Producer Feels Laguna Heat on Film Locations

Fame is fleeting, some Laguna Beach leaders discovered last week.

At first they were pleased to learn that their picturesque town would be the setting for a new, made-for-TV movie, “Laguna Heat,” based on the novel by T. Jefferson Parker.

Then they learned that Culver City producer Jay Weston planned to film a few “establishing shots” of the city’s beaches and arts festival but otherwise would shoot most of the movie in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles? The urban jungle “doubling” for a beachfront town?

“We found a lot of L.A. locations that double for a lot of the Laguna scenes,” said Weston, who is making the film for cable television’s Home Box Office. “It’s less expensive to base things in L.A. and not have to pay per diem” expenses for his 60-member crew.

“If we went down to Laguna, we would have to put a crew up there,” said Weston, and the beach city’s hotel prices make that prohibitively expensive.

But some Laguna officials were miffed.

“It gets to be a high level of misrepresentation. Why even call it Laguna Beach?” said Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick.” “It’s really improper. . . . But that’s the movie business.”

Don Black, president of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, also was dismayed. “It’s very difficult to impart the flavor of Laguna Beach by going to an established urban area that has a totally different ambiance,” he said.

Though Weston planned to start production in less than two weeks, Black said, “maybe we should twist his arm.” He vowed to call Weston and ask him to consider filming more of the movie in Laguna.

Even Parker, the 33-year-old Laguna Beach novelist who wrote the 1985 murder mystery, said he was sorry that little of the film would be shot in town.

“I would have liked to see them shoot the whole thing down here,” Parker said. “But I hope they can work their film magic. . . . Of course if you call it Laguna Beach and shoot it in Barstow, it isn’t going to work.”

Producer Weston said that most scenes from the book will be created in Los Angeles, primarily at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles.

The VA hospital will be used to simulate the interior of the Orange County morgue and Laguna Beach’s small police department, he said. Several Los Angeles nightclubs will double for fictional Laguna nightclubs mentioned in the book.

In addition, Weston said, the novel’s dramatic love scene--on a rock in Laguna’s Divers Cove--will probably be shot in a swimming pool. Right now, the ocean water is still too cold for the actors, he said.

Still, Weston’s crew will be in Laguna for two weeks in mid-June for “establishing shots” of the city’s arts festival, beaches, downtown streets and several private homes, the producer said. He will also be recruiting locals, possibly including novelist Parker, as extras at that time.

Weston said that Harry Hamlin, of the TV series “L.A. Law,” will play the role of the main character, detective Tom Shephard.

After shooting the Laguna scenes, Weston said, his crew might move up the coast to Newport Beach--”depending on whether Newport has a better look” than Laguna Beach.

Also, from May 19 through 21, Weston said he will spend three days at the Mandolay Country Club in Oxnard, shooting scenes involving “Surfside Country Club,” a fictional club in the book, Weston said.

Though Weston will not be filming inside the Laguna Beach Police Department, he did say that department officials had been “very cooperative” in providing information on police procedures and letting his crew copy their uniforms.

An independent film maker, Weston produced the film “Lady Sings the Blues” and co-produced “Heartbreak Ridge.” He said that he optioned Parker’s novel 14 months ago and that Parker received a “six-figure” price from HBO for the rights to the book.

Weston also said he would like to make a movie out of Parker’s not-yet-finished novel “Little Saigon,” a love story and thriller set in Garden Grove and Westminster.