Mickey Matson’s future

Cronk's movie "Mickey Matson" is nearing completion

MANISTEE – “Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy” made its local premiere Saturday night at the Ramsdell Theatre. The movie is the first full production by 10 West Studios based in Manistee. It is also the first feature film written and directed by Amber Township resident Harold David Cronk, co-owner of 10 West Studios.

The movie originally premiered in Grand Rapids in May. It played for three weeks at the three Celebration Cinema theaters as a test market.

Since that time, Cronk and producer Edgar Struble, a Scottville native, have been working on the next step.

“We have Mickey Matson 2 in development,” Cronk told me recently. “The script is being written by myself and a friend of mine.”

The title will be “Mickey Matson and the Pirate’s Cove” and it will again be filmed mostly in Mason and Manistee counties.

“We are going to rely heavily on the resources in the Manistee and Ludington areas,” Cronk said. “We appreciate the community support we have received from both Ludington and Manistee.”

Cronk said the first Mickey film has received good feedback in from the film industry.

“We’ve gotten very positive response to the film and have had multiple offers from distributors for both domestic and foreign distribution. We are in the process of signing with a foreign sales agent in Los Angeles right now.

“I also recently went to the film festival in Toronto and shared the trailer and posters with many people. We received good responses there.”

So why hasn’t Mickey Matson been in other theaters?

“With your first film, it takes some time to find the right partners that you can trust,” Cronk said. “We also wanted to find someone who we can with with and build a long term relationship with. When we do the next film, we won’t have to go through this process again. So, it’s taken time to make sure we have good partnerships.”

Once the partnership is formally established, the distributor will decide the best route for the film, which may include being released to theaters, going on television or going directly to DVD, or all of the above.

Cronk said Mickey Matson 2 will most likely begin filming in April of 2013. The studio also has plans to film three other films in the area next summer.

Story and photo by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief