Fall is just around the corner. That means it's time to plan for hunting season. And if you're a deer hunter, that means deer camp.

Not only is it a place to get together with old friends and go after a big buck, a deer camp is a modern version of the secret society of the past, with its own set of rules, and often a lot of good-natured humor. Actor Jeff Daniels' thought so. That's why he stuck his neck out and created perhaps the funniest hunting movie ever made, "Escanaba in da Moonlight."

Daniels has appeared in more than 45 feature films including "The Hours," "Blood Work," "Dumb and Dumber," "The Purple Rose of Cairo," "Speed," "101 Dalmatians," "Pleasantville," "Arachnophobia," and the television mini-series, "The Crossing," where he played George Washington leading his men across the Delaware.

Like a lot of kids from small towns, Daniels took off for the big city when he decided he wanted to be an actor. But, after 10 years of film and stage acting in New York and LA, in l988 Jeff brought his family back home to Chelsea, Mich., whose other claim to fame is being the home of Jiffy Mix.

When Daniels moved back to the Midwest, people said he'd lose his career. Hasn't happened. People said that if he founded a theater company in Chelsea, an hour's drive away from Detroit, it would flop. Daniels' Purple Rose Theater is flourishing.

Daniels has guts. After he founded the Purple Rose Theater Co., he began writing plays and performing them with local talent. They filled the house, night after night. Another success. His next step was forming a production company, Purple Rose Films. For his first film, he chose one of his most successful stage plays, "Escanaba in da Moonlight," a comedy set in an upper peninsula Michigan deer camp.

Daniels says that no one in Hollywood wanted to fund a movie set in a Michigan deer camp, so he went out and raised $1.5 million from people in Michigan. Many of the investors were people who saw "Escanaba in da Moonlight" performed as a play . at Jeff's Purple Rose Theater or at the Gem Theater in Detroit, where it holds the record as the longest-running play in Detroit history.

"It's basically the story of five people in a deer camp," he said. "The lead character is Reuben Soady (played by Jeff), who is 43 and has never shot a buck, so he's a 'buckless yooper.' ("Yooper" stands for resident of the Upper Peninsula)

"If Ruben doesn't get one this year, he will be the oldest person in the Soady family to not have bagged a buck, except for an uncle who is missing a few screws. His father, Albert, (Harve Presnell) and the others all want to help Ruben break his jinx. As a result, in Albert's Finnish dialect, 'Dat year camp was as tense as a moose's butt durin' fly season.'

"I've described it as 'Jeremiah Johnson' meets 'Dumb and Dumber,' but 'Escanaba in da Moonlight' is basically a hero's journey, where Reuben is guided by his Indian wife, 'Hawk Moon,' (Kimberly Norris Guerro), who is a better shot and very woods-wise. It's not just about deer hunting; it's a spiritual quest with hunting as a metaphor."

"Comedy gives us license to be outrageous," Daniels said.

"Escanaba in da Moonlight" definitely has its outrageous moments: a father-son counseling session in a two-holer outhouse; porcupine urine as a cover scent; visitations from aliens and spirits of ancient hunters; and a wild tavern scene that may influence dancing forever.

The movie is wild and hilarious, but Daniels says this is really a "heart" picture that seeks to present a little-seen facet of modern American life. You can say that again.

The Michigan State Film Office reports the only other film shot in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is "Anatomy of a Murder" in 1959.

Most of Daniels' film was shot in Escanaba, using a lot of locals. The music is scored by Alto Reed, sax player from Bob Seeger's Silver Bullet Band. Ted Nugent supplied props for the hunting camp. "Escanaba in da Moonlight" premiered for a sell-out crowd Oct. 22, 2000, at Detroit's Fox Theater.

Daniels then took the film to Escanaba on Oct. 29, for two more sell-out showings at the biggest space in the area . the 760 seat Chip-In Resort and Casino, owned by the Potawotami Indian tribe. The reviews were great. Time to get serious.

Copies of "Escanaba in da Moonlight" were sent out to distributors far and wide, but none would take it. Film festivals, like the Toronto Film Festival, where Daniels' other pictures, such as "Dumb and Dumber," have premiered, turned him down. Many would have given up at this point. Not Daniels.

He became his own distributor, making expensive copies of the print and contacting theaters. The general release started out in January 2001, in selected theaters in Michigan on Super Bowl weekend. It grossed $250,000 the first weekend, more than any big budget studio release playing in the same area.

News spread, and so did bookings, stretching out into other nearby Midwest states. Its per-screen average rose to higher than any top grossing film in the country. By early April 2001, "Escanaba in da Moonlight" had made its way onto the Variety charts with a higher per engagement box office than either of the Academy Award winning "Traffic" or "Chocolat."

The theatrical release gross, with only a Midwestern showing, rose to well more than $3 million. Then, in 2002, it came time for the DVD release.

