The idea for filmmaker Dax Phelan's next movie came to him in a series of recurring dreams. In them, the St. Louis native and now L.A.–based filmmaker was attacked by an intruder and killed the intruder to protect himself. In the dreams, he began to fear that the police wouldn’t believe it was self-defense and he would be convicted of murder. “This dream haunted me on and on for months," Phelan says, "but it might have actually been years. In the fall of 2010, I had a version of the dream that was uniquely personal.”
In that version, Phelan was his 15-year-old self, living in his childhood home in Kirkwood, Missouri, and his father in the dream was very similar to his real-life father, a long-time police officer. This nightmare became the foundation of his forthcoming film, Kirkwood. “There really was no question at all that is had to be set in St. Louis, because it was very much in the dream’s DNA, and by extension the story’s DNA,” he says.
Inspired by his nightmare, Phelan wrote a story, and later a script, consulting many aspects with his father, who is comparable to the Max character's father in Kirkwood, Joe Dolan (with Phelan's father even sharing a similar name—Joe Phelan). The film’s Joe is also a former police detective, but the similarities stop there, as the film follows the estranged father and son as they become closer through covering up an accidental murder.
To prepare for filming, Phelan began regularly visiting St. Louis in 2014 and started scouting locations. With the film set in late fall and winter, he looked for a unique peak of fall color. He feels Kirkwood and St. Louis have that and the “perfect Midwestern vibe,” he says.
Courtesy of Dax Phelan
St. Louis native and filmmaker Dax Phelan returns home to create "Kirkwood."
Being able to capture where he grew up is sentimental to Phelan. "I've always liked that old-time small-town feel that downtown Kirkwood has. I always felt that it was picturesque and that it hadn't been used properly in film. If there's any pressure [when filming in his hometown], it's the pressure to get it right and do right by the locals."
A large aspect of getting the story right is having the perfect house, with it being "essentially a character in the film, playing a pivotal role in the story." Phelan's actual Kirkwood childhood home was his first thought. But after reaching out to the residence's current owners, Phelan learned that the house has been updated and renovated a few times over and no longer resembles the home of his childhood. "As a result, the house doesn't really fit the one I have in my head anymore," Phelan says, adding that he's still on the hunt for the perfect one.
What other places might St. Louisans recognize in the film? “The Kirkwood of my youth doesn’t completely exist anymore, except for in little pockets," Phelan notes. "A lot has gotten built up in the last 25 years.” To address that, he says he’ll most likely use Kirkwood and the surrounding areas like Webster Groves, Sunset Hills, and places like that as filming locations, looking for woodland areas and various neighborhoods. But small landmarks such as the city's train station and tracks, the water tower by Meramec Junior College, and the town square across from city hall, will make an appearance. “I had written those locations into the scripts,” he says.
It means a lot to Phelan to film in Missouri, especially considering it's a state not often seen in movies. Most notably, Gone Girl, based in fictional North Carthage, Missouri, was shot in Cape Giradeau, but just a few months later Missouri's 35 percent tax credit (to be used by movie producers on products and services) expired in 2013. The cost is why many other films with Missouri plot settings are shot elsewhere. Netflix's Lake of the Ozarks–based drama Ozark is mostly filmed in Georgia; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, in North Carolina.
At press time, Phelan was taking the steps to get filming approved in Missouri, where he foresees filming on location for 30 or so days. "It's looking very good and that we will essentially have the entire state as our back lot," he says. "For a filmmaker, that's like gold."
