While the upcoming Richard Gere and Diane Lane movie “Nights in Rodanthe” is drawing lots of attention, it’s not the only film in the works that centers around Hatteras Island.
Alan Smith of Dreamworks Productions and his crew are planning an October trip to Hatteras Island, (their 4th trip in 2008), for the filming of their upcoming documentary “The Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers.” The film is based on the 2001 book “Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers” by David Wright and David Zoby.
The film and book tell the story of the courageous but little known all black Pea Island Lifesaving Crew. Richard Etheridge, a former slave and island resident, was commissioned in the early 1800s to be in charge of the U.S. lifesaving station on Pea Island. According to the book, the white crew refused to serve under Etheridge, so he recruited seven African Americans to work with him. Etheridge and his crew were credited with saving more than 200 people and were awarded the Coast Guard’s Gold Life-Saving medal in 1996, years after their deaths.
“Rescue Men,” while still in the process of filming, is expected to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in January 2009, and Smith plans both a theatrical and festival release, followed by a broadcast TV premiere.
10/10/08