A distributor gingerly stepped forward, noting it hoped to sell 20,000 copies of the DVD. Typical of the movie's surprising spirit, to date more 85,000 copies of the DVD have been sold through normal outlets, like Blockbuster, Circuit City, Best Buy and Borders, in addition to other distribution points such as Cabela's.

In case you are still a VHS household, the VHS edition of "Escanaba in da Moonlight" is just coming out this fall in time for deer camp. You can rent it or buy it through all the major outlets, or buy your copy directly from Purple Rose Films.

Daniels admits people living in big cities who have never seen a deer, let alone hunted one, may not get "Escanaba in da Moonlight." But there apparently are a lot of folks who want to see a good, funny movie about deer hunting.

Hopefully the success of this picture will convince Hollywood that money can be made from a movie that has a positive story to tell about hunting.

- Thanks to James Swan and ESPN Outdoors where this article was first published

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I'd feel happy and honored to pay full admission to "Escanaba in da Moonlight" just to watch and hear Randall Godwin sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" - twice.

The first musical eruption by Godwin's Forest Ranger Tom epitomizes the often anarchic nature of Jeff Daniels'hilarious movie, adapted by Daniels from his own hit stage play. While four Upper-Peninsula deer hunters babble feverishly
about their cabin being assaulted by metaphysical forces (UFOS? Native-American spirits?), Ranger Tom serenely glides through the hysterical quartet and lifts his face upward toward some-unseen deity.

Resembling an emaciated silent movie star complete with over-rouged lips and lashes, the stupefied lawman commences singing "Swing low..." in a soulful tenor voice. It's enough to spook the others mute, as though nothing short
of the Second Coming itself (an event Tom anticipates) couldn't top this latest outburst of passionate inanity.

By the time Ranger Tom offers a reprise, he's standing in his underwear and drenched in porcupine urine, a "sacrifice" to unidentified yet noisy creatures of the night.

So what did you want Noel Coward?

Seamlessly transferred from stage to screen, "Escanaba in da Moonlight" elicits more laughs per minute than any film I've seen this year, or last year. Maybe the last decade. It's the first launching from Daniels'Purple Rose Films, an independent arm of Chelsea's Purple Rose Theatre where "Escanaba" enjoyed two runs to sold-out houses, then broke every Motor City longevity record at Detroit's Gem Theatre.

The comedy makes as fluid an adaptation to film as could be imagined. The focus remains on Escanaba native Reuben Soady (played by Daniels, who also scripted and directed the film). It matters not that Reuben is a happily married family man. What truly counts in a land where deer-hunting is a sacred ritual is that 43-year-old Reuben has never managed to shoot a four-legged critter of any breed. Now he's been dubbed 'The Buckless Yooper," a tide spoken both in scorn and fear. Kids razz him en masse from a school bus as he drives his pickup down Main Street the opening day of deer season. Other townsfolk flee in terror, convinced Reuben is cursed by malevolent powers.

Luckless Reuben has reached a crossroads. If he doesn't bag a buck this year, he'll go down in the meticulously updated Soady record book as the oldest Soady male to be "without venison," in the somber words of Papa Alvin Soady (Harve Presnell), who narrates this U.P. fable set in 1989. If Reuben fails, he'll pass his idiot uncle Albert Soady (Guy Sanville in a hilarious one-scener), who shot his buck in '72 while taking his ease in the Soady outhouse.

The husky Daniels doesn't possess the physique or bearing of such a loser, but he evokes such hangdog forlornness, it's easy-to-believe Reuben shuffles through life in a constant flinch. Daniels is ably assisted by most of the original
"Escanaba" stage cast, reprising their roles with the precise toning-down required to modulate stage performances for the big screen. First among equals is the marvelous Joseph Albright as Reuben's dynamic but thick-headed "big baby brother" Remnar. A great character actor, Albright takes to a movie screen like Yooper Tom Izzo to a basketball court. Remnar's sacred, disrupted "deer camp ritual," enumerated by Albright with quiet fury ("I eat Spam and mayonnaise on a Bunny Bread sandwich!"), is a masterpiece of intensity in service of pure farce.

Wayne David Parker was clearly born to play pint-sized madman woodsman Jigger Negamanee from Menominee, who'll guzzle any liquid known or unknown to man - even porcupine urine. Presnell ("Fargo") makes a feisty family patriarch whose heart outweighs his brain, while the very notion of anyone playing Ranger Tom save Godwin seems an outright sacrilege. Kimberly Norris Guerrero("Northern Exposure") is fine in the limited, though crucial role of Reuben's Native-American wife Wolf Moon Dance Soady.

Not everyone will be enchanted by "Escanaba in da Moonlight," which opens across Michigan in hopes of a larger Midwestern (and possibly Canadian) release.

