Can Utah can be a wholesome Hollywood?

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Halestorm begins its foray into the mainstream with the upcoming release “Church Ball,” a farce about how viciously competitive Mormon church basketball leagues can be. It has a more recognizable cast, including Fred Willard and Gary Coleman, and the religious denomination of the church players is obscured.

Halestorm deserves a lot of credit for finding and developing a niche market, said Jason E. Squire, an instructor of cinema practice at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television.

He said such films as “Napoleon Dynamite and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” are examples of how to break out of that niche while trying to maintain a certain ethic. “It doesn’t matter what kind of movie it is. What matters is capturing the audience’s imagination,” he said.

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Other filmmakers who have ties to Halestorm, and like Hale and Hunter were in the film program at church-owned Brigham Young University, have gone on to their own successes outside of strictly Mormon plot lines.

Ryan Little was a director of photography for many of the Halestorm movies and struck out on his own to direct “Saints and Soldiers” in 2003. The film about a band of World War II soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge had some critical success, including awards at some small film festivals and being nominated for an Independent Spirit award.

Little is currently filming an adventure film called “The Outlaw Trail.” The movie follows a young boy who has inherited a belt buckle that belonged to Butch Cassidy.

The director said his goals are to make movies families can enjoy together and help build the film community in the state.

While Utah has lured filmmakers to its scenic vistas since the days of the spaghetti western, it’s never fully capitalized on its proximity to Los Angeles, less than two hours away by plane.

Utah lawmakers are considering increasing incentives to entice more production companies.

Mormon-genre films have made their mark on the Utah Film Commission’s revenues, bringing in $500,000 in 2001 and more than $2 million last year, said commission director Aaron Syrett. But that’s still a fraction of the more than $60 million the commission sees annually from filming in the state.

Mark DeCarlo, the host of the Travel Channel’s “Taste of America” program and the star of Halestorm’s current release “Mobsters and Mormons,” said he enjoyed working in Utah and was charmed by the “good, honest people” he met on the set. But to lure more productions, local filmmakers need to have a more Hollywood-like professionalism, he said.

“They use a lot of friends and favors,” DeCarlo said. “In order for it to really compete with Hollywood you need a professional class of person both in front of and behind the scenes.”

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