Sorvino’s tax-funded film finally debuts

Associated Press

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

Paul Sorvino might finally be over his trouble with “The Trouble with Cali.”

Armed with $500,000 in taxpayer funding, the first-time director and “Goodfellas” star shot the independent film in northeastern Pennsylvania six years ago. But the project ran short of cash, and politicians in Scranton demanded to know what he did with their investment. Sorvino, in turn, was stunned and hurt that anyone would question his integrity.

Sorvino is hoping all that’s in the past now that his passion project is about to get its first screening today, at Arizona’s Sedona Film Festival.

The 72-year-old actor said he’s proud of the black comedy about an aspiring dancer and her dysfunctional parents. His Oscar-winning daughter, Mira, has a small role as the title character’s ballet instructor; another daughter, Amanda, wrote the script and most of the score; son Michael produced the movie and also appears on screen. Sorvino himself plays Cali’s father.

“It’s the little film that could,” Sorvino said.

The movie deal originally was pushed in 2005 by then-Lackawanna County Commissioner Robert Cordaro, who called Sorvino a “hometown hero” and said his decision to shoot in the county seat of Scranton would boost the region’s attractiveness as a low-cost destination for filmmakers.

Cordaro lost re-election in 2007, and later was charged with shaking down businesses that held county contracts. He was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison on bribery and extortion counts.

Meanwhile, Sorvino’s film got stuck in post- production, and Cordaro’s successor said the cash-strapped county had no business betting money on an independent feature. The county asked Sorvino in 2008 for a “full accounting of the use of the monies we invested.”

Sorvino took the criticism — and any suggestion that he had frittered away the public’s money — as an affront.

“I have very high standards for my behavior and very high ethics. I would no sooner do a thing like that than jump off a building doused in gasoline,” said Sorvino, whose ties to Scranton go back 30 years.

The bad publicity, coupled with the national economic downturn, made it increasingly difficult for the Sorvinos to get the financing they needed to finish the movie. Paul Sorvino wound up spending about $300,000 of his own money on the $1.3 million film. He said it was foolish — directors “should always use other people’s money” — but necessary.

“It’s been a long, hard haul, but I think there are a lot of reasons to exhale now and enjoy this part of it,” Michael Sorvino said.