After he unsuccessfully ran for Hudson county executive a little more than two years ago, subsequently ending his political career after a four-year stint as mayor of Guttenberg, Peter LaVilla said that he wanted to return to his true love.
"I wanted to get back to writing and directing," LaVilla said. "That's what I do best. I gave politics a try and that was that. I had to go in a different direction."
For about a year, LaVilla turned his attention toward writing plays. In fact, his play, "The Ghosts of Henry Hank," had a six-week run off-Broadway in May of 2001.
Once while LaVilla was performing in the play, a film producer/director named Matt Bora was in the audience.
"He said that I should turn the play into a movie," said LaVilla, who once acted in Bora's feature film, "Big Foot," a few years ago. "We became good friends. I wrote a script, showed it to Matt and he fell in love with it. So we began shooting a film."
With a little bit of tinkering, the play "The Ghost of Henry Hank" was transformed into a motion picture titled "Mr. Las Vegas," that was shot locally last November, using several actors from Hudson County.
"We filmed in North Bergen and Guttenberg for about 10 days," said LaVilla, who wrote the screenplay and is reprising the role of Henry Hank in the movie, directed by Bora. "We have eight actors in the movie from Hudson County, so it has a nice local flavor."
The cast includes North Bergen residents Roy Del Toro, Richard Serrano and Vito LaVilla, the son of the former mayor. Also in the cast are Nicole Falcon of Guttenberg, Duane Baker, Joe Rosario and Joe Russo of Union City and Crystal Brock of Jersey City.
The movie was made on a shoestring.
"There are two kinds of independent films," LaVilla said. "Low budget and no budget. This was a no budget. I tried to keep everything going with no money, but I've always been able to squeeze the nickel."
The movie is based on a down-and-out comedian who was popular when Las Vegas was just getting started in the 1950s.
"Henry Hank is an old-timer, like Pinky Lee or Soupy Sales," LaVilla explained. "But he doesn't change his act. He falls in love with a woman 20 years his junior and the movie is based on his life."
After finishing the film, LaVilla submitted it to several organizations, requesting that they would include a showing of his movie in their film festivals.
"It's a crap shoot," LaVilla said. "If they like the movie, then they might decide to show it. But nothing is certain. Film festivals get thousands of submissions. They show maybe 100."
LaVilla was extremely fortunate because on one of his first attempts, a film festival contacted him to tell him they would include his movie.
"Mr. Las Vegas" has been selected to be shown in the ARPA International Film Festival in Los Angeles, being held at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood Sept. 28-29.
"I'm ecstatic to be included in the film festival," the 62-year-old LaVilla said. "I'm honored and proud that we will be represented. It was a lot of hard work making the film, but this should be a lot of fun, having the movie shown."
LaVilla doesn't know where the presentation in the film festival will lead him.
"There are some producers that come to these festivals looking to buy independent films," LaVilla said. "It's a showcase, an exposition. Maybe this will open doors to other screenplays."
LaVilla has been invigorated by the inclusion in the film festival is hard at work completing another film, entitled "Oil and Water," that will be presented locally sometime next month.
"I'm excited that my work is getting recognized," LaVilla said. "I'm glad that I'm out of politics. I gave it a try, but my life has obviously taken a different direction."