(Story By The Times Union)
Alan Hoover was going to sell his biplane, but after being hired as a stunt pilot and using it in the movie “The Space Between Us,” which was released Friday, he’s decided to keep it.
Alan, 65, and his wife, Lauri, have residences in Winona Lake and Arizona. He’s known for helping start the Warsaw Air Show that ran from 2013-15.
In 2015, the Hoovers were getting ready to go back to Arizona and he put his two-seater plane up for sale on a website. The same day it was posted on the website, a researcher for the movie found it and asked Hoover if he would fly it in the film.
After several weeks of negotiations, Hoover talked to the movie’s executive producer who said they were all in agreement about Hoover and his plane.
“They paid me to fly it to Albuquerque and for three weeks of filming. They said if anything was broke on it, they would pay to have it fixed,” Hoover said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.
“The Space Between Us” was filmed in October 2015. It was going to be released Oct. 19, 2016, but producers decided to release it at Christmastime because they felt it was a better time to release a PG movie.
Hoover said after producers announced the film would be released Dec. 19, it was announced the Star Wars “Rogue One” movie was going to be released that day. So the producers of “The Space Between Us” decided to delay it until Feb. 3 and to emphasize the love story instead of the Mars aspect.
“It really is a great little movie,” he said.
His plane was used as a crop duster earlier and it still had the mounting points on it. A friend of Hoover’s from Shipshewana helped him modify it to make it work as a crop duster again for the film.
Hoover said the movie is about a boy, Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) who was born on Mars and has a pen pal on Earth. His mother was an astronaut and she died while giving birth to him. The boy doesn’t know who his father is, but has a picture of his mother with some man from Earth. He travels back to Earth, and hooks up with a girl, Tulsa (Britt Robertson), to try to find his place in the universe.
The girl’s father is a crop duster, and Hoover flies the plane in scenes featuring the father and the girl.
There’s a whole flying sequence that is about 4 to 5 minutes long, Hoover said.
“I did all the flying,” he said, and the opportunity was neat. When he’s flying the plane as the girl, he wore a wig and part of a costume.
“The director said that as long as they don’t focus more than one second on me, they won’t see the difference. If they focus two to three seconds, they would know,” Hoover recalled.
He said there is one scene where audiences may be able to tell it’s him, but it goes by pretty fast.
“The producer said if all goes well, you’ll be a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and it did,” Hoover said.
“The Space Between Us” is directed by Peter Chelsom (“Serendipity,” “Shall We Dance,” “The Mighty).
“The movie is well done. The director is fabulous,” Hoover said.
Internet Movie Database website lists Allan Loeb as writing the screenplay, with the story by Stewart Schill, Richard Barton Lewis and Loeb.
“Richard Lewis wrote it for his son who was 12 to 13 at the time and was enamored with space,” Hoover said.
During his three weeks of filming, Hoover said he was asked to do a variety of things while flying his plane. A scene involving a barn blowing up was filmed first.
The cast includes Gary Oldman, BD Wong, Butterfield, Robertson, Janet Montgomery, Adande and Carla Gugino. Hoover said it was great to get to know the cast, and he’s listed in the credits under stunt crew.
On opening night of the movie, Hoover said he saw it in Panama City, Fla., while visiting family. He plans to go see it again.
“It was just a great experience,” Hoover said. “They rented the plane from me and paid me as a member of the stunt crew. I didn’t sell the plane.”
For show times of the film at North Pointe Cinemas, visit www.northpointecinemas.com.
