'Moose' the Movie opens Friday at Valley Cinema

WASILLA — After two years in the making, “Moose: The Movie” opens on the big screen at Coming Attractions Theatres’ Valley Cinema.

It all started with cartoonist, writer and producer Chad Carpenter’s six-hour drive home from Fairbanks.

Trying to kill time, his creative, comic nature kicked in, bringing images of killer ungulates and quirky, small-town characters to mind. Carpenter was so intrigued by these ideas, he called up his brother and fellow cartoonist, Darin Carpenter, and asked if he wanted to help write a screenplay.

When Darin agreed, Chad had no idea their story would end up in theaters.

“Originally it was just a little project that we were going to put on a DVD, at best,” Chad Carpenter said.

But director Logan Dellinger knew it was big.

“The original idea for this movie was way bigger than its budget,” he said.

Nevertheless, he was excited to take on the film. After graduating from Palmer High School in 2009, Dellinger spent two years in film school studying directing.

But “nothing happened after that,” he said. He had directed a few short films, but hadn’t caught the eye of any big-name professionals in the field.

“No one wants to give a young guy fresh out of film school a directing job,” Dellinger said.

Except Carpenter. Zack Lanphier, who plays Park Ranger Zack Del Pollo in Moose, connected Carpenter with the young men from what is now Sons of Winter Productions — Dellinger directs, Michael Heath does cinematography and Raymond R. “Chappy” Chapman acts as the key grip for Moose. Heath has worked on films with budgets as large as $10 million, and Chapman is often found behind and in front of a camera, as well as on YouTube as TheRedShed.

Although the members of the trio “all have different goals,” Dellinger said, collectively, they have the same mission: to make good films.

“We want to make it look as good as we can with the budget we have and the crew that we have,” he said, of Moose.

And apparently, it worked.

“It’s much more polished and refined than I ever thought it would be,” Carpenter said, of the movie.

But it only came together because Mat-Su residents agreed it would be a good idea.

Carpenter said there has been “nothing but advantages” to staying local.

“People that come and see it are gonna recognize their friends and family and see places that they know,” he said. “That makes it a lot more fun, and people can really identify with the stuff that’s going on in the movie itself.”

Moose has a cast, crew and marketing core of just 35 people (plus numerous extras for the town barbecue scene) but is much bigger in terms of community support. Teachers, advertisers, administrators, veterans, flight attendants, writers and actors — some of whom fall under more than one of those categories — have directly contributed to the local indie film. But they have also helped others contribute by the nature of their jobs, which connect each individual to hundreds more.

Take Lanphier, for example. A Palmer High School graduate who served two combat tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine, Lanphier is currently a Wasilla High School history teacher. He has also taken over sales, marketing and some of the writing for Carpenter’s “Tundra” comic strip. And, he’s a budding brewer at Bleeding Heart Brewery, a new business coming soon to the Mat-Su Valley.

Lanphier is one of the many who wear “pretty — I mean many — hats,” to quote Ranger Del Pollo.

Joining Lanphier in the Moose cast are Dave Nufer, Finger Lake Elementary School principal, as Ranger Mike Sezgrub; Chantel Grover, a Palmer High graduate, as librarian and coroner’s assistant Samantha Green; Chappy, also a Palmer High graduate, as Rupert and a member of the production crew; Valley Performing Arts veterans Sam Allred and Todd Broste as Norm and Wilfred; Shane and Wayne Mitchell, both founding members of TBA Theatre in Anchorage, as Doug and Monty; Frontiersman advertising executive AJ Seims as “Saltydough Dale;” 10-year Alaska resident Nate Nicholas as Geoff; retired Dillingham teacher Rod Mehrtens as Frank; lifelong Alaskan Cynthia M. Lee as Mrs. Stimple; Calvin Anderson as Stanley Stimple; Patty Taylor as Edna; Wasilla resident Roy Eason as the Moosetaur; Wasilla-grown Randall McNair as the Puppet Master; Buster Renshaw as the Puppet Guy; and Warren Foster, casting director and assistant director, as Adrian.

Professional talents from outside Alaska include Joseph R. LeCompte as Jed and Bartholomew, the “Guitar Hippy;” Tom Gammill, writer and producer of “The Simpsons,” as Ned Buckholtz; and “White Fang” actor Pius Savage as the prologue narrator.

Carpenter said there’s no planned sequel for Moose, but he would like to see another Alaskan-made movie. And if Moose goes the way his other projects have, he may get his wish.

“When I start something, it eventually gets bigger and bigger,” Carpenter said.

Showtimes are at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., April 24 through May 7 at The Valley Cinema, 3331 E. Old Matanuska Rd., Wasilla. “Moose: The Movie” is not yet rated but is family-friendly.

For more information, or to view a featurette, visit moosethemovie.com.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.