Local Hollywood director wraps up latest Petaluma movie with Dennis Quaid in supporting role

“The last day of a film shoot is always a little bittersweet,” allows producer-actor Ali ?Afshar, sipping a cup of coffee and taking his last bite of breakfast. “But it’s also very satisfying.”

Seated at a table under a large canopy, surrounded by various trucks, cars, assorted movie-making machinery and a short row of trailers emblazoned with the brand name StarWaggon, Afshar - who grew up in Petaluma and attended Casa Grande High School, where he became a star athlete - is in a somewhat sentimental mood.

And he’s enjoying every minute of it.

“Have you eaten yet? Have some Eggs Benedict,” he cheerfully offers all visitors and passing crewmembers, gesturing to the nearby craft services table (aka breakfast buffet) overflowing with warming bins filled with food, muffins, pitchers of juice, decanters of coffee. “On our last day of filming, they go a little fancy,” Afshar smiles.

This “base camp” has been set up in a parking lot just off of Lakeville, in Petaluma, and though shooting for the day has yet to begin - inside a nearby apartment across the road - there are about two dozen crew-members scampering about with a blended measure of focused energy and nostalgic “graduation day” comradeship and solidarity. The words, “Last day,” spoken with a poignant smile and a nod, seems to be the current substitute for “good morning,” as cast and crew greet each other and go to work, or swing over to exchange high fives with Afshar and grab a cup of coffee. And some Eggs Benedict.

This is the 13th film made locally by Afshar, working with co-producer Ava Rettke and a team he says has become like a family over the years. He is, of course, the founder and Executive Director of Forrest Films, a project of Forrest and Charlotte Lucas of Lucas Oil, in association with Afshar’s own production company, ESX Entertainment.

Afshar, who became known in Hollywood as an actor (“Power Rangers,” “The Siege,” “JAG”) before branching out into producing, has appeared in small-to-large parts in most of the films made here in Petaluma. Among his more prominent roles was his part in “American Wrestler: The Wizard,” with Jon Voight and William Fichtner. The story was based on Afshar’s real-life experiences in Petaluma as a member of the Casa Grande wrestling team in the 1980s. In that film, he played the uncle of young Ali, played by George Kosturos, who went on to reprise the role in the follow-up film “American Fighter.” That film just had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Canada, where critics gave it highly favorable reviews.

For the last few weeks, though, the crew has been in Petaluma, hard at work on the current project, a mixed martial arts drama titled “Mickey Kelley.” The film includes appearances by Dennis Quaid (“The Rookie,” “Day After Tomorrow,” “A Dog’s Purpose”), Sean Patrick Flanery (“The Boondock Saints,” “Powder”), Katrina Bowden (“30 Rock,” “The Bold and the Beautiful”), Reno Wilson (“Transformers,” “Mike & Molly) and Maurice Compte (“Narcos,” “Mayans,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), plus MMA champions Renzo Grazie and Edson Barboza, and a small part by Afshar.

“I play an Arab sheik this time,” he says, showing a smart-phone picture of himself in full costume. “It’s hilarious.”

Asked what the most unusual moment of the current shoot was, Ashar - now joined by producer Rettke and production coordinator Katelyn Epperly - describes a scene shot inside a passenger airplane.

“We actually brought up a full fuselage of an airplane, first class and coach class, and we set it up in a soundstage we created in a local body shop,” he says. “There are two body shops on the Boulevard and we convert them into soundstages whenever we’re here. So that was unusual. But our whole company is unusual. Doing 13 movies in Petaluma is unusual. And we’ve done that in just four years.”

That’s a lot of stories in a short time.

“I think we always want to do something with heart, something inspiring, and that’s definitely ‘Mickey Kelley,’” says director Alex Ranarivelo, stopping by for a chat with Afshar before heading over to today’s shooting location. “We tend to always do a story about an underdog. ‘Mickey Kelley’ is the story of a guy who basically, after losing everything he was working for, gets a chance at redemption. That’s something everyone can connect with, one way or another.”

Asked how Dennis Quaid became involved, Ranarivelo says that happened because Afshar called a producer friend, Mark Burg, and said they were looking for “a Dennis Quaid type.”

“That’s true,” says Afshar. “He asked me what kind of actor we were looking for, and when I said we wanted someone like Dennis Quaid, he said, ‘Well, what about Dennis Quaid?’ And we said, ‘Okay,’ and that’s kind of how it happened. He was on set for only three or four days, but it’s an important role and he did a great job.”

Sean Patrick Flanery, who co-wrote the script for the film with director Alex Ranarivelo (who’s directed a number of films with Afshar) exits his nearby trailer, stopping by to chat with Afshar before boarding a van for the ride over to the shooting location. Flanery is himself a triple black belt in Jujitsu, and owns two of his own martial arts schools.

“I think we’re making some cool s--t,” Flanery says of his work with Forrest Films. This is his third film with the company. “With this one, I think we’re changing the way Mixed Martial Arts is seen on film. It’s going to be very special. I’ve been doing MMA for 30 years, and I really believe this film is going to be like nothing anyone’s seen before. Until the sequel, of course - and mark my words, there will be a sequel to ‘Mickey ?Kelley.’?People will demand it.”

Not surprisingly, Afshar being a successful racecar driver himself, many of the films he’s produced with Forrest Films have had a strong sports angle (wrestling, car racing, rodeo riding, motocross racing, etc.), with underdog stories being a common thread.

The upcoming “Bennett’s War,” filmed two years ago with country music star Trace Adkins and Michael Roark (“Magic Mike”), tells the story of a wounded US veteran and one-time champion motorcycle rider (Roark), who risks it all in a dangerous motocross race in order to save his family’s farm from foreclosure. That film will be released nationally on August 30 (including here in Petaluma, at the Boulevard 14 Cinema), and will mark the first of Afshar’s films to be released through Forrest Films’ own new distribution company, in partnership with Warner Bros.

“Of course, with this type of filmmaking, we have to do things as economically as possible,” producer Rettke says. “Everyone wears a lot of hats on one of our sets. Seriously, Ali can go from making some big executive decision to taking out the trash in less than a minute.”

Base camp is beginning to clear out, as the crew disperses for what will be a long final day, and will include shots at St. Vincent High School, Cypress Hill Memorial Park cemetery, and right here in the parking lot, for a shot with Flanery driving his character’s Mustang.

“You know what’s weird?” Afshar asks, getting ready to climb into the van for the ride to the apartment location. “We’ve made 13 films here in the last four years, and I still run into people from Petaluma who don’t know that their town is the star of all these movies, who couldn’t name one of those films if they had to.”

With a laugh and a shrug, he adds, “Well maybe they could name ‘American Wrestler,’ but with ‘Bennett’s War,’ I think it’s all going to change. ‘Bennett’s War’ is the movie that’s going to finally get every person in Petaluma to look up, see what we’ve been doing, and tell everyone they know, ‘Hey, guess what? Our town is where this really great new film was made. That one and twelve others!’

“Basically,” Afshar says, “I just want this town to be as proud of that as I am.”