Meet The Millennial Producer Of Chace Crawford’s Chilling New Movie ‘Eloise’ – Elite Daily

If you ever find yourself in Wayne County, Michigan, its worth asking the localsto point you to Eloise, or rather, what remains of Eloise, the group of buildings that was once its own city and operated as an insane asylum throughout the 1900s.

Eloise began as one building in Westland, Michigan in 1832 and eventually grew to encompass 900 acres of land with 78 buildings, including a poor house, tuberculosis sanatorium, hospital and asylum. It permanently closed in1982.

If youre interested in historic sites, outdated medicinal practices or anything having to do with the paranormal, youre boundto be intrigued.

Largely considered one of the most haunted places in the country, Eloise isthe perfect setting for a horror movie and thats exactly whatSanford Nelson realized.

Nelson, born and raised in Michigan, was just 23 years old when he first came up with the idea for a horrorfilm based around Eloise. He started doing some digging andimmediately knew his research would translate well to the big screen.

Eloise soon became thebackdrop forEloise, a feature film five years in the making that starsChace Crawford (Gossip Girl) and Eliza Dushku (Bring It On and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), which was finally released in theaters worldwide this February.

(You can also buyit on iTunes and freak yourself out fromthe comfort of your own home youre welcome.)

The movie itself is chilling in the way psychological thrillers should be butwhat I foundeven more fascinatingis the deep-rooted connection to the mental hospital.

Its the kindof movie that haunts you long after you watch. The blurred lines between history, fiction and the paranormal led me down arabbit hole of internet searches when I got home, but I digress.

What really sets this movie apart is the fact it was conceptualized and produced by Nelson, a millennial and first-time producer who had never worked on a movie set before.

Nelson went to business school at University of Colorado Boulder before transferring to, and graduating from, University of Michigan, where he studied film and communications studies.

Elite Daily got the chance to screen the movie (seriously, go see it) and sit down and talk with Nelson, now 28, about how Eloisecame to be, what he learned from his first film and whats next for him in his career.

Sanford Nelson: I didnt know that I always wanted to be in film, but its always been something that really interested me. I enjoyed the classes I took about it.

Michigan, at the time I graduated, had a really burgeoning film industry here with the tax creditsthey were offering, and I was working at aproduction facilityin Michigan. So that piqued my interest andallowed me to see some up-close productions being made and developsome working relationships with people in the industry.

SN: All of the above. Definitely excited and proud of the fact that the movie will be seen by people all over the world thats the ultimate goal. Its a very competitive business with a very narrowcorridor to be able to get your content distributedboth theatrically and On Demand, and on all the different platforms worldwide.

Im relieved and proud that Im finally at this point. Its been a very long process, five years, so Im just happy that the movie is going to be seen and hopefully enjoyed by many, many people.

SN: I started researching Eloise and just gathering as much information I couldI interviewed some people at Wayne County that own the property, that have always owned Eloise My great uncle did his residency there for medical school I interviewed a couple of his friends. I talked to some other people who had family members there. I just collected as much informationas I could, started to formulatesome ideas.

Then, I took what I had compiled to some contacts that I had at WME, a talent agency in Hollywood (I hada summer internship there in 2010). They connected me with a literary agency and I started reading screenplays from different writers thatwork in thehorror/thriller genres. I read a script called The Vatican Tapes by Christopher Borrelliand I really liked it, and I liked Chris style, and I had a phone call with him and we talked a little bit about what Eloise was.

I flew him out to Detroit, where we toured the remains of Eloise and had more conversations and then we got workingon the script. And it was about an eight-to-10-month process. Him working on a first draft, working on a second draft together That was the first step.

I never worked on a movie before, let alone produced a movie, so I was kind of just figuring it out as I went. I knew those first few steps The first step is to find a writer to create a screenplay.

SN: We were there for a week. It was never a doubt in my mind that we would eventually get access to film there, you just have to deal with the red tape. As with anything in business, when there is something you want to achieve, you need to go through the rounds and do what it takes to get it done. It was important for me for authenticity and for thefilmmakers involvedto do some filming there wheneverwe could because it was still standing.

We had to deal with Wayne County in terms of scheduling getting the rights to film at the place, to call the movie Eloise, to refer to the insane asylum, we had to do some environmentalcleanup, stuff like that, but nothing too major.

So it did take some time but eventually we got it all done. It took some patience, working through the red tape, that process and the whole process of the entire big picture of it is about being persistent.I live by this motto that persistenceoutweighs resistance.

SN: Everything about it was hard, and especially back then, I had neverworked on a movie before. As the lead producer on this, I had my hands on every single thing thatcame up. So, all of it was hard and all of it was something I was dealing with for the first time. I made decisions based on my gut as well as the professionals I was working with. Ihad to rely on thosepeople.

And plentyof mistakes were made along theway, you just have to figure it out. Whats the point of making a mistake if you dont learn from it? So you move on. Nothing is the end of the world and you just keep pushing through it Sometimes I felt like I was just walking around with a fire extinguisher putting out metaphorical fires.

SN: Thats a hard question, I dont know if I have the patience for directing. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for directors.

SN: He was an amazing guy, extremely skilled. Hehas an incredible eye, incredible taste one of the most skilled people in his field in the entire world so it was a blessing and pleasure to work with him.

SN: Kill Bill (Volume 1 and 2),Casino, Network, The Godfather Part II and Citizen Kane.

SN: Jerry Weintraub, for sure. He had an amazing, amazing career. I was lucky enough to meet Jerry. I sort of met him by chance and convinced him to give me his contact info. And after a year of following up and following up he eventually agreed to meet with me.

He always said, You have to look for that story that you hearon the news oryou read in the paper that you have the vision that could be this great property for content to develop. And thats how you find original stuff.

SN: I am working o a new project, film project. Action comedy. Its a much bigger project so its going to be a long time to put it together. There are some producers who try to get as many projects going as they possibly can but thats not how I want to approach it. I dont want to have a ton of stuff in development.

I just finished my one project, and it was my first project ever. I learned a tremendous amount and I still have so much to learnand every project is different in terms of the mechanics behind it so Im approaching it a little differently, definitely taking it a little slower.

In the meantime, [Im] working on other entrepreneurial pursuits.I never envisioned myself as being just a producer forever I live in Detroit its a very exciting place to be right now, and the city is totally being transformed. Theres a ton of opportunityhere.

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Mary Kate is an Entertainment Editor at Elite Daily. She moved to NYC after studying Journalism at the University of Georgia. Follow her on Twitter/Instagram @mkhoban.

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Meet The Millennial Producer Of Chace Crawford's Chilling New Movie 'Eloise' - Elite Daily