HBO, Adelphia, and The Waterville Opera House Host May 18th Maine Premiere of HBO Films' Miniseries Event EMPIRE FALLS

HBO, Adelphia, and The Waterville Opera House Host May 18th Maine Premiere of HBO Films' Miniseries Event EMPIRE FALLS

Governor John Baldacci, Director Fred Schepisi, Actor William Fichtner and Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author Richard Russo to Attend

WATERVILLE, Maine, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- HBO, Adelphia, and The Waterville Opera house will host an invitation-only premiere screening of EMPIRE FALLS on Wednesday, May 18th at the Waterville Opera House (93 Main Street, Waterville, Maine) at 6:30 pm. Guests will include many of the people who were involved in the production when it was filmed entirely on location in Maine. Governor John Baldacci will be on hand to honor Camden resident and former Colby College professor Richard Russo who adapted his Pulitzer-Prize winning, best-selling novel into a two-part miniseries for the HBO Films production.

A powerful and evocative portrait of the beauty and frustrations of small-town life, EMPIRE FALLS is adapted by Richard Russo ("Mohawk," "Nobody's Fool") from his novel, also named Time's "Best Book of the Year" and is directed by Fred Schepisi. The miniseries was executive produced by Paul Newman, Scott Steindorff, Fred Schepisi and Marc Platt. EMPIRE FALLS stars Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, Paul Newman, Aidan Quinn and Joanne Woodward. Also featured in the film are Kate Burton, Jeffery DeMunn, Dennis Farina, William Fichtner, Estelle Parsons and Theresa Russell as well as rising talents Danielle Panabaker, Lou Taylor Pucci and Trevor Morgan.

EMPIRE FALLS is a two-part miniseries event, with Part 1 debuting SATURDAY, MAY 28 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), and Part 2 debuting SUNDAY, MAY 29 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT). In addition, Part 1 can be seen on Sunday, May 29 (7:00 p.m.), just before the debut of Part 2.

Adelphia and Bee Line Cable will be offering a special free preview during Memorial Day weekend. Adelphia's Director of Government Relations, Kathleen Hounsell stated; "We are pleased to offer this free preview on Adelphia Channel 9 as an expression of appreciation to our loyal customers throughout the state."

Shot entirely on location in Maine, EMPIRE FALLS tells the humorous, poignant story of a declining New England town and its inhabitants, whose lives are deeply influenced by the Knox River and its vacant mills, their class differences, and ghosts of the past. At the center of the story is Miles Roby, for whom the promising opportunities of youth have given way to the demands of family obligations. Unable to escape the fading town, he runs the struggling Empire Grill and helps his daughter, Tick, navigate the tribulations of adolescence. Through his experiences, EMPIRE FALLS pays tribute to the resilience of lifelong friends and neighbors inextricably bound for generations into a rich and varied social fabric.

"EMPIRE FALLS is such a vivid realization of a very particular place and time," says Executive producer Marc Platt, "that in order to recreate the world that Russo wrote about, it almost demanded the film be shot in Maine."

"It would have been cheaper to shoot in Canada," adds Executive Producer Scott Steindorff, "but Paul Newman was adamant that we shoot in the United States, and where Russo conceived of it. And Maine has a special quality about it that you can't get anywhere else -- the look of the streets, the way the people interact with each other, the countryside, you just can't duplicate it."

Location manager Lynn "Kip" Kippax adds, "We toured all over Maine looking for 38 locations for this film. We were all in service to Richard Russo's imagination. He wrote the book in Waterville, the town which the story mirrors -- like Waterville, Empire Falls is a mill town that's seen better days. The economy is changing; people are retraining themselves because they have to. What Russo depicted, and so wonderfully, was the ghost of Maine's manufacturing-based economy. So Waterville, with its abandoned factories and determined workforce, became the production headquarters, and nearby Skowhegan, another mill town, became Empire Falls' main street."

Says Platt, "Shooting in Maine was a challenge because you have to bring everything and everyone up there, the principal cast, crew, equipment, everything, and at the same time be fiscally responsible. But we were able to overcome that challenge because of the passion everyone brought to making this movie, because of the material, the author, Paul Newman, the director, the incredible cast, all of whom rearranged their lives for this project. And the local community was great, very welcoming and cooperative, and proud to have this film shot in their backyard."

"One of the best things we're able to do after shooting in Maine is to leave things behind," says Kippax. "The business that we gutted and transformed into the Empire Grill was a pizza parlor. The owners keep all the improvements, and it's sure to become a tourist attraction. We worked with the schools -- we shot the homecoming football game scene at Skowhegan High School, hundreds of people volunteered their time as extras, and we raised tens of thousands of dollars for the local schools. This is not something we have to do, but it's good to do."

"Shooting in Maine absolutely made sense for this film, but it does present challenges," laughs Director Fred Schepisi. "They have an expression up there, 'If you don't like the weather, wait a minute.' And it's true -- many days we've lost hours because we've started a sequence in the sun and now it's clouded over or raining, and you've got nowhere else you can go. That adds pressure because of the time constraints. We're trying to do something of the highest quality, and you don't want the actors to feel rushed, but at the same time you only have a short time to get the shot. It's a tribute to the cast and to the rehearsal time we had that they can just jump in, really concentrate and get it done."

"These characters are very real to me," says Richard Russo, "and watching the dailies, seeing Paul and Ed investing the lines I've written with yet another dimension is just thrilling. Walking into the Empire Grill for the first time and seeing the Grill of my imagination brought exactly to life is fantastic."

In addition to the Memorial Day debut on HBO, other HBO playdates are as follows:

Part 1: May 29 (9:30 a.m.) and June 1 (10:00 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), 6 (4:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 14 (noon, 8:00 p.m.), 18 (2:30 p.m.) and 21 (3:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.).

Part 2: June 1 (noon, 10:00 p.m.), 7 (4:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 15 (noon, 8:00 p.m.), 18 (4:30 p.m.) and 21 (5:00 p.m., 12:55 a.m.).

HBO2 playdates:

Part 1: May 28 (1:00 a.m.) and 30 (8:00 p.m.), and June 2 (2:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 8 (11:00 a.m.), 12 (8:00 p.m.), 22 (4:00 p.m.) and 26 (8:30 a.m.).

Part 2: May 29 (1:00 a.m.) and 30 (10:00 p.m.), and June 2 (4:00 p.m., 12:55 a.m.), 8 (1:00 p.m.), 12 (10:00 p.m.), 23 (4:00 p.m.) and 26 (10:30 a.m.).

Source: HBO

CONTACT: Suzanne Pinto of HBO, +1-212-512-1904

Web site: http://www.hbo.com/

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