Area rabbits to co-star with ‘Brady’ mom Florence Henderso
His acting career is a few days old, but already Checkers is robbing the show.
The seven-month-old Mini-Lop rabbit from Zeeland’s Critter Barn landed a role in HoneyCreek Pictures’ feature film “The Bunny Lady” and quickly began showing off his star qualities.
“The bunny has been great,” said Tom Seidman, the film’s writer, director and producer. “We shot some stuff with the bunny (Monday) and the bunny did some things that nobody expected him to that were absolutely amazing.
“He started pushing some blocks around with his nose and we got it (on film),” he added. “Some of the girls in the crew were squealing, they were so delighted.”
Checkers was actually cast since the backup to Hopscotch, a 3-year-old Mini-Lop female, also in the Critter Barn. Critter Barn Director Mary Rottschafer said the 2 animals have nearly identical colorings and markings, so that it is hard to tell them apart.
Seidman, a West Michigan native, is the veteran of several well-known movies. He was the assistant director for Peter Weir’s “The Dead Poet’s Society” and Clint Eastwood’s “Honky Tonk Man,” and he also done “Reds,” “Rich and Famous” and “Ordinary People.”
“The Bunny Lady” stars former “ Brady Bunch” mom Florence Henderson as an older woman who runs a rabbit rescue. She becomes a friend and mentor to a young girl who has found a lost bunny.
Seidman said it is a Christmas story, and expects it to be released around Christmas 2010.
Though the film isn’t set in West Michigan or written about West Michigan, Seidman said it is influenced by West Michigan sensibilities. Once the vision for the story developed in his head, he knew the perfect house to use because the Bunny Lady’s home.
“I have a very old friend (in Grandville) who’s wife is an artist who created this amazing, interesting environment inside the old farmhouse they live in,” Seidman said. “She and the house really inspired the main home and the character of the film.”
As he began scouting West Michigan last fall for the right locations for shooting, Seidman met rabbit breeder Mark Schoenborn, who is also on the Critter Barn’s board of directors.
Seidman found the Critter Barn facilities and the farm animals met his needs perfectly.
“It was huge that we had rabbits and animals that were hand-friendly and used to being around people,” Seidman said. “And Mary also has a big empty section in one of her barns where we were able to create our bunny wonderland. Bunnyland we call it.”
The cast and crew will be at Critter Barn sometime next week to shoot the scenes, and the farm will be closed to the public the day of the shooting.
“It’s just been a fun little thing,” Rottschafer said. “I haven’t said too much to anybody. It’s a little premature.”
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