Fall Guy
Cheeseman adds a touch of Midwestern fall to a feature film.
When he was younger, filmmaker Luke Cheeseman (WC ’02) had his eyes focused and his heart set on heading west.
“When I was in Ohio, I wanted to go to California,” Cheeseman said. “I grew up listening to The Beach Boys and I even worked at Hollister, which is based on the L.A./Southern California life.
“I had a group of friends I was doing music stuff with, and you always have that ambitious dream of ‘Let’s all be in a band and move out to California.’”
However, the more time Cheeseman spends in California, the more he misses the fall season in Ohio. During this interview, Cheeseman was driving to a pumpkin patch in Solvang, Calif. (about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Los Angeles), trying to recapture that Midwestern feeling.
So, when he and his writing partner, Jim Frye, wrote “The Engagement Plan,” he made sure it was set in a small Midwestern town in the fall.
“I love the fall in Ohio,” the filmmaker said. “I just wanted to create something that occurs during that time of year.
“What’s interesting is they wanted us to avoid the word ‘fall’ in the title because people might associate it with that time of the year. Sometimes, when you have a Christmas movie or the word Christmas in a title, some people will only watch it during that time of year.”
“The Engagement Plan” was released on the American Family Network in 2024. According to Cheeseman, the story is a fish out of water in the vein of “Meet the Parents.”
City dweller Wade (played by Jack Schumacher) thinks he’s come up with the perfect way to propose to his Midwest farm girlfriend Kayla (Mia Pollini). He has the three-carat diamond ring in his pocket and has reserved suites at the Waldorf Hotel for his and her parents.
Wade’s ideal plan hits a bum steer—or, actually, a pregnant cow. A cow on the farm that Kayla grew up on is set to deliver at any moment, which means her parents can’t attend the proposal ceremony.
Wade’s flawless set-up takes a sharp left turn as the venue for the proposal is changed to her family farm. Later, Wade’s parents add to the culture shock when they visit the rural setting.
The movie attracted a host of actors with International Movie Data Base credits. Schumacher was in “Top Gun: Maverick,” and Pollini was in “Suite Life of Zack and Cody.” Wade’s parents Dash (Judd Nelson) and Margot (Eva LaRue) and Kayla’s folks Ed (Ted McGinley) and Marilyn (Faith Ford) made their mark in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nelson, a member of the Brat Pack, played the troubled John Bender in “The Breakfast Club” while LaRue has been on two soap operas, “All My Children” (Dr. Maria Santos Grey) and is currently on “General Hospital” (Natalia Rogers-Ramirez). McGinley has a host of film credits, including “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Married with Children,” and Ford was Corky Sherwood on “Murphy Brown” and Faith in “Hope & Faith.”
Cheeseman has been encouraged by the comments he has received about the movie. He and Frye had a small viewing party the weekend “The Engagement Plan” debuted.
“It was a cool experience to have friends come over and watch it,” he said. “It was on several times during the week, and it was a pretty amazing feeling to see people like it and comment on Facebook and other social media promoting the movie. Even one of my old Columbus Crusaders football coaches called me to say how much he liked the film.
“Getting that kind of feedback from friends and family was the most life-affirming thing.”
For as long as he can remember, Cheeseman has been a storyteller. When he was little, his mother, Betsy, would take him to the library, and he would entertain himself by writing, illustrating, and creating his own stories. The stories got bigger and more polished as he attended what is now considered the lower school.
As he moved into the high school phase of his life, Cheeseman’s talents as an artist moved up to the forefront. Worthington Christian art teacher Beth Heisey helped Cheeseman earn a scholarship to the prestigious Columbus College of Art and Design.
“Me getting into CCAD was all due to Beth Heisey pushing me within the arts,” said Cheeseman, who also credits photography teacher Tom Burns for the basics of operating a camera.
However, when he attended the Columbus College of Art and Design, Cheeseman was more into graphic design and media studies, but he credits CCAD for exposing him to the various avenues of art.
“In college, I took so many electives because they wanted us to be well-rounded,” he said. “By the time you pick your major during your second year, you’ve gotten a taste of art and the different directions you can go.”
Cheeseman remembers taking a photography class as one of his electives. The professor was very demanding when he reviewed his student’s portfolios, questioning students about why they chose to go from a certain point of view.
“You’d see people get so frustrated, and I thought I didn’t want to show him a bunch of my photos,” Cheeseman said. “I showed my videos instead, and I saw people laughing and being entertained. The professor comes up to me, and he says, ‘I can see what you are doing is working.’”
Cheeseman was then only four classes away from a film major, so pursuing a second degree in film was a “no-brainer.” That’s when Cheeseman started making “my own little movies.”
When he moved to California, Cheeseman became involved with Act One, a faith-based scriptwriting program.
Founded by former Columbus resident Jack Gilbert in 1999, Act One has “a shared vision for widespread cultural change through film and television.” The program has placed many writers in television shows and movies.
The group gave Cheeseman direction in the development of story.
“You can have a major movie (deal), but if the script isn’t any good, the movie is going to suck,” he said with a laugh.
According to Newsweek writer Paul Bond, Hollywood produces more and more Christian content. “There’s a tremendously powerful movement toward Jesus right now that most people aren’t aware of,” Ted Baehr, the founder of Movieguide, told Newsweek. “The nature of man is to be hostile to Christianity and salvation. But there’s more and more people in Hollywood moving in the other direction.”
With the popularity of television shows like “The Chosen” and movies like “God’s Not Dead,” Cheeseman is hopeful about his future in sunny California. He said audiences need to prove to Hollywood that there’s a market for faith-based material.
“Much of this business comes down to money,” he said. “These studios and streaming networks are creating Christian divisions for those sorts of projects and things because they see a market for it.”