The BIFF Heats Up with Cold Wallet

THE RIVETING THRILLER, FILMED IN LENOX, WILL BE SCREENED AT THIS YEAR’S FILM FESTIVAL 

By Laura Mars

From the pages of our May/June 2024 issue.

“It’s a really good story,” says Elizabeth Aspenlieder, unit production manager of the film Cold Wallet, a suspenseful film shot in Lenox in which amateur online social commentators (Redditors) played by Raul Castillo, Melonie Diaz, and Tony Cavalero, get scammed in a cryptocurrency scheme, leading them to kidnap the financial kingpin behind the scheme. It premiered to rave reviews at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and will be screened at the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) in Great Barrington on Friday, May 31.

Tony Cavalero, left, and Raul Castillo play characters in Cold Wallet who get scammed in a cryptocurrency scheme. Inset, Lenox’s own Elizabeth Aspenlieder, is the film’s unit production manager. Two other feature films that Aspenlieder shot here in the Berkshires just got major distribution. The Secret Art of Human Flight will be in movie theaters across the country this summer, and Skelly, starring Brian Cox, will be released on major pay per view platforms like Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, Google play etc. in May.

Aspenlieder, who lives in Lenox, has been a company artist and administrator at Shakespeare & Company for more than 25 years. She and Deborah Sims, Cold Wallet’s line producer who also lives in the Berkshires, were brought into the film by lead producer Ben Weissner, who worked with them on other films shot in the Berkshires, including Stroke of Luck (2019) and The Secret Art of Human Flight (2021), the latter screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and in theaters this summer. 

The fact that both women have strong connections to the Berkshires made it easy for Weissner, also VP of sales & distribution at Vanishing Angle production company in Altadena, California, to pitch the Berkshires to the production team. 

The film’s plot can’t help but evoke the real-life story of local entrepreneur Ryan Salame, former chief executive of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency trading platform. He forfeited $1.5 billion and his properties in Lenox (four restaurants and two commercial properties) and made restitution of $5.6 million to FTX debtors after pleading guilty of criminal charges.

“It was a total coincidence,” says Aspenlieder. Director Cutter Hodiern and writer John Hibey had been writing and developing the film at least a year before the news of Salame broke.

“Test Pilot studios wanted me to make a thriller about the doxing of a public villain,” recounts Hodiern. “My friend Justin Staple gave me the idea to make it a crypto heist thriller. I was deeply interested in the characters from the WallStreetBets and Reddit message boards already, so I knew this was right for me. We started developing the idea at Test Pilot and commissioned the most underrated screenwriter in the game, John Hibey, to pen the script. When John and I jam on ideas, fun things always happen. Cold Wallet is that latest fun thing.”

“It's absolutely amazing that this film came along in the time of Ryan Salame,” says BIFF Founder and Artistic Director Kelley Vickery. “I was intrigued by the subject matter and drawn to the cast and so happy that it was a good film, because you never know. All the elements have to come together. Maybe you don’t like the film, or it's not edited properly, or it doesn’t hold together. We very much support independent film and filmmakers in the Berkshires, but we don’t want to throw something in there that doesn’t work.”

Right off the bat, Aspenlieder found the perfect location: her neighbor’s home, Ethelwynde Estate on Yokun Road in Lenox. Built in 1875 for the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Ethelwynde, also referred to as Winthrop Estate because it was once owned by the Winthrop family (1893-1928), was purchased in 2003 by Ethan and Jamie Berg and portrays the perfect escape for the film’s sardonic antagonist, played by Josh Brenner.

“We were able to make some of the rooms look like they were being restored, and having some of the buildings on the property not renovated made it all so perfect for the story,” says Aspenlieder. “Rooms in the mansion were beautifully furnished, excellent for the shoot as well as accommodations for our writer, directing team, and producers. One-stop shopping!”

“We really love filming in the Berkshires,” adds Weissner. “It’s gorgeous, for one, but what’s going to keep us coming back is the support from the community.”

Among many other things on the set, Aspenlieder handled transportation, accommodations, and food. “Some days I had to find food for 50 people—breakfast, a mid-shoot meal, plus a third takeout meal,” she says. “If we started shooting at 6 at night, our dinner break was six hours after that. Where do you find a place that's going to do food for us when we wrap? Almost everything in the Berkshires closes at 9!”

Find places she did, working with Mazzeos, Gateways Inn, and Loeb’s. “It is such a local film,” she says. “The crew worked out at Lenox Fitness. Lenox electrician Scott Pignatelli came to the house on a Sunday night when the power went out in the foyer where were shooting a key scene. I called Bousquet and Jiminy Peak asking for snow because the natural cover melted before we were done. The support from the community was overwhelming!”

Aspenlieder also was responsible for local casting. Abbott’s Limousine in Lee not only donated vehicles for the FBI scene, but their drivers drove the cars in the film. She cast Allyn Burrows, artistic director for Shakespeare & Company, as the bartender in the opening bar scene, as well as herself and local actor/director Michelle Joyner for small parts. All three lost their lines on the cutting room floor but still appear on camera. Acclaimed stage actor Nigel Gore at Shakespeare & Company played the mansion’s groundskeeper.

While BIFF’s selection team is still finalizing this year’s line-up, Aspenlieder, who is on BIFF’s Advisory Board, is thrilled not only that Cold Wallet made the cut, but that Wiessner will participate in the panels.

“One of the great things about the festival is the panels,” agrees Weissner. “I’m a huge supporter of filmmaker education.”

According to Vickery, BIFF will screen fewer than their usual 75 films because one of the Great Barrington Triplex Cinema’s three theaters is undergoing renovation. “The Triplex is the home of BIFF. We are very grateful to the entire team for saving the Triplex; it’s where the festival started. We are strong partners with the Mahaiwe, where we hold bigger events, like openings and closings, and we also screen at Lenox Town Hall and Shakespeare & Company.”

BIFF is May 29 – June 2. The full lineup will be available on April 26 at biffma.org.