Filming: "The Skeptic"

SARATOGA SPRINGS - The Batcheller Mansion Inn is the set for creepy doings for Ballston Spa filmmaker Tennyson Bardwell's second film, 'The Skeptic.'

The psychological thriller features NBC's 'Wings' sitcom veteran Tim Daly, as lawyer Bryan Beckett, an arrogant, conservative and a firm disbeliever in the supernatural, despite the fact that eerie things start happening around him inside the mansion.

Veteran TV actor and comedian Tom Arnold is cast as his law partner, Sully, a man who is prone to conspiracy theories.

The movie will be filmed over the next several weeks in a number of area locations. It is a backdrop Bardwell and wife Mary-Beth Taylor Bradford had in mind since completing their debut film, 'Dorian Blues,' in 2004.

In the time since, the Bardwells have attended screenings across the country for their first independent film, often with their three boys in tow, and have secured more than 10 awards in film festivals from Long Island to Los Angeles.

During the screening of 'Dorian Blues' at the Lake Placid Film Festival in 2004 - a forum Bardwell shared with film veterans Martin Scorsese and Willem Dafoe - the Ballston Spa
movie maker offered that his inspiration for the film was a friendship he struck up with classmate Brian Varga during his college days at Carnegie Mellon. Varga was the first gay person Bardwell had ever met.

'Dorian Blues,' Bardwell said, 'is for anyone who has ever come apart while coming of age.'

His past employment résumé sounds like a character in a Frank Sinatra song.
Bardwell has been a waiter, a lifeguard, a bartender and an all-night convenience store clerk;
a census taker and a pizza delivery guy, in addition to dozens of other gigs.

'This really is my first film attempt," he said.
"It was like walking into a minefield. I'm fortunate that it didn't all just blow up.'

The Bardwells are in the process of securing sites in Albany and Saratoga for the film's regional premier. At the same time, they are moving forward with 'The Skeptic.'

The additional cast for the film includes Zoe Saldana, who has appeared in 'Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,' 'Drumline' and opposite singer Nelly in 'Snipes';
Robert Prosky, known for his on-screen performance in 'The Natural' and on TV's
'Hill Street Blues'; Aida Turturro and Bruce Altman of 'The Sopranos'; Andrea Roth of the mini-series 'A Woman of Independent Means'; and Edward Herman, who recently appeared
in the film 'The Aviator.'

An independently made film, 'Skeptic' does not have a big-time budget, but Bardwell said they were able to secure the big-name cast based on the strength of the script.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian