arts & life
film
reel!'
Picklish
A Jewish bubbie's
pickle recipe is the
star of a Michigan-
made movie.
Celebrity Jews
Nate Bloom
Special to the
Jewish News
AT THE MOVIES
Opening this week: Jurassic
World is the
long-delayed
fourth entry in
the Jurassic
Park series.
World is
produced
by Steven
Spielberg,
Trevorrow
40 June 11 • 2015
icicles happen to be at
the center of a com-
edy filmed over the past
month around Metro Detroit.
But it could've been lasagna
or pierogi that supplied the pivot
point for this story about how
multigenerational family dys-
function plays out. In this case,
it happens to be the Glickmans
of Detroit, and its milestones
include a wedding and bat mitz-
vah. Keep an eye out for scenes
shot at Temple Shir Shalom and
Clover Hill Park Cemetery.
"It's a universal story:' says
Sheldon Cohn, a former ad exec
who wrote the screenplay with
Gary Wolfson, his former col-
league at Doner. The pair racked
up a lot of awards with ads for
the Detroit Zoo, Little Caesars
and Serta Mattress while they
worked in advertising, and con-
tinued late-night brainstorming
sessions well beyond their two-
decade tenures at the agency.
About five years ago, they
were tossing around ideas when
Wolfson mentioned his Russian
grandmother's kosher pickles,
and his father's short-lived deli,
which went bankrupt thanks to
mismanagement by a nudnik
relative.
"I remember these amazing
pickles:' rhapsodized Wolfson of
Bloomfield Hills. "My grandma
[Libby Wolfson] went to her
grave with [the recipe]. I would
kill for her pickles."
His memory became the basis
for the script of The Pickle Recipe,
in which the Glickmans run
a deli that is famous for Rose
Glickman's pickles. Cohn and
Wolfson began the long process
of talking friends and family into
giving them money, tapped into
film incentives from the state
and set to making a comedy
(with heart, of course) — their
first feature-length film. Both
serve as producers along with
Jason Potash and Paul Finkel of
Storyboard Entertainment.
They spent each day on set at
locations that included Hygrade
Deli, owned by Stuart Litt, on
a deserted stretch of Michigan
Avenue in Detroit, transformed
into "Irv's Deli." The film was
shot in 22 days, wrapping up this
week, with a budget well under
$10 million.
"This is a metaphor; says
Wolfson, watching the action on
the set on a monitor behind "Irv's
Deli" on a recent Wednesday
afternoon. "This is about people
and the ingredients of their lives,
people who aren't together at
first, but come together in the
end."
Cohn of West Bloomfield says
the film is "an extension of what
we've done for 30 years:' minus
the stopwatches, product shots
and clients. He's been making
promotional videos for various
organizations, including Yeshiva
68, who directed the first two
Jurassic movies. The screen-
play was co-written by Colin
Trevorrow, 38, Amanda Silver,
52, Rick Jaffa, 53, and Derek
Connolly. Silver, who is Jewish,
and Jaffa (who has some
remote Jewish ancestry), have
been married for 25 years
and have two children. (The
family are regular synagogue-
goers.) The couple scored big
as the co-writers of the two
most recent hit Planet of the
Apes movies. However, this is
Trevorrow's first outing as the
director of a big studio movie
– he earned this gig follow-
ing critical acclaim of his indie
films. Trevorrow's mother is
Jewish, and his maternal grand-
mother came from a long line
of Sephardi Jews who settled
in the Caribbean centuries
ago. The director's parents
run a California horse ranch
that bears his maternal grand-
mother's maiden name (Rancho
Toledano) and raises Paso Finos,
a breed that originated in the
Caribbean.
The plot of the new Jurassic
film is predictable: Fast-forward
to the present day and the
new owners of the park think
they can run a tropic island
Julie Edgar
Special to the Jewish News
Gary Wolfson, left, and Sheldon Cohn on the set of their film,
The Pickle Recipe
Beth Yehudah, and knocking
around ideas for a film.
"This thing has gone through
many variations. If you saw our
first script, you wouldn't rec-
ognize it. But it's still about a
pickle he says.
The Pickle Recipe features
a pretty impressive cast — all
approved by Cohn and Wolfson.
Lynn Cohen, who many remem-
ber as Miranda's housekeeper
Magda on Sex and the City TV
series and who appeared in
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
and dozens of other films, plays
Rose Glickman, award-winning
pickle maker; Oscar-nominee
David Paymer (Mr. Saturday
Night, Payback, Get Shorty) plays
her son Morty, who schemes to
get the recipe; and Jon Dore, a
Canadian actor/comedian (Inside
Amy Schumer, Kroll Show) plays
her hapless party-MC grandson
Joey. Most of the remaining cast
members and crew are locals.
Michael Manasseri of
Rochester, who heads Made in
Michigan Films and who honed
his acting and directing chops in
LA before returning to Michigan
to take advantage of the state's
film incentives, is directing.
He said the film has a Meet the
Parents vibe. The actors are great,
but "when the writing is good,
you don't have to act."
Cohn again points to its uni-
versality.
park where humans can safely
view genetically engineered
dinosaurs. But something goes
terribly wrong and the park's
operations manager (Bryce
Dallas Howard) and others have
to contain the dinosaurs before
they can cause more damage.
The film Me and Earl and the
Dying Girl (opening June 26 at
the Maple Theater in Bloomfield
Hills) is based on 33-year-old
Jesse Andrews' young-adult
bestselling novel of the same
name. The story is narrated by
Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), a
Jewish high-school senior who
stays aloof from most people
– even labeling his African-
American friend Earl, with
whom he does comedic routines,
as a more of a co-worker than
a friend. This changes when his
mother nags him into spending
time with Rachel (Olivia Cooke),
a high-school classmate who
has just been diagnosed with
terminal leukemia. Greg and
Rachel have history: They were
in the same Hebrew school class
(around age 12). Greg thought if
he flirted with Rachel, the class'
"hot girl" would notice him.
(The film's trailer establishes
that Rachel remains a Jewish
character. It's unclear if Greg