Latin, Spanish and Italian.

"I give a prophecy," he said.

His son, who wrote the screenplay and also is the movie's producer, said the film pits good against evil.

"It is a story that starts 2,000 years ago with the apostles," he said.

In a fight for the world, the contemporary Alpha disciples - the direct bloodline descendants of the apostles - go to battle against Satan's demons. The Alpha disciples use daggers fashioned by the apostles in their effort to defeat the demons.

New Yorker John Flynn is the project's executive producer. The cast includes Hollywood veterans Beverly Hills 90210 actor David Gail, John Castellanos from The Young and the Restless , and Corbin Timbrook, who was in Ski Patrol . Fitzpatrick's wife, actor Jodi Knotts, a relative of Don Knotts, is the female lead. She becomes possessed by one of Satan's 12 demons.

"To play a character like that was really fun," she said Friday.

The local talent also includes Aubrey Cheek, an 11-year-old girl from Safety Harbor.

The movie is being produced by Pack Atlantic Studios, Fitzpatrick's company. Construction of its Seminole building will begin in about six months, Fitzpatrick said. Meanwhile, the company is operating out of Key Frame Studios in Largo. The Belly of the Beast is expected to be released on June 6. The company's next movie will be National Lampoon's the Last Guy on Earth .

Filming in the historic St. Petersburg church, where generations of the city's pioneers and leaders worshiped, was the idea of associate producer Vince Greco. Greco lives in the Tampa Bay area and was familiar with the property, which was bought by developer Grady Pridgen several years ago. Pridgen, who stopped by the set last week, is renovating the property and hopes to rent the church and its 450-seat theater.

"We're only interested in renting if it's the perfect opportunity. We're being pretty picky," he said. "We'd love to see a restaurant utilize the theater as an entertainment venue."

He said exterior improvements are being planned, including a wrought iron fence.

A few years ago, the developer renovated another section of the property, creating a townhouse for his family. They have since moved to another home.

Fitzpatrick believes the Tampa Bay area offers many venues for filmmaking.

"Aside from not having mountains here, we've got everything else to make a film," he said. "The city of St. Petersburg and its mayor were really helpful in procuring the location and the surrounding areas to make the film."

His wife, who grew up in northern California, agreed.

"The people here in Florida are just so nice. It was a joy to move here and just have everybody be so welcoming to us," she said.

Filming also took place in Clearwater, Land O'Lakes and various homes, including Fitzpatrick's.

Besides accessible locations, another key factor influenced his decision to move back home. Fitzgerald, who played football for Seminole High School with his brother, Tony, acted in the soap opera All My Children and a variety of movies including Cocoon.

Speaking before filming Wednesday, he talked about the main reason he moved back to Seminole.

"I'm from here and I wanted to raise my children here," he said. "I wanted to raise them in the town I was raised."

Fitzpatrick said Seminole still has a 1970s feel and his children can ride their bikes to school.

"They can't do that in L.A.," he said.

[Last modified December 27, 2005, 02:30:20]