Wesley Wang's short film, "nothing, except everything." features some familiar sights for New Jersey viewers: Cedar Grove High School and the Holland Tunnel.
The 12-minute movie, which has 7.2 million views on YouTube and has been shown at film festivals across the country, including at the Garden State Film Festival, is now being developed for the big screen.
The film rights to Wang's short feature were acquired by TriStar Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in April. The film will be produced by award-winning director Darren Aronofsky through his Protozoa Pictures company.
Two of the five shooting days were at the high school, which has served as a shooting location for recent productions, such as the horror film "I Saw the TV Glow," and the TV series "The Hunter's Anthology." Part of a day was spent shooting a car driving through the Holland Tunnel from the New Jersey side while other scenes were filmed around New York City.
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Wang, 20, who grew up in Long Island, said two years after making the film in the Garden State in July 2022, he still could not imagine that it would become a studio production.
"I knew it was probably going to perform better than all of my other shorts because it was more personal and also much larger, and I had more confidence in style and story. But I had no idea," Wang said. "I will say, looking back, it was a great experience."
'nothing, except everything.' on the big screen
Wang, who is entering his junior year at Harvard University, recalled an email he received last fall from the veteran director Aronofsky, known for the 2009 film "The Wrestler," which was shot primarily in New Jersey, and his 2022 film "The Whale."
"When he reached out, I literally woke up to this email from one of my favorite directors. It was just a crazy moment," Wang recalled. "He's a Harvard alum, but I don't even know how he found my email. He contacted me, cold-emailed me, 'Can you drop out of Harvard'."
Wang was especially a fan of Aronofsky's 1998 debut, "Pi," which told the story of a Manhattan-based mathematician trying to find order in the larger world through numbers. That film influenced "nothing, except everything.," which is about a high school senior seeking order amidst chaos in the number 7 as he prepares to graduate and pursues romance with a classmate.
Wang had raised $45,000 to make his short film via the crowdfunding site Indiegogo and money saved from giving chess lessons. When it came time to find locations, he couldn't find what he wanted in his hometown of Jericho, Long Island, so he decided to look west in New Jersey.
That's when Cedar Grove High School came to his attention, Wang said, crediting Cedar Grove resident David Schoner, Jr., the associate director of the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission, for informing him about the school as a shooting location.
"On weekends and in the summer, they have people come in there to actually shoot stuff that are looking for a location for shooting. It was perfect for us because they are experienced in that stuff," Wang said. "David was our contact because he knew how this works. He took us in for a location scouting day, showed us where all the lights are, what to use and what's allowed in the school."
Wang looked back with fondness at filming at the high school.
"It was amazing. It's just a very good-looking school, even the Cedar Grove football field," Wang said. "That's another great location where we got the stadium lights shining down. It's a really beautiful place."
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: YouTube hit featuring Cedar Grove HS and the Holland Tunnel will be a Hollywood feature
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