The Ultimate Gift
Source: Salisbury Post
Article By: Katie Scarvey
Date: November 27, 2005

You may have noticed the signs around town that said TUG and wondered: What's a tug?

TUG, it turns out, stands for "The Ultimate Gift," and the signs were pointing toward the Hefner V.A. Medical Center, where "The Ultimate Gift" — a major motion picture — was shooting in Salisbury for four days last week.

The film, which began production Oct. 14, follows a spoiled young man, Jason, as he completes a year-long series of 12 tasks, or "gifts," before he can get the inheritance his grandfather has left him.

Directed by Michael O. Sajbel ("One Night with the King," "The Ride,"), the independent film is produced by Rick Eldridge and John Shepherd (producers of the award-winning "Bobby Jones — Stroke of Genius"), along with Cleve Landsberg ("Bruce Almighty").

"The Ultimate Gift" features a number of easily recognized names: James Garner, Brian Dennehey and Lee Merriwether.

The film also features several up-and-coming actors, including Drew Fuller ("Charmed"), Ali Hillis ("Must Love Dogs," "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang") and Abigail Breslin ("Signs") — all of whom were in scenes shot in Salisbury.

Although Hillis now lives in Los Angeles, she's a Charlotte native who still has family and friends in the Queen City.

A theatre graduate of East Carolina University, Hillis' first love was musical theatre. She went head to head with Debbie Gibson for the role of Belle in the Broadway production of "Beauty and the Beast."

When that didn't pan out, Hillis chose a different route: television and film.

It didn't take her long to land her first television role on the show "Law and Order" with Benjamin Bratt (who starred with Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality").

"He's awesome," she says.

She recently shot "American Gun" with Donald Sutherland and Marcia Gay Harden, due to be released early in 2006.

Hillis returned recently from the island of Malta, where she spent several months shooting the thriller "Godspeed," the story of six people on a yacht who become stranded in the water when they forget to put the ladder down.

After spending about 10 hours a day submerged in water for that role, she was an emotional and physical wreck, she says, and wanted nothing more than to spend a month with family and friends in Charlotte.

She managed just four days in Charlotte while she waited to get her hands on the script of "The Ultimate Gift." She never received it, so she flew back to L.A.

Once there, she realized the script was waiting at her house. She liked it and auditioned.

After she got the part, she was thrilled to discover that she'd get her 30 days in Charlotte — to shoot "The Ultimate Gift."

She was even happier to realize that the screenplay writer was her old friend, Cheryl McKay, with whom she had been in the Children's Theatre of Charlotte ensemble company in the 1980s.

McKay has long since given up acting.

"I'm the actress who wanted to be in the background," she says. "I loved performing, but I didn't want to be in the spotlight."

McKay left Charlotte for the West coast six years ago. Now, as a California writer, she's back in North Carolina.

She likes the irony.

"I had to go to Hollywood to make it in Charlotte," she says, laughing.

McKay was on the set in Salisbury Friday — sitting in a chair with her name on it — wearing jeans and a black ball cap backwards, watching her first feature film being made.

On the set, she's there "to watch and stay out of the way."

Watching the film being made has been "an awesome experience," she says.

After his son introduced him to the book, Rick Eldridge bought the film rights and approached McKay about writing the screenplay.

From the outset, she was drawn to the book's message of human transformation and knew she wanted to be part of the project.

Writing the screenplay, she says, has been the best job she's ever had. Turning over the script that she'd spent nine months writing was "like giving up a child for adoption."

"I love to write things that are appropriate for family, things with heart," she says.

One important theme, she says, is that life is precious, that each day is a gift.

The other theme has to do with how we grow as a result of life's trials, and how we should appreciate those trials as opportunities.

In the movie, Hillis is a mother facing one of life's most difficult trials. Playing Alexia, a mother with a critically ill child, has been an emotional experience for the beautiful young actress, who says part of her challenge was to "find the levels of letting go" of a dying child, despite not having the experience of being a mother. One of the film's wardrobe women had lost a child, she said, and listening to her describe the experience helped Hillis understand what going through such a tragedy might feel like.

Bonding with her young co-star, Abigail Breslin, has also helped Hillis fully inhabit her role.

The two have spent a lot of time together off the set, shopping and going out to dinner; as a result, their on-screen relationship feels natural to Hillis.

She also gets to have an on-screen relationship with Drew Fuller, the rather extravagantly good-looking young actor who plays Jason.

It's not surprising to learn that Fuller used to model for Prada and Tommy Hilfiger.

Since age 13, however, Fuller has wanted to act, and everything he's done professionally since then has been a progression toward that goal, he says.

He's excited about playing Jason, a role that allows him to play a broad range of emotions.

"I loved the script right away," he says. "I told my manager that I had to be a part of it."

Such a meaty role must seem particularly gratifying since Fuller was basically out of work for about a year after his role as Chris Perry on the WB series "Charmed" ended.

As an actor, "you have to learn rejection early on," he says, and be prepared to deal with the inevitable failures.

Being out of work caused "a little panic" and some insecurity.

"It was very humbling, but maybe a necessary lesson," he says.

Fuller is on something of a hot streak these days.

He recently finished filming "Final Contract," which was distributed all over Europe and which will appear on Spike TV.

He's grateful for everything that comes his way, he says. Not working "puts things into perspective" and makes it less likely that he'll get too full of himself.

"I don't want to be a prima donna," he says, as the makeup artist dabs his face before a scene.

Then, with a comic's timing, he yells, "STOP IT!", throwing a pretend tantrum.

Being in North Carolina is a new experience for the lifelong left-coaster. He loves the idea of four distinct seasons, and he appreciates the friendliness of the people around here.

"Everybody waves," he says, as though describing some strange tribal custom.

Hillis agrees, and offers a story about how her mother in Charlotte got mad at her father for not waving back at someone who had waved at them as they were driving.

Despite a grueling film schedule, Fuller has gotten to see a Panthers game and seen a NASCAR race. Other firsts are food from Cracker Barrel and Bojangles (Hillis informs him that the accent is on the "Bo"). He hasn't, however, tried Cheerwine. ("What's that?")

He says he loves how clean the air is around here, which causes a few eyebrows to go up. Hillis points out that for him, Los Angeles is the yardstick.

"The Ultimate Gift," which just wrapped up 30 days of shooting, was filmed at various locations in the Carolinas, including the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens.

"The Ultimate Gift" followed on the heels of another motion picture shooting in North Carolina this fall, the as-yet untitled Will Ferrell NASCAR comedy.

That project also used the Hefner V.A. Medical Center as a location in October.

Eldridge, the executive producer of "The Ultimate Gift," says that the hospital's accessibility makes it a desirable film location.

North Carolina is the third or fourth most productive state for film in the country, says Eldridge, who owns the Film Foundry in Charlotte.

Production companies are being lured to the state because of an attractive incentive program: projects spending at least $250,000 in North Carolina are eligible for tax credits equal to 15 percent of the spending, up to a maximum of $7.5 million.

The Will Ferrell movie, shot mostly in Charlotte, was the first to take advantage of that, Eldridge said.

He believes the incentives will continue to have a big effect on the state's economy.

"It will bring dollars into the state that wouldn't be here," he says.