<i> Dead </i> Material
Bill Kelman became fascinated with the comic film potential of the funeral business after completing an article on California’s only school for morticians for the Long Island News. Still, he told us, “I thought it would be a hard sell.” But when he submitted his screenplay for “Mortuary Academy” to producers Chip Miller and Dennis Winfrey, they jumped on it.
Why? Miller’s father was a mortician in Patterson, N.J.--he lived in a funeral home for 10 years before the family moved to a house on cemetery grounds!
When they were talking to directors, Michael Schroeder mentioned that his father was an embalmer--as a lad, he lived over a funeral home! (Yes, he was hired.)
“Mortuary Academy,” which is due in early August, is the “poignant” tale of a mortuary owner (Paul Bartel) who falls in love with the corpse of a young cheerleader.
“Mortuary II”--shudder--is in the planning.
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