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Palm Beach Post
Film Dream Come True for Lake Worth Man
An Offbeat Comedy
Louie the Crab Incident now a Movie
By ANGELA BRADBURY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
John Jackson was alarmed when he was warned not to bring his briefcase on the small plane he chartered to use in his movie, Louie The Crab: A Serious Comedy.
Too heavy, he was told. Thing probably weighs at least 8 or 10 pounds, they said. With all the camera equipment; the plane might not make it into the air.
Jackson opted to shoot. the scene on the ground, with someone shaking the plane to make the scene look real.
He's really proud it looks as authentic, as it does. So began the making of an offbeat movie based on the commotion caused .by a giant crab balloon that was draped over
Trader Jack's Crab House & Pub in West Palm Beach last year.
The crab attracted excessive media attention, the wrath of city code officials and the mirth of the West Palm Beach City Commission, which declared the crab an honorary
‘citizen’ after several dozen people picketed City Hall.
The crab arrived again Oct. 12, and once again, the city cited the restaurant for violating the sign code, which prohibits balloons. -
“Louie” is to have its first public showing Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Cross County Eight Theaters at 4356 Okeechobee Blvd., in connection with the Fort Lauderdale
Film Festival. Earlier this year, the movie won a Florida Motion Picture and Television Association Crystal Reel Award for acting and directing.
Jackson is a 34-year-old alarm salesman who says he has always dreamed of making a movie. He has written several screenplays, none of which has sold. He got the
inspiration for Louie when he was driving down 1-95 and he heard about the picket on the radio.
That night, Jackson rented camera equipment (everyone at the shop howled when after it was assembled, he asked how to use it) and the next day was at the airport to
shoot his first scene. Jackson, who lives in Lake Worth, directed and produced Louie.
The movie includes scenes from the protest, the city commission chambers and several newscasts. It was filmed in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale.
The 99-minute movie was made with less than $150,000
most of which was obtained after Jackson refinanced three properties and borrowed money from friends, family and a .neighbor, he said. Jackson said he often woke up at 3 a.m. to work out details.
The film was shot over six weeks, mainly on weekends, until Jackson ran out of money and wrapped up with what footage he had. The cast consisted of about 20 people,
including Jackson's wife, Claire, and dog, Jasper.
Extras were whoever happened to be around when the cameras arrived. Jackson made up the plot as he went along.
The movie resembles a home video, with some scenes shot at odd angles and a sound track occasionally overpowering the dialogue. Because there was no script, the
dialogue is improvised.
"If you take into consideration what he had to work with, it was very good," said Roberta McElroy, local membership chairman of the Florida Motion Picture and
Television Association.
In Louie, the CIA and FBI investigate the crab picket because they believe it is a cover for a more sinister political movement.
Jackson plays a CIA agent named John Jackson sent from Washington, DC, to team up with an older and wiser West Palm Beach-based FBI agent named Jim Atkins, played by
local resident Jim Atkins.
The tangled plot includes a wealthy Libyan with ties to Moammar Gadhafi, a deadly chase on a cruise ship, a car crash and the theft of a yacht. It's all very tenuously
linked to the crab through the premise that all this is part of the sinister movement behind the picket. It doesn't always make sense and isn't always funny. But it has its moments.
In one scene, Jackson and Atkins crawl into the crab through holes that had been torn by a real-life vandal Dec. 5. The slashing made the news the next day and prompted
Trader Jack's owners to call the police.
It makes one wonder if the mysterious vandalism wasn't so mysterious after all.
Jackson laughs and happily admits he's the prime suspect. He artfully dodges questions ("Do I look like the kind of guy who would slash a crab?") and says
it's more fun to keep people guessing.
Jackson went to Hollywood in February and managed to sell the rights to the movie to companies from New Zealand and Mexico. Hollywood producers complained that it had
no sex and wasn't mainstream enough, Jackson said.
Jackson is now developing a crab-related trivia game (Q: "What West Palm Beach City Commissioner appears in Louie?" A: John "Jeff" Koons) to
be played wherever the movie shows. He hopes he can arrange for the crab to travel around the country with the film, assuming it's a hit.
Jackson says that now he's realized his dream, all he wants to do is make movies. He just needs money. What he learned by shooting Louie will enable him to make a much better movie next time, he says.
Jackson says he’s sure this is the beginning of something really big. Look at how successful such offbeat films as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Roger an Me were, he says.
"I can feel it," he says. "It's right out there."
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