Sixteen years ago Moorhead native, Larry “Drone” Peterson died. In Christmas stories, though, no one ever really dies. Pieces of people live on through others.
Drone’s nephew, Rick Ramage, wrote a new hit Lifetime movie called “Heaven Sent.” The movie received praise as being more like a Hallmark movie rather than a Lifetime movie.
“I owe the fact that I am a screenwriter to one of my uncles, Larry, who lived in Moorhead much of his life. The first thing I ever tried to write was a novel. When it was finished, I asked Larry if he would read it and give me an honest assessment. His approach to criticism was pretty wise.
“He said, ‘How do you plan to treat your writing? Do you want to do this as a hobby, or do you want to be a professional?’ I answered that I wanted to be a professional. And he said, ‘OK, good. Then I’m going to treat you like one. And to be honest, your novel isn’t very good.’ But, then he said something that changed my life.
“He said, ‘But are you ever a good writer. You’re very visual. You should think about screenwriting.’ So, to make a long story short, I turned my bad novel into a bad screenplay, but I was hooked. I applied to The American Film Institute very shortly thereafter to study screenwriting,” Ramage said.
“When I write a movie, I watch it in my head and then I write it down,” Ramage said – Uncle Larry was right.
“It was really fun to be able to have my aunt and uncle, Greg and Char Peterson, on set as extras in the outdoor mall scene. I also invited theirfriends to be extras, Pete and Deb Hanson, from Moorhead. They live in Denver now. Another friend, Jeff Burrill, a writer and Moorhead native who lived in Minneapolis and Los Angeles before returning to Moorhead, also ventured out to Boulder to be an extra in the film. Jeff wore his Owl fraternity jacket as a tribute to all his fraternity brothers. Both of my uncles were Owls, too,” Ramage said. Pete and Deb taught in Moorhead for many years.
The Old Order of Owls fraternity atMinnesota State University Moorhead no longer exists but was a brotherhood for more than 100 years, beginning in 1901.
Ramage was born and raised in Denver but his mom, Kathryn, was one of seven Peterson children from Moorhead. The family lived near Woodlawn Park. The oldest, Howard, bought Sportland from Marco Gotta. Two of Howard’s sons, Jack and Bill, now own it with his daughter, Ginny, working there, too.
“Heaven Sent” will air again on the Lifetime channel this Saturday at 2 p.m. and then again next Friday at 4 p.m. Check local listings and tune in! The movie will also be available again at Easter time and next Christmas.
After Burrill’s brief appearance in a crowd scene at the beginning of the film, Burrill sent his friend a message that said, “It appears “Heaven Sent” is a smash. *:) happyI see IMDB rates it four and a half out of five stars.
“I have never been so inundated with Facebook messages and ‘likes.’ Were there a button for loves, those would have also filled my Facebook screen per the movie,” Burrill added.
“Congratulations, Rico. Remain so very proud of you, as are many I am sure – including the Drone, who is looking down from the heaven he entered sixteen years ago,” Burrill told Ramage.
As for Ramage, “My favorite moment in all of the films and television shows that I’ve done is always the same. The first moment of the first day on set is always very special and awe-inspiring. It’s pretty humbling to see over 100 very talented and specialized professionals coming together to bring your script to life.
“One thing that does stand out on “Heaven Sent” as special was the little girl who played Taylor in the film. Her name is Mallory James Mahoney, and just watching her work was inspiring. She’s a natural actor, with great instincts and a wisdom that seems to indicate that she’s a very old soul – despite her 9-year-old body!”
Production for the movie was a rare deal, Ramage said. “It can take years to set a script up – and even then the odds are very long on actually getting it made. It’s one thing to sell a script, but it’s quite another to get someone to spend millions and millions of dollars on a film. When Michael Landon Jr. wanted to direct it, we took it to Cantinas Entertainment. Their CEO read the script over the weekend, and we basically had our green light within a week – that’s very, very rare.
“Michael and I produced it, and we went right into prep so that we could start shooting in October of that same year. All in, we spent about two months in prep, and shot for 20 days in the Denver and Boulder area.”
The movie stars Christian Kane, Marley Shelton, Mahoney and Ernie Hudson.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the movie begins with two people praying for opposite things to happen with the other. A runaway from heaven takes it upon herself to rekindle their romance and help them get back to the basics of love.
