St. Petersburg Times

The Orlando Sentinel & Central Florida Lake Sentinel

Film director's past worries school officials

St. Petersburg Times September 01, 2000, Friday, South Pinellas Edition Pg. 5B
Compiled from Times wires DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE; OCALA; MIAMI; PANAMA CITY

OCALA — School board members are upset they weren't told that a movie director who is making a low-budget horror film near two Marion County schools was a convicted child molester.

Members of the Marion County School Board had already agreed to let director Victor Salva and his film crew near Dunnellon Elementary and Dunnellon High School.

When they approved the contract, board members weren't told that Salva was a convicted child molester who once videotaped himself having oral sex with a 12-year-old actor in California.

Salva, sentenced to three years in state prison, served 15 months and completed parole in 1992.

Salva is filming a $ 10-million horror film titled Jeepers Creepers in Marion County.

Director's history causes controversy
DATELINE: DUNNELLON, Fla., Aug. 30

United Press International August 30, 2000, Wednesday GENERAL NEWS

Filming on a motion picture continues outside three Dunnellon, Fla., public schools although school officials have learned the director is a convicted sex offender.

Hopes of having students visit the set of "Jeepers Creepers" or serve as interns have been dropped since Victor Salva's past came to light.

The $10 million film is being produced by American Zoetrope, a company owned by famed director Francis Ford Coppola, who is serving as executive producer. Coppola is not expected to visit the set.

Salva was paroled in 1992 after serving 15 months of a three-year sentence for five felony counts based on sexual involvement with a 12-year-old boy in 1988. The boy appeared in a low-budget film he directed. Salva also directed "Powder," "Nature of the Beast," and "Rites of Passage." He has registered with police as a sex offender as required by Florida law.

Marion County school officials were not told about Salva's criminal record when location director Sue Gummerson negotiated payment for use of parts of a street ouside the elementary, middle and high schools.

Although the filming is being done largely at night, street closings have required rerouting school buses. An abandoned high school and rural areas will also be used as film locations.

"We have a drama department and we also have a TV production class," Dunnellon High School assistant principal Cynthia Saunders said. "We were talking about what could we get out of it educationally."

Once she learned of Salva's past, the idea of having students interact with the film crew was abandoned. On-set publicist Joe Hemingway said Salva has paid his debt to society and was focused on making the film. He said they never offered to have students on the set. The filming will take about two months.

LOW-BUDGET FILM PUTS OUT A CASTING CALL FOR EXTRAS

THE ORLANDO SENTINEL August 19, 2000 Saturday, CENTRAL FLORIDA LAKE SENTINEL; Pg. 2

OCALA — Would-be actors and actresses in the area can sign up today as extras for a low-budget thriller being filmed locally.

An open casting call for extras in Jeepers Creepers is set for 9 a.m. to noon at the Ocala Holiday Inn on West Silver Springs Boulevard.

The pay is $5.75 an hour, and prospective extras are asked to bring a recent photograph of themselves as well as a pen or pencil.

Filmmakers said they are looking for all types of people to play, among other parts, dinner patrons (individuals and families with school-age children), police officers and jail inmates.

The movie, which will feature two unknowns, Gina Phillips and Justin Long, in the leading roles, is expected to be shooting in Lake and Marion counties for the next couple of months.

The film is directed by Victor Salva, who directed Powder. Salva became the center of controversy when that film opened in 1995 because of his having served 15 months in prison in the early 1990s for having sex with an underage boy.

Jeepers Creepers is being produced for American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola's production company. It is the first in a series of low-budget movies Zoetrope is doing for MGM-UA.

Articles related to Disney's hiring of convicted child molester, Victor Salva to direct the film Powder are here.