Getting ‘What Goes Up’ into theaters a labor of love for producers

Giving birth is never easy -- even when the offspring's cinematic.

Just ask Las Vegans James Hoke and Anthony Miranda, proud parents -- and executive producers -- of "What Goes Up."

The independent drama -- set in 1986, just before the launch of the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle -- opens in Southern Nevada theaters today, bucking the summer blockbuster crop with a quirky tale of a morally compromised reporter who falls in with a group of misfit teens. Steve Coogan ("Night at the Museum's" Roman warrior Octavius), Hilary Duff (TV's erstwhile "Lizzie McGuire") and Olivia Thirlby ("Juno," "The Wackness") lead the cast.

Two-thirds of Three Kings Productions, Hoke and Miranda make their big-screen production debut with "What Goes Up."

And Hoke, for his part, had no idea what he was getting into, he acknowledges. "The stage is different in so many respects."

An entertainment marketing veteran, Hoke has produced a number of theatrical productions in Las Vegas and around the world, including Japan's "Matsuri," which he brought to the Riviera in 2006.

That show turned out to be the link between Hoke and Miranda, a longtime studio musician and composer, who's played drums and percussion for everyone from Johnny Mathis to Madonna.

Miranda became entranced by "Matsuri's" live percussion and saw the show more than a dozen times.

"After he came back for the 15th time," Hoke recalls, he and Miranda struck up a friendship -- which in turn led to their Three Kings partnership. (The third "King," silent partner Joe Nahas, is based in Southern California.)

Searching for their first screen project, the "What Goes Up" script (by director Jonathan Glatzer and Robert Lawson, adapted from Lawson's play) "jumped out" at them, Hoke recalls.

In part, that's because it reminded him of such '80s teen hits as "The Breakfast Club" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" -- a project that "could be a really smart teen cult film," he explains.

Budgeted at $4.5 million, "What Goes Up" filmed in late 2007 in Vancouver -- in part to take advantage of tax incentives offered by the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Miranda (who also produced the movie's soundtrack) relished the creativity and control of the production process, especially after years as a musician-for-hire.

"This whole production side makes that look a little boring," he says.

But the production process proved a challenge as well, Hoke adds.

When you're just an audience member watching a movie, "you move on," he says. "Never in a million years will you comprehend what went into (making) that hour and a half."

In the case of "What Goes Up," that includes the post-production battle to get the movie seen on the big screen.

Sony Home Entertainment is scheduled to release "What Goes Up" on DVD on June 16, but officials "had enough confidence in us to let us go ahead and promote this film" by freeing up the theatrical rights, Hoke says.

Distributing the movie on a do-it-yourself basis, Three Kings is scheduled to open the movie today in Las Vegas and five other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Ill., and Miranda's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., where the movie won the audience award at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival.

Three Kings is relying on a "guerrilla marketing" Internet campaign -- and their passion for their movie -- to drum up interest. (It doesn't hurt that Duff's soundtrack single, "Any Other Day" -- which she wrote with Glatzer and Lawson -- is on iTunes' "What's Hot" section.)

Although there's always the danger that "you (could) get lost in that big Hollywood shuffle," Hoke says, he and Miranda "will exhaust all our efforts to get this film out."

After all, "We only have one shot with this," he says. "This is the essence of independent filmmaking."

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.