Weaver's immigrant tale transformed into new movie

Last fall, film maker Ali Selim called Bemidji State University faculty member and author Will Weaver, whom he had met 10 years earlier when he bought movie rights to Weaver's short story, "A Gravestone Made of Wheat."

"He asked if my agent had told me 'A Gravestone Made of Wheat' was finally going to be made into a movie," said Weaver, who had not heard about the project. "He indicated that it was, and by the way, shooting was to begin on Monday."

That set in motion a month of activity around Montevideo, Minn. A crew and cast of 60 assembled in the southeastern Minnesota town with a production schedule of six days per week and 12 hours per day.

The film, tentatively titled, "A Wedding Photo," is an adaptation of Weaver's story about faith and commitment as a Norwegian immigrant farmer and his mail-order German bride struggle to find love in post-World War I in Minnesota. Scenes from the movie move back and forth from the 1920s to 1968 and to the present.

Although the independent film has a budget of just over $1 million, it attracted a big-name cast that includes Alex Kingston (ER), Alan Cumming (Spy Kids, X-Men 2, 3), Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Showboat), Tim Guinee (Ladder 49), John Heard (Home Alone 1, 2), and Elizabeth Reasor (The Mind Gap).

Author Will Weaver on front steps at movie production site in Montevideo, Minnesota.

Author Will Weaver visited the movie production site in Montevideo where his story was adapted for a new movie.

The script expanded Weaver's 25-page short story to a 130-page script. That process was quite different than the last film produced from Weaver's writing. "Red Earth, White Earth" was a full-length book that found its story compressed to fit a made-for-TV format.

Weaver wrote "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" after he returned from studies on the West Coast and was teaching at Bemidji State. A native of Park Rapids, he had finished a master's degree at Stanford University and found a way back to his Minnesota roots by writing fiction.

"I was happy that Selim bought the film rights," Weaver said. "He has a reputation of doing worthwhile, high-quality work. I felt 'Gravestone' was in good hands."

Selim, who built his experience around commercial film assignments in the Twin Cities, has moved to longer projects.

Weaver spent time in Montevideo and even earned a non-speaking part as a local farmer. The scenes were realistic for the 1920s. The town of Montevideo included an historic Milwaukee Road depot and nearby were Chippewa Pioneer Village sites, Heritage Hill with antique farm machinery and the Swensson Farm Museum.

The film is now in the post-production stage, with release planned sometime in 2005.