By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
For most of its 90 years of existence, the brick building at 800 Fourth St. was known as Liverpool High School. Later, it was renamed Zogg Middle School, memorializing Prof. A.V. Zogg, who served as high-school principal there in the 1940s.
During the 1990s the place was converted into a multi-purpose office facility often referred to as the Zogg Building. For most of this century, it has been known as Liverpool Community Church.
Five years ago, the church sold the property to a couple of Thai investors, and last year Hollywood director Jeremy Garelick bought the building and its six-plus acres for $1 million and announced a tentative name: Liverpool School of Cinema.
Last week, village residents noticed that the building’s entranceway bore an even newer name, “Goody Proctor High.” That signage was created for the movie presently being shot at the school, “Looks that Kill.”
The name Goody Proctor has macabre implications. It’s a nickname for a historical figure named Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, who was convicted of witchcraft in 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts.
LSC becomes ASS
Meanwhile, Garelick’s partner, producer/screenwriter Will Phelps, announced that they’ve dropped the Liverpool School of Cinema moniker in favor of a new name: Academy at Syracuse Studios.
“The building is Syracuse Studios,” Phelps explained in an email, “and the training program housed within is the Academy at Syracuse Studios.”
“Looks That Kill” — set at Goody Proctor High School — is being directed by Kellen Moore, who also penned the script about a teenage boy dealing with the ups and downs of being lethally attractive. The black comedy stars Brandon Flynn from Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” and Julia Goldani Telles from “Bunheads.”
“We’re pretty far along in the shoot and will be wrapping late April,” Phelps reported. “The film was entirely shot in Syracuse with many scenes shot at our very own Academy at Syracuse Studios.”
Phelps and Garelick are listed among the movie’s four producers.
American High
Director Kellen Moore’s last project was a short film called “East of Kensington,” a fantasy sequel to the Peter Pan story.
Show-biz website Deadline.com recently reported that Garelick has teamed up with Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment to launch American High. “Staked with $50 million, the new company will generate a slate of high school-set comedy features,” the site stated. “Garelick will tap his relationships to hatch the films, which will be shot in a recently acquired 100,000 square-foot high school-turned-studio.”
The 42-year-old Garelick wrote and directed 2015’s “The Wedding Ringer,” a comedy starring Kevin Hart which grossed $79.8 million, more than tripling its production budget of $23 million.
