Steve Prince holds his two-year-old daughter Maya in the doorway of the kitchen to the Wunderbar. Prince, who is a producer and writer from Texas, was in town recently looking for stories about local ghosts and possible locations to film an upcoming movie.
Neil Diamond’s former road manager was in a ghostly mood. No, not a ghastly mood, but a ghostly mood. He was in Grand Marais looking for possible movie location sites for movies. Haunted buildings were his target, but he was also interested in hearing about local ghosts.
And there were some ghosts to hear about. Especially intriguing was the little girl who often appears in the kitchen of the former Harbor Light bar and restaurant. Now reopened as the Wunderbar, the little girl has made herself known to the new owners and workers, especially those that have to stay and work late into the night. The little spook is friendly but gives a start to those that come upon her before she disappears into thin air.
Steven Prince is an actor, writer, and producer. A graduate of Southwest Texas University who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, Prince began acting 20 years ago. His roles in television include Prison Break and Saturday Night Lights, and his film credits include The Alamo, The Ringer, and Scanner Darkly.
As president of the independent film division of The Traveling Picture Show Company (TPSC Films), Prince, in 2012 produced the horror film The Quiet Ones, which was released by Lionsgate and A Walk Among the Tombstones starring Liam Neeson.
Among Prince’s other credits, he wrote the award-winning script Devine Access. He also co-wrote and produced the movie Pineapple, and The Abduction of Jesse Bookman, which won the best picture award at The American Black Film Festival in 2009. His 2010 film Burning Palms earned high praise for performance and cast which included Zoe Saldana, Dylan McDermott, Nick Stahl, and Paz Vega.
Additionally, Prince joined Brian Oliver and the Thompson family to create Cross Creek Pictures. During Steve’s time as vice president of Development, Cross Creek financed and produced Black Swan and The Woman in Black and began negotiations to finance and produce The Ides of March. Following his successful tenure with Cross Creek Pictures, Steve joined The Traveling Picture Show Company.
Steven was in town last week with his wife and two-year old daughter, Maya.
“My next film will be shot in Minnesota,” said Prince. “I’m here looking for potential filming locations and stories loosely based on local lore,” he said. “We stopped in Duluth and checked out some locations before we drove up the shore. This is a beautiful area. We are enjoying our stay here,” he said as he scampered after Maya in the Wunderbar.
When Prince gets back to the Twin Cities one of the things he will do is speak to the Minnesota Film Board at an upcoming conference. He said he shot much of his last movie in Ottawa because, based on incentives from the province, it was much cheaper to film there. He would like to see Minnesota get more competitive again in capturing the market for making movies.
In the past, the Minnesota Legislature has been kinder to the Minnesota Film and Television Board which promotes and supports the state’s production industry than it has been lately.
Still, TPSC has applied for a Snowbate reimbursement of 20-25 percent cash back on a qualified Minnesota production from the Minnesota Film Board.
In 2014-2015 the Minnesota Legislature granted $10 million for the Snowbate incentive program. The Legislature cut the Snowbate program back to $5 million in 2015 and dropped the funding to $1 million in 2017. And while Prince doesn’t know the size and scope of his next movie, his last budget was around $3 million.
“Our next movie will be quintessentially Minnesotan, shot in Minnesota” he added.
Maybe it will be filmed on the North Shore. When the fog rolls in off the big lake and night descends, when heaven and earth are obscured in a ghostly pall and the moon looks like a thin bony fingernail of Satan, it’s rumored that the little girl from the Wunderbar wanders throughout the community crying plaintively in search for her mother. Or are those the cries of distant seagulls? Stay tuned.
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