[Oct. 14, 2009] VIDEO — If you’ve just graduated from film school, you don’t usually expect to attract names like Frank Vincent, Stacy Keach, and Armand Assante to your first feature effort. But 2006 Columbia grads Brian Caunter and John Bosher did just that, casting the veteran actors, whose credits run from The Sopranos to Goodfellas, in Chicago Overcoat, which premiered October 9 at the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival.
Produced by Beverly Ridge Pictures, the independent Chicago-based production company Caunter and Bosher founded with a team of fellow Columbia alumni, Chicago Overcoat captures a story based on the Chicago Outfit and delves into the life of an aging mobster whose moral struggle with the life he has led gives voice to a complex and rich character that resonated with Hollywood’s artistic elite.
Armand Assante remarked that he did Chicago Overcoat "Because I was so impressed by the level of the writing. I was surprised such young people could create such an unconventional script from a genre that has been done to death!"
The entire film was shot on location in Chicago, in neighborhoods ranging from the Loop, Pilsen, Chinatown, Beverly, and Bridgeport to Logan Square and Cicero. The Green Mill, Italian Village, and the famous Rosa's Lounge on Armitage are also featured in the film.
“This is not the Chicago that you’ll see in tourism brochures,” says Chris Charles, who graduated from Columbia in 2007 and is the film’s associate producer and casting director. “Chicago Overcoat is a tribute to the gritty neighborhoods, dives, and places where real Chicagoans play out the cards they’ve been dealt.”
Chicago Overcoat made its world premiere October 9 at the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival, of which Columbia College Chicago is presenting sponsor.