In the movies, asking the mayor of a city to leave office isn’t a far-fetched storyline.
In this story, the mayor gladly obliged, saying he did it to improve the city’s future economic development prospects and to allow the moviemakers to showcase Dover.
More than 30 actors, crew members and volunteers were in Dover through the weekend and on Monday to shoot scenes for director Terrance Tykeem’s movie about the aftermath of white police officers involved in the shooting a young black man.
While it went unnoticed during the weekend, the winter storm that affected much of the state on Saturday forced film crews to take over the mayor’s office and City Hall on Monday as well, causing some to wonder what was taking place.
Tykeem agreed, saying he was told by a friend that Dover had the perfect city hall for the movie he was thinking about shooting. Once he scouted the city, he knew he would be back.
The shooting schedule was fast-paced, according to Christiansen, with scenes being shot at the Dover Public Library on Friday and City Hall for 13 hours on Sunday and 12 hours on Monday.
The film, which stars Vivica A. Fox of "Independence Day" and "Kill Bill" fame and Michael Paré, who starred in "Eddie and the Cruisers," "The Philadelphia Experiment" and "Streets of Fire" in his early career, takes place in a small, predominantly black town.
The story follows a 12-year-old African-American boy named Jason McKey, whose black schoolmate is shot by white police officers. After realizing that marches and protests can’t change what seems to be a national epidemic, the young boy approaches his uncle – who is best friends with the city manager – to see if he can help him present a letter to the city council.
In Jason’s letter is an extremely controversial solution to these murders, says the movie’s director.
“It is a last resort to stopping the unjustified killings, all of which have gone unpunished,” Tykeem says in the movie’s synopsis.
The Philadelphia director says the movie is based on happenings pulled from the headlines and scenes that have played out across the nation the past few years showing white police officers shooting black males.
He said that when he received a letter from a boy in Ferguson, Missouri, after the Michael Brown shooting, he knew he had the basis of his movie.
Tykeem’s last project was called “Touched” and dealt with the issue of child abuse. The 2014 movie starred Stephen Baldwin and was shown on Lifetime a year ago.
The writer and director of “Jason’s Letter” said that USA, Showtime, TNT and Viacom all expressed interest in the movie. He said the project is currently self-funded because none of the larger studios could guarantee funds for the movie until March. He's still hoping for the movie to be released later this year.
Philadelphia native Jamal Manigault, who plays Jason in the movie, said he was happy to be a part of a project that focused on such an important issue. He said the killings need to stop and that if this movie can help, all the better.
On a lighter note, Manigault said that he enjoyed his time in Dover and that the people he met, especially the mayor, were nice and accommodating.
Dover, the film capital of Delaware?
Christiansen gives City of Dover Public Affairs and Emergency Management Coordinator Kay Sass all the credit for bringing Tykeem and his production company to Dover and taking care of all the details. She said it wasn’t the first time a movie was shot in Dover.
Sass, who has worked with the city for more than 10 years, recalls the time artist and activist Henry Rollins stopped in Dover in 2012 as part of his spoken-word tour called “Capitalism.” She said that while it wasn’t as large a production as she saw in recent days, it did bring positive attention to Dover.