Observer Reporter: Hunt hopes “On The Lot” role leads to Filmmaking Deal…

Observer Reporter – Washington, PA

West Alexander native Andrew Hunt got married on April 28 and promptly quit speaking to his new bride. No, there wasn’t some skeleton that came rattling out of the closet or a cataclysmic honeymoon spat. Hunt had to leave wedded bliss in Minneapolis and take up residence in a secluded Hollywood bungalow as one of the contestants on the Fox-TV reality series “On the Lot.”

“It’s like a college dorm,” Hunt said on the phone last week.

“On the Lot” pits a handful of aspiring filmmakers against one another in order to win a $1 million movie development deal with the studio Dreamworks. The executive producers are Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, the creator of “Survivor.” It airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. and is carried in the Pittsburgh region on WPGH-TV.

Hunt was the president of his class when he attended McGuffey High School and was “really trying hard for class clown.” He transferred to the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts for his senior year and followed that with a stint at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

More recently, Hunt has been in charge of promotional spots of the Shop NBC home shopping channel, which is based in a Minneapolis suburb. It’s a steady paycheck, to be sure, but Hunt still aspires to be a feature filmmaker like his influences David Mamet and the late Bob Fosse.

Hunt vaulted past 12,000 other contestants to land a spot on the program after submitting one of his short films. Like “American Idol,” the aspiring filmmakers on “On the Lot” get advice from a panel of judges that includes actress Carrie Fisher and director Garry Marshall. One of his other short films, “Spaced Out,” which has space aliens vomiting on a police officer, is posted on the You Tube web site (www.youtube.com) and on the program’s web site (www.the lot.com).

And like “American Idol,” contestants stay in the mix or get the boot on the basis of votes from viewers. They can vote by telephone, text message or through the “On the Lot” Web site.

As long as he’s on the program, Hunt will remain sequestered “Survivor”-style with the other contestants. There have been a few field trips to, not surprisingly, a multiplex, where Hunt and his cohorts have seen the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, “Knocked Up” and “Disturbia.”

“It’s kind of like prison, really,” Hunt explained. “Because you don’t know what’s going on in the world You can’t pick up a magazine, you can’t watch TV, which I think is great. I really don’t want to know what’s going on in the world right now. I’m just more focused on making movies.”

Whether he wins or loses, Hunt knows that he will gain a measure of exposure thanks to “On the Lot.” If he is ever able to sit in a director’s chair, he wants to helm comedies that will place a premium on accessibility and entertainment – among his ideas are a story built around Bigfoot and bank robbers, and a superhero saga set in Pittsburgh.

Despite listing heavy-hitters like Mamet and Fosse among his influences, Hunt doesn’t have aspirations to direct heavy-going fare or costume dramas, so anyone thinking of sending him an adaptation of a Eugene O’Neill play or an E.M. Forster novel should probably not waste the envelope.

“I’m not an artsy-fartsy filmmaker,” he said. “I’m not trying to change the world by making a movie. I want to make people laugh, and maybe, make people think a little bit too.”