'Food' dude

Naperville native lands gig directing teen comedy film

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... Food Boy?

Enter the newest superhero: a high school kid named Ezra who discovers that he can instantly make apples appear in his hands and shoot milk from his palms.

Ezra learns how to control his ability to spontaneously produce food in "The Adventures of Food Boy" - a film directed by a 2000 graduate of Naperville North High School. Dane Cannon, 25, received a bachelor's degree in media arts last summer from Brigham Young University, just in time to spend July and August directing the 90-minute film.

Cannon, who was in fourth grade when his family moved from St. Louis to Naperville, said he was the "science and math" kid in high school but never really enjoyed the subjects. One of his favorite teachers was Karen Quinn, who remembers that Cannon had an unusually good presence in front of the students in her advanced public speaking class.

"He was always the one with the plaid pants and the crazy outfits," Quinn said. "He had such a great personality and sense of humor. He was always able to get a laugh without crossing the line by using creativity and good language instead of using cheap laughs."

When Cannon entered Brigham Young University as a freshman, he signed up for what he thought would be a "blow-off" class: introduction to film.

But Cannon fell in love with it.

"It was really difficult, and because of that, I was drawn to it," he said. "It requires an incredible amount of coordination. It turns out to be a cranial workout, I'd say."

As soon as Cannon attended the first day of class, his mother said he was hooked. Although Shirin Cannon knew her son had been interested in genetics during high school, she said she wasn't surprised his creative gifts and charismatic personality pulled him in a different direction.

"He has a very creative side to him, and it doesn't surprise me in that respect," Shirin said. "Dane is one of those people ... he's a magnet, he's a fun tornado."

Cannon met classmate Sam Mangum, who introduced him to his brother, Marc. Marc Mangum was a corporate lawyer in Washington, D.C., but had started a production company and was working on his first film.

A few weeks after the three sat down to brainstorm about the film, Marc Mangum started thinking about hiring Cannon as director. Cannon was young and had talent and some experience in film - just the type of person Marc Mangum sought.

"We kept coming back to Dane," he said. "A lot of it came down to both Sam's experience (with Dane) and what other people thought (of him).

The dude's an easy-going guy, very ambitious, very talented. I love working with the guy."

Then in June 2006, Cannon directed a short version of the film so Marc Mangum would have an example to show potential investors. A little more than a year later, he spent a month directing the feature film.

"Adventures of Food Boy" stars Lucas Grabeel, who played the role of Ryan Evans in the Disney television film "High School Musical." Mangum also managed to line up other actors from the Emmy award-winning film, which Cannon says was a smart move for the fledgling production company.

"We feel pretty lucky to get (Lucas) on board," Cannon said. "Getting some of the smaller characters from 'High School Musical' made it solid, as well."

A boy who could magically produce food began as a character in a bedtime story Mangum told to his young son. When he was sifting through plot ideas years later, he remembered the stories.

"I filed that away and didn't think much about it," he said. "This is one of the ideas I kept in the memory bank."

Ezra is a top student who is trying to improve his social status at school. But his life becomes more complicated when food spontaneously begins shooting from his hands at exactly the wrong time, causing massive chaos. As Ezra learns to control and harness his power to achieve his goals, he must decide if he agrees with his grandma's advice that "not all superheroes fight crime."

Food is a constant presence in the movie, especially during a schoolwide food fight that Mangum describes as the "messiest, most elaborate food fight set to film." About 80 kids spent five minutes throwing doughnuts, sloppy joes, orange juice, spaghetti and other food at each other in a cafeteria, as camera crews filmed wide shots of the action.

The scene also is one of Cannon's favorites.

"We'd showing everyone throwing food at once," he said. "After two takes, the cafeteria was a mess."

On Saturday, the film will premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival and is slated for a showing May 10 at the DelRay Beach Film Festival.

Cannon next hopes to work with Mangum on a film based on a children's book, for which he is still trying to obtain the rights. But this time, he would like to act as producer for the film.

In the meantime, he is living in Los Angeles and making ends meet with independent production jobs. In the past six months, he has worked in the casting department for E! Entertainment Television and on commercials for brands such as Revlon.

He looks forward to working on films with a larger budget so he can spend more time crafting scenes and collaborating with crew members. He says he loved those aspects of directing as he worked on "The Adventures of Food Boy."

"That creative collaboration with my crew was fantastic," he said. "It's fun to see the whole thing come to life.

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