Patricia Heaton’s Latest Movie ‘Enslaved by Ducks’ Is Almost Done Filming
The ongoing pandemic has held back most film and television productions. Former Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton’s latest film project with her husband David Hunt is no different.
The movie, called Enslaved by Ducks, was nearly completed in 2019 when all filming was canceled out of caution once the worldwide pandemic had been declared.
Now, finally, the film is on its way to completion.
Heaton and her husband’s new film was sidelined by the pandemic
Heaton and Hunt have been married since 1990 and have four sons. Thus the name of their entertainment production company, which they founded in 2001: FourBoys Entertainment. The company has produced numerous projects including the comedy Moms’ Night Out, the documentary The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania, Walden Media’s Amazing Grace, and TNT’s production of The Engagement Ring.
In 2019, Hunt and Heaton were nearly done filming Enslaved by Ducks when all shooting was canceled due to the announcement that a worldwide pandemic was at hand.
IMDb’s description of the film reads: “Music critic Bob is out of a job, addicted to Zoloft, and trying to wrangle the menagerie of animals that his wife Amy has accumulated. Will adopting a baby cure their existential angst? Or should they just rescue another duck?”
As Heaton told Rachael Ray last month on the latter’s daytime program, “We were filming a movie that my husband and I are financing. He’s directing and we were in Oklahoma City when the pandemic hit. We had five days left to shoot and we had to shut down. We have not been able to get back there to finish it.”
The book that Heaton and Hunt’s film ‘Enslaved by Ducks’ is based on
Enslaved by Ducks is inspired by a memoir of the same name from author Bob Tarte. The book humorously explains how, “in ten short years Bob went from living a blissful, pet-free existence to becoming the harried caretaker of ducks, geese, turkeys, parrots, parakeets and rabbits. He never realized that he was an animal person until he inadvertently became one.”
The author described what his daily life had become, to his eventual delight: “At one time, we had 52 pets, and almost every hour of the day involved some pet chores. Basically, a morning consists of feeding our two cats, duck pen chores, keeping our two cats from fighting, taking care of our African Dusty, and other indoor birds, and trying to stop Dusty from wrenching his metal dish loose and throwing it around inside his cage.”
‘Enslaved by Ducks’ is back on track
Now that COVID-19 constraints are easing, Hunt and Heaton’s film is able to resume production. And the couple is elated.
On a social media post, Heaton thanked the movie’s cast and crew for their patience during the long wait.
“We are so grateful to our dedicated cast and crew who stuck with us for a year after we were shut down by the pandemic,” she wrote. “There are a lot of wonderful people in the world, and we have had the great privilege of working with so many of them on this project.”
Starring Joseph Mazzello as Bob Tarte and Anna Camp as his wife Amy, Enslaved by Ducks also features Heaton’s former co-star from The Middle, Neil Flynn, who portrayed Mike Heck on the ABC comedy.
A release date for the film is forthcoming.
