CAZENOVIA — On Aug. 27, Cazenovia native Siobhan Fallon Hogan released her new revenge thriller movie, “Rushed,” in select US theaters and on Apple and Amazon streaming platforms.
Written, produced and starring Fallon Hogan, Rushed tells the story of Barbara O’Brien, an Upstate NY Irish Catholic mother whose life is turned upside down when her son Jimmy, a freshman in college, is in a fraternity hazing incident. In an effort to prove the university’s liability, she travels cross-country recording mothers who have lost sons to hazing. When confronted with corruption and cover-ups, she seeks revenge on the one person she finds responsible for her family’s tragedy.
Directed by Vibeke Muasya and coproduced by Lars von Trier’s Zentropa Films, Rushed also stars Robert Patrick (“T2: Judgment Day”); Jake Weary (“Animal Kingdom,” “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise”); Jay Jay Warren (“The Shed”); Peri Gilpin (“Frasier”); Brian O’Halloran (“Clerks”); Jordan Lage (“Madam Secretary”); Rusty Schwimmer (“The Perfect Storm”); rapper Fat Nick; former NFL player Phil Villapiano; and two of Fallon Hogan’s children, Peter Munson Hogan and Sinead Hogan.
Fallon Hogan was born in Syracuse and raised in Cazenovia. She graduated from Le Moyne College in 1983 and earned her master of fine arts degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
She has acted in several blockbusters, including “Forrest Gump,” “Men in Black,” “Holes,” “New In Town,” “Going in Style,” “Charlotte’s Web,” and “Funny Games.” Her television credits include “Saturday Night Live,” “Seinfeld,” “Billions,” “What We Do In The Shadows,” “American Gods,” “Wayward Pines,” “30 Rock,” and “Law & Order.”
Rushed is the first feature length film written by Fallon Hogan, who has previously penned five one-woman shows.
“About three years ago, when I was thinking about writing another one-woman show, I said, ‘Well, I’ve been in enough movies that I should know how to write one,’” Fallon Hogan said. “So I just sat down and started writing.”
Fallon Hogan recalled that she did not set out with the intention of writing a revenge thriller.
“I [started writing] this story of a mom who never wanted to be in the limelight,” she said. “She did something that I really admire, raising children. When her son goes off to college and there is a big problem in the fraternity, she tries to do the right thing and take all the right avenues, but then she comes up against a brick wall, [and I thought,] ‘What does a mom do to protect their kid?’ She takes the law into her own hands and, like the trailer says, ‘Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.’ So it twisted into a thriller unbeknownst to me, and it became a revenge thriller.”
After completing the script in about four months, Fallon Hogan sent it to Zentropa Films in Denmark.
The actress has been in three von Trier films since 2000 — the Palme D’ Or winner “Dancer in the Dark,” “Dogville” and “The House That Jack Built.”
Fallon Hogan said that as soon as Zentropa expressed interested in producing her film, she began calling up actors and crew members she respected and enjoyed working with previously.
The movie was filmed primarily in Rumson, New Jersey, where Fallon Hogan currently lives. The final two days of shooting took place during peak fall foliage in Cazenovia, where she has summered with her family for years.
Locally, filming took place at St. James Catholic Church, at the First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia, and on Ridge Road near Meadowood Farms. The Cazenovia sign at the end of the lake, as well as locations in Syracuse, are also depicted in the movie.
“In Cazenovia, the McKay family put crew up, and my sisters did too,” Fallon Hogan said. “I went on Facebook to ask if anyone would want to rent rooms, and across the board people said, “You’re not paying us for rooms, we will just put people up.”
Fallon Hogan described the filmmaking process as a “family affair.”
In addition to playing the frat boy Vinny, Fallon Hogan’s son served as a co-producer and the film’s music supervisor. He also wrote a scene featuring rapper Fat Nick. Her eldest, Bernadette, who is political reporter for the New York Post, helped write the movie’s news reporting scenes, and her youngest, Sinead, plays a sorority girl.
All three children also stepped in as set designers, helping to transform their family home into the frat house featured in the film.
Fallon Hogan’s husband, Peter Hogan, plays a bar tender; her cousin Frank Shattuck plays a store owner; her sister Mary Bigsby and niece Lizzy Bigsby play nurses; her cousin’s child Mac Conan plays a valet; her niece Siobhan Wright (née Bigsby) plays the maid; and Wright’s husband, Brian, plays the butler.
Rushed is the first film to be produced under Fallon Hogan’s new company, Emerald Caz Productions, which she established with her husband in 2019.
Fallon Hogan said she tried to emulate von Trier’s Danish style of filmmaking when forming her own company.
“They have a completely different way of doing films,” she said. “There really is no above the line and below the line, so they treat the crew just as respectfully as they do the cast. That’s what I [modeled] my company after . . . I hired people that I respected, and I wanted to treat them the way I want to be treated on a set.”
Fallon Hogan also explained that producing Rushed outside the major film studio system gave her the independence to create the movie she envisioned.
“When you produce like this, and you don’t have a studio, there is no one telling you 10 different opinions,” she said. “In the old days, with studios, there was one boss. [This way,] you don’t have to kowtow to people’s weird ideas or ideas you disagree with.”
Two Emerald Caz films are currently in development.
“Shelter in Solitude” will begin filming on Sept. 27 in Cazenovia, Erieville and Syracuse.
“Robert Patrick will be back, playing my brother and the warden, and I’ll be a wannabe country singer,” Fallon Hogan said.
According to Fallon Hogan, the film will be shot locally at the Blue Canoe and Kay’s Country Store in Erieville, the Welsh Church of Nelson, Lane Road, and the residences of Donna and Dan Snyder, Mary Judd, and Mike Maliga.
Rushed is playing at the Catherine Cummings Theatre at Cazenovia College on Aug. 27 and Sept.1, the Camillus Movie Tavern and the Manlius Art Cinema starting Aug. 27, and the Westcott Theater starting Sept. 9.
“Having this movie shown in Cazenovia is totally thrilling,” Fallon Hogan said on Aug. 25. “People like [Public Works Administrator] Bill Carr and [Mayor] Kurt Wheeler have been so good to us by letting us film. People have been unbelievably supportive, and my family has been really supportive. I did my very first one-woman show in my 20s at the Catherine Cummings Theatre. I remember being upstairs and looking out at the line and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. The pressure. It’s all people I know.’ But this is going to be great. I can’t wait.”
For more information on Rushed, visit rushedfilm.com.
