Wrtier-Director Lee Toland Krieger.

By Lloyd Garrison

A low budget film written and directed by Lee Toland Krieger, a promising filmmaker with one feature length movie behind him, will be shot in a variety of locations in Norfolk starting March 10 and extending into April.

The film, budgeted at a modest $1 million, is entitled “The Vicious Kind.” According to Lindsay Lanzillotta, one of the co-producers, the screenplay calls for a small town New England setting. “This is a cautionary tale,” said Lanzillotta, who was reached by phone in Los Angeles. “It delves into how poor morals and bad parenting can break a family apart and lead to nothing but heartache for all involved, even many years after the fact.”

Krieger, who has close family ties to Rhode Island, considered filming there. But after a friend who lives in Falls Village recommended Norfolk, a brief scouting trip here persuaded him that Norfolk was the better setting.

Krieger, who grew up in California, is the grandson of actor Lee Kreiger (“Gunsmoke,” “McHale’s Navy,” and “The Andy Griffith Show”). After graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television, he began working under such experienced producers as Steve Perry (“Lethal Weapon”) and Gail Mutrux (“Rain Man”).

In 2003, he wrote, directed and produced “December Ends,” his first feature length film. Set in New York and Brooklyn, it was filmed on a shoestring $75,000 budget during a semester break while Krieger was at USC. It is a gritty drama in which two young lovers are caught up in a deadly drug war, and it won Best Picture in a field of 65 entries at the eleventh annual Los Angeles Method Fest. The festival, while lacking the glitz surrounding Sundance in Utah, provides West Coast critics and Hollywood studios easy access to the latest work of untested independent filmmakers.

A Variety critic described “December Ends” as a “promising debut” and commended it for “deftly handled performances, character dynamics and urban atmosphere.” Lee has also directed a number of short films and music videos.

Casting details of “The Vicious Kind” will be released soon, probably next week. Lanzillotta said that one leading actor is currently appearing in a major HBO series and that once all the actors are formally signed and their names made public, the female lead “will be widely recognizable.”

A number of Norfolk residents could become intimately engaged in the production. Some extras will be enlisted locally and the producers are anxious to hire local caterers to feed a sizeable film crew. The producers are also looking into renting houses to put up the crew.