Lights, camera, action: Film gets shot at U.

Actors and crew members were on hand Saturday to shoot scenes from 'Kimberly' throughout campus. Here's a sneak preview of an upcoming film: She is Kimberly, an expert rower who spends her days on the Schuylkill River. He is Walter, a university professor who spends his days teaching in a building that looks an awful lot like Bennett Hall. Parts of Penn's campus became a backdrop for a feature-length romantic comedy called Kimberly on Saturday, when more than two dozen crew members and actors set up camp along the corner of 34th and Walnut streets. The crew arrived with their sound and film equipment and their make-up and catering trailers at the break of dawn in preparation for a full day of shooting. Kimberly, a low-budget film set in Philadelphia, stars Gabrielle Anwar, best known for her tango with Al Pacino in the 1992 hit Scent of a Woman, and Sean Astin, who played the title role in the 1993 film Rudy. Molly Ringwald, an icon of 1980s teen films, will play a supporting role, though she was not on campus Saturday. Anwar plays Kimberly, a coxswain who meets four men, all young professionals. The men, who have been trying their hand at crew for a while, without much success, are inspired by Anwar to improve. "She is unwittingly thrown into a situation where she ends up coaching four eligible bachelors," the petite, brown-haired Anwar explained. And, although they each promise one another they won't, all four bachelors fall in love with the film's heroine. The plot turns when Kimberly discovers that she's pregnant. One of the four men, Walter -- played by Robert Mailhouse -- is a professor at an unnamed Philadelphia university, and parts of Penn's campus are featured in his scenes. Saturday's crew filmed shots of Walter entering and exiting Bennett Hall, lecturing in the building's Penniman Library and strolling around Locust Walk outside the Fine Arts Library with Kimberly. Other shots featured the exterior of the Psi Upsilon fraternity -- or the Castle -- on 36th Street and Locust Walk. The Penn name or logo will not be used in the final product. Kimberly's creators were considering identifying Walter's university as Penn when they initially asked the University's permission to film the campus, but administrators opposed the idea. Ann Davis, a University spokesperson, said that decision was based on the film's plot. "In this movie, there's a professor who sleeps with a young woman," Davis explained. "We just didn't feel we wanted that person to be representative of a Penn professor." Kimberly Productions, the independent company producing the film, paid the University $1,000 to hire an electrician, a Physical Plant representative and a security guard to assist the film crew. Davis says that financially, the University is breaking even. "It's not something that benefits us directly, but we obviously know that it helps Philadelphia," Davis said, adding that Penn is simply "being a good neighbor" to the rest of the city by appearing in the film. Other recent films to feature the Penn campus include Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks, which had a scene in the Fine Arts Library, and the science-fiction thriller 12 Monkeys, in which an elephant walked outside Franklin Field for a few seconds. According to the film's location manager, Derrick Loris, choosing Penn's campus was a decision based on a "combination of look, time and money." The 30 days of filming will all be done in Philadelphia, with 10 of those days on Boathouse Row. Kimberly's creators were looking to film at a campus near Center City and at first considered Drexel University. But the film's shooting schedule fit best with Penn's schedule. Kimberly's director, writer and producer, Frederic Golchan -- who is directing for the first time, but recently produced The Associate starring Whoopi Goldberg and Intersection, starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone -- said he liked Penn's look. "I love the classroom," Golchan said about Penniman Library, adding that there is "good architecture around it." And the Furness Building, which contains the Fine Arts Library, he continued, "looks beautiful." Kimberly will also feature parts of Manayunk, Fairmount Park and South Philadelphia. The scenes filmed at Penn were the first ones on the shooting schedule. When the camera started rolling on Saturday morning, the film's stars were not the only ones in front of it. About 50 people spent the day on the set as extras, walking through the scenes to give the setting a university atmosphere. Most of the extras were not Penn students, though all were college-aged. Many said they were sent down to the set by their agents. Andrew Sugerman, a line producer, said he hopes Kimberly will be in theaters by May or June. It will be distributed by Los Angeles-based Moonstone Entertainment. Several locals have already mistaken Kimberly's crew with the film crew working on The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, which is also currently being filmed in Philadelphia. "I don't think Philadelphia is used to having more than one film shot at the same time," said Loris. Kimberly is still looking for people of all ages and types to appear as extras in the film. For more information, call Kathy Wickline Casting at (215) 739-9952.

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