Area Native Hopes to Avoid Director’s Cut in Fox Film Competition

by Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Andrew Hunt, a native of West Alexander, Washington County, is blissfully unaware of the show’s status, as producers have kept contestants sequestered from outside knowledge of the tepid reaction to the show. Tonight he’s one of five aspiring filmmakers on the chopping block; one will be sent home.

Last week Hunt, who attended McGuffey High School in Claysville and graduated from the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, debuted the short film “Polished,” which he made for about $500 in February in Minneapolis, where he works in on-air video promotions for ShopNBC. On “On the Lot” last week, reaction to the movie — about a janitor who gets back at co-workers who ignore him by waxing the floor to a slickness that causes them to fall — was mostly positive. Hunt said he thought it was the best movie he’d ever made.

Carrie Fisher, the actress-writer who is one of three judges, said, “Vengeance is for people who haven’t the patience for karma. I thought it was like a little silent film.”

Judge David Frankel, a director (“Sex and the City,” “The Pennsylvania Miners’ Story”), said it wasn’t Hunt’s best film and complained it suffered from a slow beginning, prompting boos from the studio audience. But director Garry Marshall, the third judge, said “Polished” was polished.

Viewers were encouraged to call in and vote for their favorites. Hunt will learn his fate tonight.

“Everybody’s got an opinion,” Hunt said by phone from Los Angeles yesterday. “It felt like I got a really good reaction from the audience. I appreciate the judge’s opinions, but I’m more interested in what the audience thinks of my movies than what three industry folks do.”

If Hunt survives tonight’s elimination, he’ll get to start making short movies for upcoming “On the Lot” competitions in Los Angeles with a Hollywood crew.