‘The Biggest Game in Town’ Gilroy Movie Premiered Saturday
Director John Nava knows his way around poker tables. He once sat at one with a chef, a Mafia boss, an Elvis impersonator and a Stanford student and he put all his money in on one bet. He lost.The Stanford student who won got up and thanked him for paying for her textbooks for the year, cashed in her chips and left. His misfortune led Nava, who has worked at Sigona’s Farmers Market in Redwood City and Palo Alto for 37 years, to write the script for The Biggest Game in Town about a bunch of colorful poker players trying to defeat the best player in the country with every cent they could muster—and more—on the table.Nava pitched it to Gilroyans L. Mattock Scariot and her husband, Nils Myers, whose 152 West Productions has made corporate and children’s movies for the past decade. They loved it, and the trio, all in their 50s, went all in on their biggest dream, devoting two and a half years of weekends and $30,000 of Nava's money into making it.From the applause and howls of laughter during its debut Saturday at Monterey’s Golden State Theater, this time Nava won. They sold more than 600 tickets at $30 each and got it viewed by buyers from some big film festivals.“In a way, everybody who’s in this movie is the biggest game,” said Nava, who was raised in Morgan Hill and lives in Hollister. “We’re an indie film that cost $30,000 and we’re going to festivals competing against movies that are going to be $200,000 to $1 million. We’re real indie and everybody who was in it donated their time and no one got paid.”In keeping with the poker theme, Nava bought the camera used for the film with winnings from a poker game a week before shooting began. He In his off time working in produce, Nava, a film devotee who made the western Handsome Stranger 22 years ago, created demo reels for aspiring Hollywood actors in San Francisco. He would write and direct the clips and each of them got jobs. One of them, Eric Zivot, who played in an episode of the TV show Jag and was in movies, Mob Story in 1989 and The Alarmist and Two Voices in 1997, returned to the Bay Area to take a leading role in The Biggest Game.The other actors are locals who perform like seasoned pros in the movie. Morgan Hill’s Steve Caposio is a natural ham who showed his bacon as the winner of Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen earlier this year. The movie’s lead, Jayson Stebbins, is simply stunning. He’s a Morgan Hill mortgage broker with a lot of local community theater experience, who comes off as an everyman schlub with million-dollar dreams and 10 cents to his name. He is like a mix of Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller.Joe Barra, who played the casino manager, was an insurance broker for State Farm, and died before the movie came out. An accomplished theater actor, his dream was to make a movie, and he did. Nava paid tribute to him during the premiere.When Scariot told the audience at the premiere that she wouldn’t choose Hollywood’s best over the actors they had, you can believe it. Although you could also see this script, with its wry, dark humor, being picked up by Hollywood and brought to the cineplexes everywhere. The movie has the wackiness of The Hangover with some of the tension of Ocean’s 11. That’s no surprise given that Nava’s two favorite movies are The Wizard of Oz and the Godfather. He has allusions to both in this.The decision to risk it all on a dream resonated with Scariot when she read Nava’s script. Its lead character, Atticus Cane, is a disappointed, but hopeful, 40-something on a quest to compete in a legendary poker game started by the “original Texas gamblers,” spoken to him in reverent tones over the years by older pal, Manfrotto.Many poker nights with the guys later, the desire to play at this high-stakes game, with a $100,000 buy-in becomes an obsession for Atticus, consuming both his waking hours and subconscious.“Everyone in the film is Atticus—we are all in our 40s and 50s—and we all have that dream of making it in Hollywood, so I felt really tied to that character,” Scariot says. “I think most middle-aged people feel that at one point in your life, you say: ‘I just have to take a risk, I’ve just got to do it. I’ve got to just put it out there and see what happens.’”Nava says the bedroom conversations between Atticus and his wife about chasing the big time poker dream echo the ones he’s had with his own wife about chasing his dream of making films.Reviews from those leaving the premiere, which included food and a band with an Elvis impersonator, were positive.“It’s exciting to have Gilroy folks actively involved in the arts and putting something together,” said Gilroy City Council member Roland Velasco. “There’s a lot of Gilroy people here that came to show their support.” While he only plays poker himself every once in awhile, Velasco said it was “fun to watch the dynamics between people—and that is what you saw in the film.”Robert and Sarah Caposio, the son and daughter-in-law of one of the film’s highlights, the irascible, “Diamond Dave,” were ecstatic after the film. “We thought the movie was hilarious,” said Robert. “I was laughing the entire time.”Sam Bozzo, longtime community supporter and member of the advisory board of Pinnacle Bank, gave it a thumbs up. “What a wonderful undertaking and there was such a cross-section of people involved,” he said. Steve Caposio chartered a bus to bring friends and family to the premiere.South Valley residents worked for free and donated locations to the movie. Fox Creek Ranch in Hollister let the crew film a western dream sequence there. While others were asking $25,000 to write a score, San Jose musician David Santos traded two months of work for fruit and cheese. Morgan Hill developer Frank Leal donated locations and helped feed the crew.Artist Heather Apgar, 17, made one of the movie’s posters. The other was made by Ralph Noe, who also plays witness protection killer Vic Manfrotto.