Indiana spots play perfect 'surrealistic' role in 'The Duel,' starring Dylan Sprouse

The mansion at the center of "The Duel" is the site of the planned test of honor, a home inhabited by a drug baron eager to see two 20-something American friends work out their argument over a woman the old-fashioned way. It's an opulent place with ivory-hued stone surrounded by verdant shrubs and the kind of neatly trimmed lawn that would make any Hoosier homeowner proud.

"So this is Mexico," says Christof — played by Patrick Warburton, a mysterious duel enthusiast-turned-guide for the American friends — as they approach the home.

The line is one of many jokes in the film. Because while the scene might be set in Mexico, the estate called Asherwood is in Carmel, Indiana, USA, and it's the former residence of mall magnates Mel and Bren Simon .

"I think people are very used to seeing Mexico in film and television with this sepia yellow grain over it and sand and cactuses," said Dylan Sprouse, who stars as Colin. The line is "self-referencing the fact that it really doesn't look like Mexico at all, which we found very funny."

Red carpet premiere: See Dylan Sprouse and the cast of 'The Duel"

Indiana plays the smirking backdrop to "The Duel's" dark comedy about four Californian friends whose bonds begin to unravel when Colin sleeps with Woody's girlfriend Abbie, and the men decide to battle in a dangerous contest in Mexico. Set in Los Angeles and San Diego as well, the movie was made almost entirely in the Hoosier state — a move that reverses the status quo of stories that are set here but filmed elsewhere.

"You're supposed to always wonder where you are," said Zach Spicer, a producer and CEO and co-owner of Pigasus Pictures . "It's not supposed to be Mexico for certain the entire time. It's supposed to be a little bit surrealistic."

Indiana proves perfect in the role of parallel universe in the 99-minute dark comedy, which will be in theaters July 31, adding a layer of humor to the outlandish contest that questions modern-day accountability and honor.

Indiana's influence on 'The Duel's' script

"The Duel" emerged from a real-life group of friends who share an interest in history and what Sprouse called the weird dissection of it. More than four years ago, Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts asked Sprouse to read through their script about an honor test from a bygone era. Callan McAuliffe, who stars as Woody, came to the project early and they quickly began to look for ways to make the film.

The group joined up with Pigasus Pictures thanks to a connection the Indiana-based film company made from its 2019 movie "Ms. White Light." Armed with strict protocols and COVID tests, the cast and crew quietly made the movie in the fall of 2020.

From there, Indiana became what Sprouse called one of the film's biggest actors — not only in its role as a scenic backdrop but also in its contributions that strengthened the script.

"The joke on set was that the script was not the script until the cameras were rolling because the writers were re-writing scenes pretty much the night before," Spicer said.

Filmmakers, for example, found southern Indiana's Marengo Cave and Bedford's Bluespring Caverns inspiring enough to merit their own cameo. The locales facilitate the group's secret passage into Mexico via boat rides through a drug smuggler's tunnel.

"We were like, 'OK, this is so cool. How can we not use it?'" said Sprouse, who came to fame on the popular Disney Channel show "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." "We retooled a little bit of that to fit."

Asherwood's wood-paneled, two-story library, complete with a balcony, supplied opportunities for vertical framing of characters' conversations. One of the movie's most comedic sequences occurs in the his-and-hers Moroccan-style spa, when Abbie (played by Rachel Matthews) endures a less-than-desired beauty treatment before joining her suitors for dinner.

"Everybody that walked in there was kind of struck as to how well it was put together and basically how well it fit what they were looking for," said Jason Butrum, who was the property manager and director of security at Asherwood during filming.

Other locations include Midland Antiques as a mysterious duel haven, the bathroom of the former Fountain Square hotspot Peppy Grill and Lake Michigan as Venice Beach. Their authentic feel and eye-catching angles offered opportunities to complement the meat of "The Duel" — its intimate, emotional conversations and varied cinematography. Running throughout all of that, of course, are plenty of jokes.

'The Duel' blends on- and off-screen humor from a group of friends

Early in the movie, Sam (played by Denny Love) takes Colin to task for cheating and threatening their friend group's traditions — like dining at Chili's. The two are sitting at a booth inside the Inferno Room, the Fountain Square tiki bar that's playing a Los Angeles version of itself. The scene produced another comedic gem that didn't make the final cut but did find a current spot on the bar's menu.

Sprouse "came to the bar to order a drink and just randomly came up with 'Coconut Explosion,' I believe, off the top of his head," said Chris Coy, the Inferno Room's co-owner.

On and off-screen jokes like this — including Kevin's (Hart Denton) love of Sunny Delight and Colin's inspection of a stuffed bear's jaw — populate "The Duel" and stem from the actors' off-screen friendship.

"In referencing little things like that, it's supposed to invoke a feeling of nostalgia, right, as well as be kind of evidence that these are four very close friends," said Sprouse, who had not been to Indiana before working on the film.

Filmmakers devoted an entire day to coaching Bashi, who hails from the Spotted Pig Farm , in the catacombs beneath City Market for his debut opposite the mansion's fictional owner — a purveyor of what the characters call the darker side of pharmacology.

The film shoot's efficiency in both timeline and budget is a feat made possible in part by Hoosier hospitality and Pigasus co-owner Gordon Strain's connections, Spicer said. That preserved the timeliness of "The Duel's" message.

"The movie may have been made if it weren't made in Indiana, but it would have been years down the line, and it would have been so much more expensive," Spicer said. "They wrote it to kind of address a moment and questions that were arising in the moment."

'A movie fundamentally about love'

"The Duel" uses an extreme situation to ask more questions than it answers — about the bonds of friendship, the consequences of broken trust, the ideals that people hope will instill meaning in their lives.

"I think this is a movie fundamentally about love, as weird as that sounds," Sprouse said. "I think this is about male love in a lot of ways and love between friends and trying to live up to something."

Within that storyline is an exploration of toxic masculinity, the definition of honor and how society expects people to pay for wrong behavior — especially in the current era of often-empty social media apologies, Spicer said.

And while much of "The Duel's" plot centers around its characters overlooking reason, viewers who aren't familiar with Indiana will quickly learn not to overlook its gems.

"When you tie it into the dark comedy of it, I laugh probably the hardest either when Patrick Warburton is on screen or when I'm sitting there watching this with audiences that are not from here, and they're just like, 'Oh, yeah. That's an estate in California or Mexico.'"

If you go

What: Red carpet premiere of "The Duel"

When and where: July 28 at Hilbert Circle Theatre, 45 Monument Circle. The afterparty will be at Newfields and requires a separate ticket.

Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/bd3abpem for the premiere. Afterparty tickets are at discovernewfields.org/calendar/duel-after-party

See it in theaters : Lionsgate is distributing the film broadly on July 31 , with tickets at iconicreleasing.com/events/the-duel

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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana spots play perfect 'surrealistic' role in 'The Duel,' starring Dylan Sprouse