Working with Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, and Joe Estevez on Flatland

Martin Sheen, the voice of A. Square in Flatland

Last week was a definitely a highlight in my film work. Once upon a time I made a “dream cast” list for the voices of Flatland: The Movie. I thought Martin Sheen would be perfect for the grandfatherly A. Square, Kristen Bell for his ever-curious granddaughter Hex, Joe Estevez for A. Square’s nervous brother, and Tony Hale for the narcisstic King of Pointland.

Tony Hale as the King Of Pointland, the ruler of a universe of zero dimensions.

Tony Hale as the King of Pointland, a Ton

Then one year later, I find myself in an Los Angeles studio directing all four of these actors. They showed up for this project with a passion. It’s doubly gratifying to know that even with our scant budget, they liked our script enough to team up on this bootstrap production. For a director who’s just a small-time guy in Austin, Texas, it’s a dream come true. This will definitely help take the FLATLAND film to the next level.

Kristen Bell and the director can’t help up but crack up at Tony Hale’s performance. Kristen plays Hex, the granddaughter of A. Square

Tony Hale is very difficult to work with, by the way. Why? He kept making all of us laugh so hard that I could barely splurt out "cut" over my laughter between takes. Even the audio engineer had to pick himself off the floor.

Joe Estevez reads lines back in a scene with Martin Sheen. Joe, who is Martin Sheen’s brother in real life, also plays his brother in the film Flatland.

Aside from my initial nervousness at working with such big "stars", I have to say that the experience whole production session was fun-- and not just for me, but clearly Martin, Kristen, Tony, Joe, Will Wallace, and all of us were having a really fun time turning this original concept Flatland into living characters. And that's the way all film productions should be.

Executive Producer and friend Will Wallace, man of many talents

Seth Caplan, Jeffrey Travis, and Dano Johnson, the creators of Flatland The Movie,
at POP Studios in Los Angeles