Los Gatos High School graduates Ben Rekhi and Liz Destro and Bellarmine College Preparatory graduates Nick Fumia, Chris Wolf and Blake Dirickson are now in pre-production for this, their latest film, and it's impressive what this band of twenty-somethings has been up to since high school.

The future looks bright

These childhood friends have fond memories of growing up together, working on homemade movies in their backyards.

"We must have 30 to 40 backyard movies, like Indiana Jones-type movies or little comedies," Rekhi remembers. "With each one we learned a little bit about movie-making. By the time we were 15, 16 years old, we were making cool special effects. We would go see Terminator and then go home and make our own. Growing up in the Bay Area, we had access to a lot of good editing equipment before a lot of people did. Nowadays home editing is a lot more common."

After high school, Rekhi and Destro set off for New York University.

Rekhi attended the School of Film and Television, where he directed, shot and produced several award-winning short films. He got his first break in the feature film industry working on the set of O Brother, Where Art Thou? as a camera intern, which prompted George Clooney to hire him to shoot the behind-the-scenes documentary for his directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Rekhi went on to work in development, production and management at New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures and MGM before starting his own production company, Drops Entertainment. Under Drops, he produced the independent feature films Bomb the System, which Dirickson worked on, and Waterborne, which Wolf worked on.

Bomb the System was nominated for the prestigious 2004 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature against the movies Monster, House of Sand and Fog and Thirteen, and Waterborne won the Special Audience Award at the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival. Cast members for these two movies have appeared in such hits as Office Space, Spiderman 2 and Napoleon Dynamite, as well as the TV show Malcolm in the Middle.

Fumia attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he continued to write and direct short films. He also worked at Capitol Records on music videos and footage of live performances and behind-the-scenes videos for such acts as Paul McCartney and Coldplay. After school, he worked at Paradigm Talent and Literary Agency, reading movie scripts for possible production deals.

Likewise, Wolf earned a degree in film production from Loyola Marymount and worked at Capitol Records on music videos for the likes of Liz Phair and The Dandy Warhols. He also worked at Mirimax in post-production on such films as Dusk 'Til Dawn and The Substitute, on commercials for Sprint and Coca Cola and on music videos for Madonna.

Destro graduated from NYU with a double major in politics and Slavic studies. While at NYU, she interned with Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Upon graduation, she attended New York Law School with a focus on entertainment law and intellectual property. She served as legal counsel at fashion companies Nautica Enterprises and Double Penny Collections, and passed the bar exam after graduation.

Dirickson attended USC and graduated with a degree in economics. Returning to the Bay Area, he worked at his father's auto dealership in Santa Clara, selling cars by day and entertaining audiences with his standup comedy by night.

This is where the idea for Car Babes came from.

'Car Babes,' here we come

These five friends found their way back to each other, and back to the Bay Area. That led to the fledgling script.

During his days selling cars in Santa Clara, Dirickson would call up his friend Fumia in Los Angeles and entertain him with stories about life at the dealership.

"I expected [car salesmen] to be cheesy and sleazy, but they were good guys," Dirickson says.

"He would tell me stories about working on the lot, and I thought, 'wow, that's a good story,' " Fumia says.

Fumia moved back to the Bay Area to take a job at Dreamworks Animation, where he got the chance to work on projects like Shrek 2. The two friends set to work writing a script about the real lives of car salesmen. When they were finished, they spread the word to Rekhi and Wolf.

"I didn't know anything about the script, but I was sold on the name," Wolf says. "Blake said people on the lot would call each other 'babe' a lot."

Rekhi was also sold once he read the script. "What really excited me the most was this inside look at this occupation you don't normally see. Most people have bought a car before, but this is what's going on in the minds of the people on the other side of the table. It's never really been told before," Rekhi says. "And it was hilarious."

Destro got involved as well.

"After college, I was looking for a job and didn't really know what I wanted to do, and then Ben called me and asked me to do the operating agreement for the production company they formed, Drops Entertainment," Destro says.

"For her to jump into film production full-steam, it's a testament to how diverse her skills are," Rekhi says of Destro. "She's the integral part of the legal side."

The group knew instantly they wanted to film at many of their old haunts in Los Gatos and Saratoga.

Today, pre-production is in full swing. Car Babes has already secured a grant from Panavision Woodland Hills for the use of two 35-millimeter cameras, and casting director Lindsey Kroeger--who has worked on such hits as The Matrix series and the forthcoming Superman Returns--has signed on to help attract talent. Every day they are finding more investors and resources, and they couldn't be happier that most of it is coming from businesses in Los Gatos and Saratoga.

"We're really happy to be shooting up here; the community is really helping us out," Fumia says.

"We put up an ad on Craigslist and got 350 responses from people who want to work on our film," Dirickson says. "There's a big filmmaking community here that not a lot of people know about, so we want to help cultivate that."

"One of our goals is we want to put Los Gatos on the map as a film community," Rekhi says.

The group says that restaurants such as CB Hannegan's and Pedro's, the Moore/Buick/GMC dealership, Towne Financial Services and the Lions Club in Los Gatos have been a big help, as well as Demetri's: The Hair People salon in Saratoga. They are tentatively planning to shoot scenes at CB Hannegan's, Pedro's and Demetri's, and are still on the lookout for a South Bay car dealership that will let them film on site.

They are also still searching for businesses interested in investing money or resources, and the talent of an executive producer.

"As far along as we are, there's still a lot of help and support we're looking for," Rekhi says.

The group says there are many benefits to getting involved, including learning how a movie is made and getting to work with five local people who care about the community. Plus, they are very optimistic about the return on these investments.

"Ben's track record is going to show people this movie is going to be seen. It's awesome; he's been able to create films that people the world over have seen," Dirickson says.

"I think this film has all the potential to be a big commercial success," Rekhi says. "And we all believe in it with all our hearts, and that attracts people. People want to be a part of that. The sky's the limit."

So, be on the lookout for camera crews wandering around downtown Saratoga and Los Gatos beginning in July.

"You'll see us. There'll be a buzz around town; we'll be jumping around, filming everywhere," Rekhi promises.

Visit www.carbabesthemovie.com. To get involved, call Blake Dirickson, producer, at 408.242.5838.