Much of the humor is conceived in the belief that bodily functions are naturally funny. The Farrelly Brothers ("There's Something About Mary") have honed this principle to perfection, and so, for that matter, has Daniels. Still, emission-
shy viewers will likely beat a hasty retreat. Others (myself included)
will find themselves in gross-out heaven.

"Escanaba" exudes a professional slickness when it spins out fantasies that induce chuckles and shudders. Reuben, clad in long underwear, is jeered lustily by hecklers packing the Escanaba High football field ("DA MOTHER THERESA OF DEER HUNTING" reads one sign). Unseen critters stomp like Godzilla deep in the woods, while human heads vibrate at warp speed as they did in the horror classic "Jacob's Ladder." Traversing its slippery slope, the film is almost reverent toward the secrets and surprises nestled away for centuries in Yooperland.

I suspect Daniels is right when he suggests New York and L.A. audiences wouldn't "get' this quintessentially Midwestern movie. After all, what-could be more joyously ours than a film without a palm tree or a skyscraper in sight?

ESCANABA - It took place over the course of just a couple of months as winter turned to spring, but it looks like the benefits of having a movie filmed locally could endure well into the future.

The crew from Purple Rose Films came to town to shoot "Escanaba in da Moonlight" Feb. 28 and were gone by the beginning of April, leaving about $1 million in the local economy, countless movie-related anecdotes and the kind of name recognition most small towns can only dream about.

"Everybody now knows Escanaba," said Delta County Chamber of Commerce Associate Director Jeanne Rose. "They know how to pronounce it. And that kind of publicity you couldn't have paid for."

Rose Cox, owner of Rosy's Diner in downtown Escanaba, couldn't agree more. Shortly after filmmakers began eating meals at Rosy's, the decision was made to incorporate both the restaurant and its owner into the movie.

The same colorful personality that likely got Rosy onto the big screen also made her the favorite of visiting media, in town to cover the spectacle. As a result, people were able to read about Rosy on both coasts, and various points in between.

"It was unbelievable, the amount of publicity we got," she said. "There's been a lot of business from people from out of town who come in to see where they filmed the movie."

City officials say the reaction they get during their travels around the state is pretty similar. City Manager Michael Uskiewicz said a conference he attended a few weeks ago provided more examples of the city's new-found fame.

"They know something about Escanaba. Because of the state-wide media coverage, people are curious. They hear you're from Escanaba and say, 'Oh, tell me about the movie,'" he said.

"It's opening doors of communication with other people, it's made them interested in Escanaba, and I think that's going to be a real benefit."

Mayor Gerald Shapy noted reaction to city representatives at the last Michigan Municipal League meeting was all positive. "A lot of people are envious," he added.

The economics of the event are, in many ways, just as enviable as the publicity. The amount of money Purple Rose spent in the community has been estimated at $700,000 to $1 million.

"I can imagine that it could have been that," said Rose. "They stayed in hotels, ate at restaurants, went out in the evenings when they finished filming, had their lunches brought into them. They moved into the community for a couple months."

"And they sure bought gasoline at the most expensive time," she added.

Uskiewicz said economic theory suggests that money will roll over five times before it leaves the community.

Much of what was left in the community, though, had more to do with good will than it did economics.

"There's this myth about Hollywood actors being arrogant and self-centered," said Rose. "That was the furthest thing from reality with these people. They were gracious visitors to the community, they were appreciative, and generous in their donations," she added, citing the benefit held for the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center in early February and the fact proceeds from the local premiere will be split, largely, between the Community Foundation for Delta County and the Wells Sports Complex "Twice the Ice" campaign.

"They also didn't have to do the film here in Michigan; they could've saved money somewhere else," she said. "And that alone reinforces the good feelings we had about them."

According to Escanaba's Mary Anthony, who served as assistant to Executive Producer Bob Brown, the decision to film here was just one step in Purple Rose's plan to bring the film industry to the state.

"It's just a small piece of what Bob Brown and Jeff Daniels want to do in Michigan," she said, noting that the next step is to get the state government to make filming a little more affordable.

As for this particular project, she said what stands out in her memory is the way the community reacted to it.

"Escanaba came through, as it always does, to offer its hand in friendship, and do what it could," she said. "I was so impressed and so grateful to be a part of it."

However, she also said she's looking forward to the end of this extremely hectic part of the process:

"It will be nice to kick back and watch it after this all settles down."

For some, the dust has already settled. After a small army illuminated the woods near Gladys and Einie Bittner's camp in an effort to capture Reuben Soady's battle to bag his first buck on film, the pair found themselves signing the occasional autograph. As they watched a buck and two does wander into camp while they ate dinner the other night, it likely became apparent things in the Bark River area are pretty much back to normal.

"It seems like, going back there now, it's hard to believe all that commotion was going on," said Einie