Lights! Camera! Action!

COUNCIL BLUFFS — “Oh, you just missed Ann-Margret by about two minutes. And she was in a great mood, too.”

Not the first words you want to hear when you finally get to visit a movie set, but hey, there were some really swell consolation prizes late Friday afternoon inside the 1892 German Bier Haus, a pub on West Broadway in Council Bluffs.

Colin Hanks, son of double Oscar winner Tom, told us he’s pals with some Omahans he met in Los Angeles — members of the band 311. They clued him in on the fun spots in the area.

Ari Graynor, up and coming actress who did a great turn as a drunken party girl in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” last year, said she’s been checking out the thrift stores and scoring some nice dinners in Omaha’s Old Market.

And director Gil Cates Jr. (his dad produced the Oscar telecast for, like, 14 years) told us all about how “Lucky,” the movie shooting here for the next month starring Ann-Margret, Hanks, Graynor and Jeffrey Tambor, came to be.

Cates and his old college pal Kent Sublette, a staff writer on “Saturday Night Live,” were shooting the breeze when Sublette floated the idea of a serial killer winning the lottery.

That was about 2004, and the two wrapped a love story around the premise over the next couple of years before Sublette wrote the screenplay. They formed Ten/Four Pictures in January to make the movie.

The serial killer (Hanks) is sort of a shy loser who lives at home with mom (Ann-Margret). But after he wins the lottery, the girl he’s had a crush on forever (Graynor) hits on him.

Nice. Sort of.

“She’s in a tough spot,” Graynor said of her character. “She loses her job, her boyfriend breaks up with her, and neither she nor Colin’s character really knows how to relate to others very well. But the money looks good to her, and she has this need to feel special. But then she surprises herself by experiencing real feelings for him.”

Hey, you had me at serial killer wins the lottery.

Tambor plays a detective sniffing around.

“It’s a dark comedy, character driven,” Cates explained. “There’s not a lot of violence, it’s not bloody. It’s a love story at its heart, fun and kinda edgy.”

Co-producer Chris Ward said Ann-Margret was a fan of the project for about a year before filming, and her role “has some meat for her to sink her teeth into.”

Could we maybe drop by again for one of those meaty scenes?

Hanks said he was drawn to “Lucky” as “a chance to do something different, to be funny but not necessarily in a broad sense. It seemed like a fun dynamic.”

It’s his first lead role since “The Great Buck Howard” was released last year.

Graynor said she didn’t quite get the tone of the movie on first read, but the more she thought about it, the more she loved it.

“Lucy is such an interesting, quirky character,” she said.

Cates mentioned Alexander Payne’s “Election” among movies he looked to for tonal inspiration, as well as “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Fargo.” Like those movies, “Lucky” has a small budget — under $10 million.

Filming started Sept. 8 and is expected to wrap by Oct. 14. Producer Caitlin Murney said one final day of shooting will take place in Los Angeles, which will stand in for Hawaii. Post-production will continue through March.

Friday’s goal was to shoot the party Hanks’ co-workers at an accounting office throw for him after he wins the lottery. Hence the bar location.

Three scenes, with multiple shots in each, were on tap Friday.

The movie, written to take place in Sublette’s home state of Virginia, was relocated to Iowa because of that state’s film tax incentive law.

Nebraska has no film tax incentives, but a few scenes will be shot on Omaha’s side of the river. The filmmakers said they mostly wanted a small-town vibe.

Cates said the movie has 35 speaking parts, and 27 of the actors are local. So is about 75 percent of the crew of 70.

Earlier in the week, movie magic made it snow on the roof of the Daily Nonpareil newspaper office in Council Bluffs. Cates said the first third of the movie happens in snow season.

Ann-Margret, still a knockout at age 68, wasn’t around for those scenes either, and The World-Herald was the first news outlet allowed on set, so it’s consoling to know nobody else has gotten to talk to the two-time Oscar nominee either.

Hey, maybe she’ll read this and take pity on a besotted, yet professional, reporter. Here’s my number, Ann-Margret.

Maybe Hanks won’t be the only one whose luck turns.

Contact the writer:

444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com

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