By Margaret A. McGurk
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Willy Wong (Anthony Marquez, left) grills out with Beef Barklage (Clay Colton) in a scene from Three Barbecues. | ZOOM |

They don't get any more homegrown than Three Barbecues.

The feature-length film - bowing Saturday at a sold-out screening at the Madison Theatre in Covington - was not only written and produced in Cincinnati by a cast and crew of local talents (many of them veteran commercial artists), it was inspired by a local songwriter.

Producer Molly Donnellon said co-writer Jay Metz was listening to "Barbecue Nights" by Jason Drenik, a graduate of the former local band Family Van, when an idea struck. "Jay said offhandedly he wanted to make a movie about three barbecues in one night."

That touched off a brainstorming session among Metz, Donnellon, director/co-writer Rob Gray and production designer Laura Robinson that eventually led to one of the most ambitious low-budget movie projects to emerge from Cincinnati's grassroots film scene - not to mention one of the strangest.

The "blackened comedy" follows the Gladwells - Chuck (Sam Womelsdorf) and Melissa (Randy Stern) - as they ride a tandem bike (dubbed lil' Miss Daisy) to a barbecue with their neighbors, Vera (Rebecca Lane) and Willie (Anthony Marquez) Wong, famous for grilled weiners and an international ketchup collection.

They all proceed to the backyard cookout of Stan Smiley (Kyle Ethan) and his fiancee, Miss Dinah (female impersonator Quasi), featuring "beer-in, bone-in" cuisine, then to a "griller of the year" contest at the home of Beef (Clay Colton) and Candy (Lancaster Smith) Barklage. Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel, of Jean-Robert at Pigall's, appears in a cameo as himself at the competition.

Donnellon said as many as 1,000 are expected at the premiere, to be followed by performances by Buckra (lead singer Dylan Speeg appears in the film) and The Chants.

Donnellon said the filmmakers have just begun to work on getting the movie into showcases where it may find commercial distribution. "We just submitted it to the Chicago Underground Film Festival, but our efforts have been tied up in the premiere. Immediately after we're going to start laying out our calendar for film festivals."

The film has its own Web site, www.threebarbecues.com.

E-mail mmcgurk@enquirer.com