Oviedo grad brings martial arts movie to Orlando

Michael Baumgarten was once an elementary school kid growing up in South Florida, tagging along with his single mom of four to her second job at the movie theater. While she ran the concession stands, he watched movies. Now a writer, director and producer living in Los Angeles, he returns to Central Florida this October to debut his latest award-winning film, “The Martial Arts Kid,” where he got his start.

“It’s great to be back,” Baumgarten said. “The UCF/Oviedo/Valencia/downtown area, all of that kind of stuff, that’s a part of me. That’s what makes me who I am.”

Baumgarten said that while he was at Oviedo High School, he was approached by fellow classmate-turned-comedian Tom Rhodes, who worked for The Point After, a local nightclub. Together they loaded and unloaded equipment for local and nationally touring bands. Baumgarten then attended Valencia Community College, but said he didn’t really get a chance to work in film until Disney and Universal opened their soundstages in Orlando.

He was hired in 1990 as a production assistant at Universal for his first film, “The Night Brings Charlie.”

“When I started there, I was the guy fetching coffee, taking the trash out,” Baumgarten said. “I was working completely for free and I was the happiest guy on set.”

From there, Baumgarten said he began booking film after film, working and learning, and after 36 months spent building up his resume in Orlando, he was ready to move to Los Angeles. Kick-boxing champion and action movie star Don “the Dragon” Wilson helped him get his first job in Hollywood, working as a production assistant on the set of Wilson’s film, “Red Sun Rising.” Wilson didn’t work with Baumgarten again until “The Martial Arts Kid.”

“The Martial Arts Kid” will show at the Orlando Film Festival at Sunday, Oct. 25, at 12:30 p.m. at the Cobb Plaza Cinema Cafe theater located in downtown Orlando at 155 S. Orange Ave. Visit orlandofilmfest.com to learn more about the festival, and visit martialartskidmovie.com for more information about “The Martial Arts Kid.”

“The next time I worked with him he was the producer, writer and director, which is basically the highest guy on the totem pole,” Wilson said. “I started with Michael giving him a job and [it] ended up he was my boss.”

Wilson said his brother, James Wilson, pitched the idea of a movie similar to the kid-friendly vibe of “The Karate Kid,” but with a stronger focus on martial arts. Baumgarten said he thought it would be interesting for Wilson to act in a family film.

“I’ve starred in 30 movies. I kill an average of 15 people per movie, and they’re R-rated and there’s cussing and nudity. It’s for a totally different audience,” Wilson said. “Then I go to this film and there’s 8, 9, 10-year-old kids all laughing and cheering, and that’s a new experience for me.”

After James Wilson asked him to write the script, Baumgarten began scouting filming locations in Cocoa Beach, where the Wilson brothers grew up. Funds raised by the Kickstarter campaign for the film surpassed Baumgarten’s $150,000 goal by over $20,000. After an open casting call in Cocoa that attracted 250 people, Baumgarten came up with an idea to include all of them.

“I wrote a scene that wasn’t in the script for the purpose of showcasing all of these awesome people who wanted to be in the film,” Baumgarten said. “It was just amazing they all showed up. That’s something you don’t get in Los Angeles.”

“The Martial Arts Kid” is about a teenager who moves to Cocoa Beach and takes up martial arts after being bullied. Baumgarten said he was bullied in school for being short and thin, and that the film has an anti-bullying message, citing a report by ABC, which found that 160,000 kids don’t go to school each day out of fear of being bullied.

“It’s an epidemic,” Baumgarten said. “The message of the film is [to] protect others, which doesn’t mean just physically, but giving them what they need so that they don’t feel like they have no hope.”

“The Martial Arts Kid” has its red carpet premier in Cocoa Beach on Oct. 24, where Wilson will be presented with an award. Baumgarten and Wilson will then show the film at the Orlando Film Festival on Oct. 25. And on Oct. 27, the film will be shown at AMC Universal’s Cineplex, the place where Baumgarten got his start in film. Baumgarten’s next film, “Paying Mr. McGetty,” will film in Tampa in December, and be in theaters by the summer of 2016. He said Central Floridians should check out his movies, because he hasn't forgotten his home state.

“They aren’t just coming out to watch my film, they’re coming out to watch a film made by somebody who’s one of them,” he said. “The journey has paid off."