'The New Tenants' co-producer Erika Hampson, up for award

ValleyBreeze.com
Root for the hometown girl on Oscar night
By FRANK O'DONNELL, 2.17.10

When you watch the Oscars telecast on March 7, look carefully. You could see a Cumberland native on the stage making an acceptance speech.

"It's fantastic," says Erika Hampson. "It's amazing that we're going this far with it."

"The New Tenants," which Hampson co-produced, is among five films nominated in the Shorts category for an Academy Award.

The film stars Vincent D'Onofrio, perhaps best known for his role as the quirky detective Bobby Goren on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

"I moved to New York right after college and got really lucky," says the 32-year-old Cumberland High graduate. "I started as a production assistant on 'Criminal Intent.'"

As the first-team production assistant, she dealt with all the principal actors. "I would take them through their day, greet them in the morning, get them into hair and makeup, make sure they had what they needed. And I got to know Vincent very well."

When D'Onofrio opened a production company, he invited Hampson to join him as an assistant, "with the promise that I'd become a producer."

Over the summer of 2008, Hampson produced a feature film which D'Onofrio directed - a "slasher/musical" called "Don't Go into the Woods."

"It's not as cheesy as most musicals tend to be," says Hampson with a chuckle. It features a band that retreats to the woods in search of inspiration for their new album. A bunch of groupies follow them, and, oh yeah, there's a maniac out there. "People go into the woods, they sing, they die."

One good thing that came out of the movie was Hampson's relationship with Sam Bisbee, who wrote all the music for the film. "Two months after finishing, Sam called to say he had his hands on the script for 'The New Tenants,' and wondered if I'd be interested in helping him produce it."

Hampson refers to it as "a little in-house family project. A very low budget. We pulled in a lot of favors." D'Onofrio agreed to play a role, and convinced another actor, Kevin Corrigan, to join the cast. By the end of 2008, production was complete.

"We had a discussion on how to get it qualified for the Oscars," said Hampson. "It had to show commercially in two theaters. There are 10 or 20 theaters throughout the U.S. that are Oscar-qualifying theaters."

They found two theaters in Los Angeles that agreed to show the film. From there, it was a simple application process.

"Eighty or 90 short films qualified," says Hampson. "We found out this past December that we were on a short list of 10. So we knew for a month or so that we had a 50-50 shot." Full article

Thanks Jenn!

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**Rhode Island native Erika Hampson has also produced the short film, "Ipso Facto" with Vincent D'Onofrio.