“This is really a case of a community coming together and sharing everything they have to make a movie,” said Nava, who spent three hours of his “glamorous” day after the debut cleaning the theater, while other cast and crew were at a party.“That’s the other side no one sees,” he said. “After the show everyone leaves and it looks glamorous, but we have to stay and clean the trash.”Scariot and Myers of 152 West Productions have made a name for themselves with professional and inspiring corporate videos for the likes of Sigona’s Farmers Market, Jabil Trinidad, Dental Concepts and Cal State University.They met in Southern California, where Myers was a film student and Scariot a costume designer. When they had children, they decided to move back to Gilroy, where Scariot was raised. The kids are grown now and her son, who works at the House of Bagels, has a sandwich named for him. Scariot is also on the city’s arts commission and has been working to grow the Gilroy Arts Center. They also run a summer program that teaches kids how to make movies.While hitting the big time with the film would mean Hollywood, said Scariot, an invitation to appear at a film festival or a good placement on a streaming service like Hulu or Amazon, would also be terrific.“The key is to get placement in the front of streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. [Otherwise] it can just disappear,” she said. “If we go to film festivals and win awards they would market it better and get that better placement.”There is also hope that if The Biggest Game in Town wins enough favorable exposure, distributors would be interested in 152 West’s previous titles. Currently one of their films has an agent and is distributed overseas.“It would be great to be in the theaters,” she said. “That would be winning the biggest game in town.”
AAA, Bracco’s Offers Free Rides New Year’s Eve
Local companies will pick up drivers and tow their cars home
Legal status check at Mi Pueblo
Mi Pueblo Foods, the San Jose-based Hispanic grocery store chain with a location on First Street in Gilroy, recently began cross-checking the legal immigration status of new hires at the request of the federal government, invoking attacks from a local labor union.
Car chase proves fatal for local woman
A woman with ties to Gilroy and San Benito County died Saturday, July 22, after a short chase with Gilroy police.A recent press release indicated a police officer attempted to stop the woman, identified as 28-year-old Rya Leonard, at 2:25 p.m. near First Street and Wren Avenue.According to Sgt. Jason Smith, Leonard initially appeared to comply with police.“The officer ran the plate, determined the vehicle was stolen and then when he tried to stop the vehicle, the vehicle initially went at a slow speed and pulled into the CVS parking lot,” said Smith. “She slowed down as if she was going to stop and then sped off.”According to the press release, Leonard then sped away southbound on Wren and crashed into a tree at the corner of Wren Avenue and San Miguel Street, where she was trapped inside the vehicle. Leonard was extricated from the vehicle and suffered from major injuries before dying at a nearby hospital, police say.Smith added that Leonard had a couple warrants for her arrest. “She was on probation for possession of a stolen vehicle,” Smith said. “So we can assume that she knew that vehicle was stolen but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to talk with her about it.”It was later determined that the plate on the 1990s black Honda was altered to make it appear as if it was a different plate, said Smith.The speeds Leonard was reaching on city streets are unknown.“Seconds before the crash the officer estimated he was travelling approx 60 miles an hour,” said Smith. “To determine the exact speed of her vehicle we have the Major Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) conducting the investigation.”Smith noted that the Gilroy Police Department does have a “comprehensive policy” regarding high speed chases.“The primary purpose of the policy is to provide officers with guidance in balancing the safety of the public and themselves against law enforcement’s duty to apprehend violators of the law,” said Smith.“I would say that deciding whether to pursue a motor vehicle is a critical decision that must be made quickly and under difficult and unpredictable circumstances,” Smith added. “The preliminary facts of the case show the officer was within policy and the law. The final determination will be made once the investigation is completed.”Leonard’s mother Carol Leonard of Tennessee who last spoke with her daughter two months ago said, “Rya was an amazing young lady. She had a heart of gold.”According to her mother, Leonard leaves behind a daughter who will be 10 in August. Leonard did not live with the child. “She loved her daughter more than anything in this world of course,” Carol said. “She loved her brother and sister, Robert and Sarah.”Cousin Todd Leonard of Gustine, California said, “She went to school in both Santa Benito and Santa Clara Counties.”“She went between her mom’s and her dad’s [Gilroy and Hollister],” said Todd. “She had been with her dad from the time she was about 13 or 14.”Leonard’s cousin said she was loyal to her family.“I used to think she was a good kid, but good kids don’t usually go out and steal cars and crash them running from the cops, but she was a caring person,” Todd said. “I wish she cared a little bit more about herself. She had a very hard life and unfortunately there weren’t enough people in her life to give her examples of the right way to do things.”“Rya had a lot of friends and they all loved her she cared about others before caring about herself,” Carol said.
