Maplewood Rolls Out Red Carpet for Local Movie Stars

Attention SOMA: there are movie stars among us. South Orange teen and Maplewood resident Wyatt Ralff, actors in the critically acclaimed Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom, will be on hand for a special local premiere of the film on Thursday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Maplewood Theater.

Ticket holders will have the chance to meet the local thespians and attend a question and answer session at the end of the movie. Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca and South Orange Mayor Alex Torpey will both attend the event.

Gilman, the son of sales representative Leslie Gilman, has received the sort of reviews that some actors spend their careers dreaming of. A 6th-grader at Newark Academy and a student of on Baker Street, Gilman has been performing for years but this is his first movie role. Not too shabby, considering that his co-stars include the likes of Bill Murray, Bruce Willis and Frances McDormand.

Moonrise Kingdom, which recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s and chronicles the tale of a young boy (Gilman) and girl (another newcomer, Kara Hayward) who fall in love and run away together. Ralff, a student at Marshall Elementary School, plays Hayward's younger brother.

The film, and the teens' performances, have garnered accolades. In its review, USA Today called the movie "literate and magical...an enchanting storybook fantasy with coming-of-age emotional depth." The Los Angeles Times singled out Gilman and Hayward as "rare young talents who don't need words to communicate what they're feeling." Gilman was even featured in a recent New Yorker profile article.

Don't miss this exciting opportunity to hobnob with these remarkable young actors, right in our own backyard!