Royalty coming to the big screen

If you asked young Greg Lingo back in the day growing up on Beverly Boulevard in Upper Darby, what he would want to do when he grew up, he probably would have told you, a career in engineering? Football? Baseball perhaps? All feasable. But a screen-writer and movie producer? Even he may have told you that would read like a piece of fiction.

Well it’s a fact and soon the fruits of his new labor of love will be coming to the big screen.

“Crabs in a Bucket” an indie comedy film written and produced by Lingo (Upper Darby Class of 1990) will be out in 2020. The movie stars Golden Globe-winner Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Oscar nominee Bruce Dern (Nebraska, Coming Home), Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black), as well as Monsignor Bonner’s Jamie Kennedy (Malibu’s Most Wanted, Ad Astra) and Cardinal O’Hara’s Pete Postiglione (Silver Linings Playbook). Paolo Pilladi is directing the film which was shot in Bayonne, NJ.

The script centers around real estate developer Mick (Piven), who returns to his fictional hometown of Darby Heights, Pa just outside of Philadelphia after the death of his mother who left him the family’s rundown bar. Mick’s boss wants to raze the rundown pub in an effort to gentrify the neighborhood.

Upon his return, Mick initially wants to sell the pub, return to his sucessful business out of town and once again leave his childhood home behind. But he begins to reconect with his estranged father as well as his deadbeat brother. His neighborhood buddies begin to convince him that his roots are stronger than he thought. And he is tasked with the difficult decision of fight or flight. His decision is further complicated when he is reunited with his first love, Ali.

Lingo, the Creator and CEO of Cornell Ventures L.P. began the inital writing process twelve years ago with another Upper Darby grad, Mike Baughn (1991) and Monsignor Bonner grad, Billy Reilly as well as the film’s director, Paolo Pilladi. Lingo was inspired by his Upper Darby upbringing. The storylines are motivated by real life events. The town itself is it’s own character. The names of the bars in the film, Callahan’s and Cawley’s may have a familiar ring for those of you who have driven past the Irish Riviera (aka the many Irish bars located within a half-mile of another on West Chester Pike).

The crux of the film centers around a neighborhood with low expectations where a person who achieves some degree of success can be brought down by their friends for fear that that person is going to leave them behind. A theme that translates to neighborhoods beyond Delco.

Lingo established and finances the GV Lingo Scholarship, given annually to an Upper Darby student based on need, humanitarian values to assist with educational expenses of a Senior planning to attend a four-year college.Further, he brought tutoring and support to the UDHS football program, introduced the SAT prep program Let’s Get Ready to the high school and is the 2016 recipient of the Upper Darby School District “Service to Students Award” and 2015 UDAEF Acorn Award.

While the principal photography took place in Bayonne, NJ for budgetary reasons, some scenes were filmed in and around Delaware County.

Future Proof Films, Cornell Ventures, and Jars Media Group is producing the film which is slated for release in 2020.