UPDATE: The movie was released as "A Little Bit of Heaven".

Principal photography for the hang gliding sequence in the upcoming feature film EARTHBOUND (working title) was completed in February on location at the Wallaby Ranch.

EARTHBOUND, a romance film directed by Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman) and starring Kate Hudson, Kathy Bates, Whoopi Goldberg, Gael Garcia Bernal, Treat Williams and Rosemarie DeWitt tells the story of a tough and disillusioned ad executive (Kate Hudson),who battles cancer and falls in love with her doctor (Gael Garcia Bernal).

As part of the story line revolving around her wish to fly, Kate Hudson's character (Marley) and her love interest (Julian) take simultaneous tandem discovery flights at "The Wallaby Ranch Hang Gliding School" and together enjoy an aerial ballet of sorts as they each soar with their tandem instructor.

The filming for the one flight depicted in the movie involved two Dragonfly tow planes towing two new tandem gliders side-by-side for a total of 21 different flights. Multiple camera angles and filming platforms were used. 35mm film footage was captured from a Hughes500 Helicopter flying at close range, from an Aircam open-cockpit plane and from a third Dragonfly. Additional footage was shot from the ground and using a glider-mounted camera.

The director of aerial footage at Wallaby Ranch, Mat Beck (Band of Brothers) and Director of Photography Russell Carpenter (Titanic) have both won major awards (Emmy and Oscar respectively) for their film work.

Joe Greblo and Malcolm Jones are cast as the tandem instructors (a real stretch!) and traveled to a New Orleans studio soundstage for additional close-up footage with the actors suspended in the gliders in front of an fx green screen.

We are told that the final edit should be similar in feel to the famous sailplane sequence in the 1999 movie THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.

We believe this is the first instance of tandem aero-tow instruction depicted in a major motion picture and look forward to its release in theaters this fall.