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 “House of Tomorrow” will almost certainly become a  small movie classic (think “Harold and Maude”)  which means the city of North Branch will be alive in the cinematic arts universe for a very long time.    

The movie was screened in at a special event in North Branch last week and it was followed by a party and silent auction fundraiser at one of the main locations for the shoot.

The movie is from the book of the same name, by St. Paul author Peter Bognanni; (who appears in the movie for about three seconds, riding the metro bus scratching his arm.)
Many people involved in making the film in North Branch two years ago, and about 100 of their close personal friends, enjoyed watching “House of Tomorrow” and about half of them,  attended the party event where the movie was shot at the Natural Spaces Dome Homes campus, east of North Branch.
 
Company co-owners Dennis Johnson and wife Tessa, were thrilled to be part of creating a movie that spreads a message to be-kind-to-Earth.   

The making of the film contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to North Branch area restaurants, convenience stores and motels.  It was reported in a Q and A following the screening,  the movie gave a $750,000 shot in the arm to the state in revenues overall. Film board incentives amounted to about $200,000-- for a three hundred percent return.
Movie props auctioned for Kids Saving the Earth, an organization Tessa is involved with,  ranged from the dome home’s vintage front door, to the chair where “Sebastian” sat to have his hair trimmed by his “Nana”  played by Ellen Burstyn.

There were cheers in the movie theatre when the exterior shot of St Gregory Catholic Church rose up on the big screen and whenever a North Branch police car drove by.

Then, (surprise) Johnson, Natural Spaces owner,  enters the church vestibule playing a white-haired Lutheran pastor answering a knock at the church door.  

The isolated Asa Butterfield, playing Sebastian Burstyn’s grandson, is searching for his new friend Jared, (Alex Wolff) at the church.

Nick Offerman plays the church youth pastor.  

Dennis Johnson said Offerman was very down-to-earth and had a keen interest in the woodshop where dome home component manufacturing happens. Offerman, who is an accomplished woodworker, lingered at the stacks of gorgeous wood finishings for dome homes that are stored in the shop.

Johnson said Offerman would drive to a cabin owned by extended family, just north of here, whenever he could take a break from the movie.

Ellen Burstyn who is in her 80s, made a meal at the Johnson’s dome home one night for everybody.  

Burstyn had known  the man behind the geodesic dome-- Buckminster Fuller -- many decades ago.  Her own personal 8 millimeter films of she and Fuller talking about his work as a  futurist, were used in the movie when Fuller’s teachings would be featured in the script.  Often-referenced were Fuller’s messages of the environmental dangers the world faces and how one person can be part of the solution.

House of Tomorrow was a marketing slogan on a “North Branch” billboard,  touting the dome home tours that Burstyn and Butterfield gave for money.  Fuller’s educational materials and message of more sustainable architecture referred to the house of tomorrow.

But truly, a house of tomorrow is whatever you want it to be,  as long as you stop dwelling in the past.  Spoiler alert--the characters in the movie successfully come to terms with the concept.

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