FILM DE FORCE

Duo's award-winning movie to debut in theaters Friday

special to viewA scene unfolds from the independent film "Self-Medicated," created by Summerlin residents Monty Lapica and Tommy Bell. Advertisement

Move over, Spielberg. Las Vegas has two filmmakers making names for themselves.

Summerlin residents Monty Lapica and Tommy Bell will have their independent film "Self-Medicated" in theaters across the country as of Friday.

In Las Vegas, it can be seen at Regal Village Square, 9400 W. Sahara Ave., and Regal Green Valley Ranch inside Green Valley Ranch, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway in Henderson. "Self-Medicated" also will open in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Sacramento, Calif.

Bell is the producer of the film, and Lapica wrote and directed it. The movie is based on Lapica's experience as a teenager growing up in Las Vegas. After his father died of a heart attack when he was 14, Lapica's life went on a downward spiral into drugs, he said. In a tough-love move, his mother arranged for him to be "kidnapped" and taken to a private psychiatric hospital in Southern Utah, Lapica explained. But the hospital was a corrupt facility where he was subjected to physical and emotional abuses.

"There were times when I was writing it, the tears were literally falling on the keyboard," Lapica said.

Lapica said his intent in writing "Self-Medicated" was to get the facility closed down. It was actually under investigation already and was shut down before the film came out, Lapica said.

"Self-Medicated" runs 107 minutes and was first seen at CineVegas. It went on to win 39 awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Independent Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Australian International Film Festival, the Gold Remi Award at the WorldFest Film Festival and Best Film/Best Director at the Los Angles DIY Film Festival.

"It seems like this all happened overnight, but it's really been on the film festival circuit for a year," Bell said.

Actually, the idea for the movie first cropped up four years earlier. The film cost $1.3 million to make, and while the pair didn't have to mortgage their Summerlin homes, "we did use the credit cards a little loosely toward the end," Bell said.

He said the film festival awards brought the movie to the attention of distributors and got it into movie theaters.

It didn't hurt that the Las Vegas natives were able to secure the talents of Denis Maloney as their director of photography. His resume includes "The Contender," "Natural Causes," "The Winner," "The Music Within," "Love of All Things" and "The Amateurs."

Anthony Marinelli composed the score. His resume includes "The Man from Elysian Fields," "15 Minutes," "Timecode," "Hotel," "Young Guns," "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Demolition Man."

The cast of "Self-Medicated" includes Diane Verona, who was in "The Insider," "Heat" and other films; Michael Bowen, who was in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," "Jackie Brown," and "Beverly Hills Cop III;" Greg Germann, who appeared in "Ally McBeal," "Friends with Money" and "Talladega Nights;" and Kristina Anapau, who was in "Cursed," "Escape from Atlantis," "Madison" and "100 Girls."

Lapica, who now does consulting work for other filmmakers, is working on his next script, titled "Methodical." It's set to begin shooting later this year. "It falls into the revenge genre, but I call it an anti-revenge film," he said.

For more information, visit www.selfmedicated.com.