Town 'N Country friends chase a Hollywood dream

TAMPA

A couple of guys in jeans and black T-shirts push through a crowd of fans eager to see a horror icon up close.

One of the guys does the talking.

Make some room, he says.

A tiny path clears and the other guy, lugging a video camera, weaves through.

Fans get in the way. Cameras keep flashing.

But Tanner Monroe and Tony Filipic aren't distracted. They stay on task.

They are filmmakers, hoping for their big break.

And Tony Moran, the actor who played psycho killer Michael Myers in the 1978 cult classic Halloween, may be the key.

• • •

Last month, Filipic, 32, heard his cell phone ring. A California number.

The caller was Justin Coughlin, Moran's agent.

Moran would spend the next weekend in Tampa, appearing in a music video, in Ybor City and at a convention called Tampa Bay Tattoofest. Coughlin needed a film crew to capture the whole thing and to make a documentary about Moran.

Thanks to a mutual acquaintance for whom Monroe once filmed an instructional DVD, Coughlin had heard good things.

Monroe, 29, grew up watching Halloween and thought the call was a prank.

It wasn't.

• • •

"I need a hearse to pick up Michael Myers from the airport," Monroe wrote. "Seriously."

He posted the ad on Craigslist.org. For the guy who played Michael Myers, he said, a hearse seemed fitting.

The calls came quickly. A handful had hearses to offer. And plenty had offers of other sorts, like camera equipment, time, T-shirts. One fan claimed he would even donate his wife.

To meet the crazed killer, they learned, diehard fans would give almost anything. And for the chance to film him, Monroe, Filipic and their friend Jeffery Arnold would, too.

The neighbors, who all live in Town 'N Country, decided on their different roles. Filipic, who owns media company Ultra Image Media, would be director. Monroe, who owns Mohawk Crew, a fine and digital arts and media company, would be production coordinator. Arnold, 31, who is Filipic's roommate, would be music supervisor.

The documentary, tentatively called Michael Myers: UNMASKED, doesn't have a budget. But for a few budding filmmakers, working for free doesn't matter.

"Sometimes, you have to give a little to get a lot," Monroe says.

• • •

While Moran's plane rolled across the tarmac at Tampa International Airport two weeks ago, the film crew rolled up to the airport in a hearse.

During his stay here, Moran would promote Beg, his forthcoming '80s style slasher movie. When released this year, it will be Moran's first time on screen since Halloween II. In more recent years, he strayed from acting, indulging in other professions: He taught tennis, dabbled in the mortgage industry and construction.

Filipic used a borrowed camera and followed the actor closely for most of three days.

They went from the airport to the set of a music video, for the metal band Kezia, in which Moran made a special appearance. Then to Ybor City, where Moran hung out at the Crowbar. Then to Tattoofest, where Moran met fans and got his first tattoo.

• • •

The cameras finally off, Moran slipped through the crowd and out a side door at the Doubletree on Cypress Street where the tattoo convention was held.

Outside, Moran, Filipic and Monroe sipped Bloody Marys and smoked cigarettes. They admired the fresh tattoo of a four leaf clover on Moran's leg. They made plans to work together again, next month, in Las Vegas, where they will continue filming, although the documentary has no release date.

Monroe squinted in the sun, crossed his arms and smiled.

Surreal, he said. The whole experience. "We did a DVD a year and a half ago," he said. "Then one day, the phone rings, and it's Hollywood."

Arleen Spenceley can be reached at (813) 269-5301 or aspenceley@sptimes.com.