Filmmaker Jamie Sutor has been living in Los Angeles for seven years, but he’s a hometown boy. His hometown, Scranton, is the setting for his first feature film titled "Hometown Boys."
“There’s nowhere else in the world that feels like Scranton," Sutor said. "It has this, like, uncharacteristic magic to it. And I thought that the world should see that.”
He says the quarter-life crisis that inspired his flee from Scranton is the same thing the lead faces in his first feature film.
It’s an absurd and action-packed comedy, written and directed by Jamie.
“We wanted it to feel like a 90s heist movie," he said. "A movie that your dad would force you to watch on a rainy afternoon. So we tried to capture that sort of feeling of nostalgia.”
The lead character and his degenerate friends rob an adult entertainment store before he embarks on a journey to Florida.
The nearly ten-minute short that debuted this month was filmed in Los Angeles, where Sutor has been living since 2016.
But he wants to come back to provide his hometown as the backdrop for "Hometown Boys."
“I’m writing this script, and I’m writing all these cool places like The Bog, Buona Pizza, places like that," he said. "I want to be able to showcase how interesting this town is on a visual level.”
The main cast and crew will travel from the west coast, and Jamie says he’ll be casting the other roles locally.
“The first time I was ever on set was with Joe Van Wie, who is from Scranton," he said. "He was nice enough to have me on something he was producing in Scranton, and I learned a lot, it was a lot of fun. And I want to be able to do the same thing for others interested in filmmaking.”
At this stage, he’s working with a producer to finalize the script. Then, he would typically be pitching the story to production companies.
But the industry is at a standstill due to Hollywood writers and actors striking.
Because of this, Jamie says he will probably go the independent route. That means fundraising, which could take about a year.
Hometown Boys has gained notoriety already. The trailer has been screened at several film festivals and won awards that include best comedy and best director.
