A first-time director’s secret weapon: Pat Boone

When his film “Levity” seemed on the brink of collapsing with its star scheduled to depart, Ed Solomon did what any desperate, determined, first-time director of a small, independent movie would do -- he called Pat Boone.

Solomon, who had never met the ‘50s crooner of “April Love,” had a strange request: Would Boone accompany the film’s star, Billy Bob Thornton, on a flight from Montreal to Johannesburg, South Africa, to help save Solomon’s little film?

“It was the weirdest request I think I ever received,” recalled Boone with a chuckle this week from Greensburg, Pa., where he was giving a concert.

There’s more to the Boone story, but for now it’s enough to note that Solomon finished his movie, and “Levity,” which opened this year’s Sundance Film Festival, opens today in Los Angeles and New York from Sony Pictures Classics.

A gritty, contemplative drama imbued with themes of remorse and redemption, “Levity” features a taciturn, straggly haired Thornton as a convicted murderer who, paroled after 23 years behind bars, returns to the neighborhood where he committed the crime that haunts him. The supporting cast includes Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter and Kirsten Dunst.

For Solomon, a soft-spoken, 42-year-old screenwriter whose credits include the comic book-inspired blockbuster “Men in Black” (1997) and the gnarly teenage comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), making “Levity” gave him a chance to break away momentarily from the confining nature of studio films.

Like many people who hit it big in Hollywood, Solomon hoped that his success with blockbusters would give him leverage with studios to finance his personal vision. Yet, any thought that “Men in Black” would translate into a studio green light for “Levity” proved a pipe dream.

“My guess is, it would have been easier to get the financing for a $40-million, special-effects comedy than this $7.5-million, character-driven drama,” Solomon said. “Once I knew I wanted to make this movie, I knew it was clear it would never happen through the standard channels.”

Solomon still loves to write in other genres such as comedy and fantasy, and he remains a much-in-demand “script doctor,” one of those highly paid screenwriters recruited at a moment’s notice to punch up dialogue or rework scenes in a high-profile movie, as he recently did for the upcoming Michael Douglas-Albert Brooks comedy “The In-Laws.”

Solomon knew it would be hard to make an independent movie, but he certainly never envisioned pleading with Pat Boone to come to the rescue.

As Solomon tells it, Thornton had arranged to accompany his then-wife, actress Angelina Jolie, to Namibia for a vacation. That meant he would have to leave the set a few days earlier than “Levity” was scheduled to wrap. Thornton made it clear he didn’t want to fly without Jolie and fly later to Africa by himself.

“I was grasping at straws,” Solomon recalled. “I asked him, ‘What if I get someone really nice to fly with you instead?’ ” That’s when Thornton made an off-the-cuff joke. “Like who? Like Pat Boone?”

Thornton had no idea Solomon would make a cold call to Boone the next day. The singer returned the call at 1:45 a.m.

“I talked to him for about an hour,” the director recalled. “I told him everything, including the fact that if I lost Billy Bob, the movie would fall apart and I would essentially have to sell my house. And he said at the end of the hour, ‘If it means something to Billy Bob and it helps your movie, sure, I’ll fly to South Africa with him.’ ”

Boone said that although he didn’t know Thornton, he had greatly admired him as an actor and loved “Sling Blade,” the 1996 film starring, and written and directed by Thornton, who won an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

“Ed Solomon called and said Billy Bob is my choice to play the lead in a wonderful film ... but there is no way to save the film if you are not willing to fly with him to South Africa. He’s afraid of flying,” Boone recalled.

Because of a scheduling change, Thornton never had to take Boone up on his pledge. “I’m disappointed it didn’t happen,” Boone said. “I was looking forward to spending time with this guy.”

Solomon didn’t forget the gesture, saluting the singer in the end credits.

Solomon’s struggle to make “Levity” symbolizes much of the frustration creative people feel in Hollywood. With corporate-run studios principally interested in easy-to-sell productions that rely on brand-name titles and A-list stars, screenwriters like Solomon are left to go the independent route if they want to make something less conventional.

When the chance came to write “Men in Black II,” he opted to focus on developing the more personal movie, “Levity.”

The idea originated when he was a college student and joined the UCLA Prison Coalition, tutoring teens in math and English at a maximum-security youth penitentiary. Although Solomon was only at the facility for a few weeks, he met a kid who had killed somebody and on his 18th birthday was transferred to the state prison for the rest of his life.

His experience shopping the script was a rude awakening, although he acknowledges, “It’s almost a cliched story. Everywhere I went, I said, ‘OK, I hear what you are saying, but this is the movie I really want to do’ and everybody passed on it. This went on about five years until I got the script to Billy Bob.”

But Solomon was not out of the woods. It wasn’t until two days before shooting commenced that the financing came together.

Comedian Garry Shandling, a longtime friend, said that when he first heard Solomon was making his directorial debut on a serious film, he was astonished but then realized it made perfect sense. “He is, in fact, a very serious, deep-thinking person, so his comedy comes from that,” Shandling said. “So, it’s not completely surprising that he would be able to write this kind of movie.”

Although making “Levity” had its frantic moments, Solomon said, studio blockbusters have drawbacks, too: He’s still waiting for his share of profits to trickle in from “Men in Black.”