Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Lea Thompson says she didn't have to think twice about the prospect of making the Hallmark Movie Channel film "The Cabin," which premieres Saturday (7/30). The actress of "Back to the Future," "Caroline in the City" and her current "Switched at Birth" series fame points out, "I've done so many movies, and so many TV movies, but oddly enough, never a romantic comedy. So to get one in my late 40s is kind of appealing."

The movie has her as a divorcee who takes her children to a gathering of the clan and sporting competition event in Scotland — only to find that her cabin has been double booked with a family headed by handsome-but-difficult single dad Steven Brand. Lea found the actor from Dundee, Scotland, to be "really funny, and really sweet" — and their interaction fun to play. There were, however, unexpected challenges on the production, which actually took place in Ireland, Scottish tartans notwithstanding.

"There's a good reason why Ireland is not Hollywood; the weather is so uncooperative," Lea observes. "It was really cold and really wet. They were like, 'It's a vacation movie. It's summer vacation.' And I was like, 'These leaves are pretty orange. Can we put on a sweater?'" "The Cabin" also demanded a great deal of physicality. "They must have said, 'We need someone to toss the caber. Let's get Lea!' Crazy, huh? I wondered how much they were going to let us do, but we did all that crazy stuff. I was so amazed that no one got hurt."

The one-time ballerina also got to show off her footwork in a dance sequence. She notes, "The crew always appreciates it when you do something physical. It brings everyone together." It was a special family time for Lea herself. "I brought my sisters along — Colleen and Shannon. All my life, I thought they had Irish names, and now we find out that they're fake Irish names. Real Irish names are much more interesting. We are Irish, so it was really a dream come true to be there together."

CASEY ON THE MOUND: Sounds like Brad Pitt has earned the eternal gratitude of baseball player cum actor Casey Bond, who's getting his big movie break playing Chad Bradford in Pitt's Sept. 23-debuting "Moneyball."

"He was very accessible on the set — a truly great mentor, master of his craft," gushes Bond, who was drafted by the San Francisco Giants and then played for three years in the minors before switching to an acting career. "The thing I remember most that he said: After we filmed the first cut of a scene, naturally I wanted to go look at the playback.

He said, 'Casey, don't look at the first playback, ever. It will screw you up every time, I promise.' No need to go look and start thinking too much."

The real-life saga of Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, who revolutionized the game with his modernized, analytical, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, "Moneyball" also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill and Chris Pratt. Complete with cameos by some recognizable faces in the sports world, it already boasts more verisimilitude than the average baseball flick.

"Being a former professional baseball player myself, the authenticity of this thing is beyond any baseball movie I've seen," says Bond, who has been amassing credits in commercials and print ads for the likes of Nike and One-A-Day Men's Vitamins while studying acting. Bradford is known for his extreme submarine style pitching, which Bond says came pretty naturally to him, "but it was strange to get used to. When he pitches — when I pitch — his knuckles almost scrape the ground. After I read for the part, they took me out to see if I could do it," recounts Bond, who was an outfielder in his professional career. "After they saw I could pitch, I had a meeting with Brad Pitt. It was more of a conversation, one person to another, more about getting to know each other than an interview. I guess if you're going to be on a film with someone for eight weeks, you want to find out what kind of person they are. He was extremely down to earth."

Once Bond (www.thecaseybond.com.) got the part, he went into training to perfect his style. A current "Moneyball" trailer opens with Bond throwing right into the camera — a shot managed in one take, he says, with the camera safely behind a Plexiglas shield, of course.

BIG TO SMALL SCREEN: It'll be a fast and presumably intense 18-day production next month on "Innocent," the TNT movie of Scott Turow's follow-up novel to his smash hit first novel — not to mention the Harrison Ford feature — "Presumed Innocent." This time, Bill Pullman is playing the role of Rusty Sabich, who, 20 years after being cleared of the murder of his girlfriend, finds himself under suspicion for the murder of his bipolar wife — and feverishly trying to keep his affair with a young law clerk a secret. (What would Dr. Phil have to say?) The wife, the clerk and Rusty's son are being cast.

SMALL TO BIG SCREEN: Christian Slater, who has had back-to-back series disappointments, is getting back to the big screen in a remake of a John Wayne drama called "The Dawn Rider." He'll play a man who returns to his Wyoming hometown in hopes of mending his relationship with his father, only to discover once he gets there that Dad's been murdered.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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