As a former English teacher, Brian Barsuglia has often been irked by the liberties movies take with original printed stories.
In his view, one of the most consistently abused has been Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which has been adapted more than 120 times for film and stage.
Among Barsuglia’s complaints are the filmmakers’ insistence in adding love interests, creating nonexistent characters and centering on Jekyll and Hyde rather than the story’s narrator, Gabriel John Utterson.
“They make it a monster. It’s not,” said Barsuglia, 45, who helps head up the Film and Media Arts program at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana. “It’s more of a crime drama.”
So the educator took it upon himself to make what he calls a “teachable film” that hews closely to the original tale about a London lawyer in Victorian England, who investigates strange occurrences involving his friend Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the sinister and mysterious Edward Hyde.
The movie, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” is the Saturday night feature film in the 12th annual SoCal Film Festival in Huntington Beach at the Central Library.
The festival runs three days, Thursday through Saturday, and includes four feature films and 40 shorts and documentaries, chosen from about 400 entries. Guy Davis, the festival director, said he wanted to spotlight Huntington Beach and chose films by local filmmakers: “Occupants,” directed by Russ Emanuel, to open and Barsuglia’s movie as the closer.
“I really want to make this festival about Huntington Beach,” said Davis, adding he is negotiating with the city and local groups to forge closer ties.
Davis said he also made sure to hire local companies for festival-related materials, such as Awards and Trophies Company of Fountain Valley.
In addition, the festival includes 18 films featuring women as either directors or main characters.
“I think it’s incumbent on me to increase representation of women and minorities,” said Davis, himself an independent filmmaker. “There are a lot of great independent films that just don’t get seen.”
Huntington Beach is a fitting location for the film’s festival debut. Barsuglia is a Huntington Beach resident and stars David Beatty, who plays Utterson, is a Surf City native and Ocean View High grad. Shaun Piccinino, the bedeviled Dr. Jekyll, is a long-time local resident. Also taking a turn in the film is Sierra Barsuglia, a student at Dwyer Middle School and the director’s daughter.
In addition, many of the movie’s exterior London scenes were shot at Huntington Beach’s Old World Village in 2014.
Despite a budget of less than $100,000, the movie is notable as the late Mickey Rooney’s last film, and for the appearance of Margaret O’Brien, who performs alongside Barsuglia’s daughter.
Barsuglia spent 15 days shooting the film and more than two years in production of the movie, 60 percent of which was shot in front of green screen special effects.
Clearly, one of the highlights for the director and crew was having Rooney, who appeared in more than 300 movies dating back to silent films, in for the first day of shooting. Rooney plays a small role as Mr. Louis, who runs a house of debauchery favored by Mr. Hyde. Rooney died two months later, in April 2014, in his sleep.
Barsuglia said the actors and staff were thrilled to work with Rooney.
“His main advice was ‘get a good lawyer,’” Barsuglia said.
The film was the fourth for Barsuglia, who worked in production houses in Hollywood. In 2007 he made “Zombie Farm,” not to be confused with the game for android and iPhones, which tells the story of inbred cannibal farmers turned into zombies after the Taliban poison the local water supply.
With the adaptation of Stevenson’s classic, Barsuglia is pivoting toward more literate fare in keeping with his teaching.
His next project, he hopes, will be a version of William Shakespeare’s “MacBeth.”
The film festival opens with “Occupants,” directed by Emmanuel. A darling of the independent film circuit, propelled in part by winning the award for Best Sci-Fi feature at the 16th annual Shriekfest in Los Angeles, the movie represents a kind of homecoming for Emanuel.
The film, not to be confused with 2014’s “The Occupants,” or “Occupant,” the film has been included in 30 festivals and helped Emanuel pick up two more directorial gigs. The movie co-star Robert Picardo is well-known as a hologram doctor on the Star Trek: Voyagers series. His appearance has helped the movie cross over into comic conventions.
“Occupants” tells the story of a documentary filmmaker and her husband who set up cameras in their home for a project, but soon realize they are watching themselves in a parallel universe.
The movie has begun its own journey into parallel universes with a comic book tie-in and creation of a faux website based on a company represented in the movie. Oh, and there’s a sequel in the works.
Emanuel, meanwhile, still seems amazed by the recognition the film has garnered and the doors it is opening.
However, he says, being invited to present at Huntington Beach was high on his wish list.
“For me, it’s very special,” he said of being included in the SoCal Festival. “To get one where I live is very special for me.”
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