HOT SPRINGS - Film producer Sean Covel, an Edgemont native, and Alexa Vega, of the popular "Spy Kids" films, will attend a preview Friday of "Broken Hill," a film starring Vega and Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton, at the Hot Springs Theater.

The film will screen at 7 p.m. today and Saturday, Oct. 10, and ticket sales will benefit the music departments at Edgemont and Hot Springs High Schools.

Vega and Covel will answer questions and sign autographs at the screenings.

"I grew up in Edgemont, and so 99 percent of the movies I saw coming up, I saw at the Hot Springs Theater," Covel said.

Covel was a producer on the cult comedy "Napoleon Dynamite," and Vega appeared in the three "Spy Kids" movies. A producer works on most of the aspects of a film, but the success of "Napoleon Dynamite" was unexpected, Covel said.

"They always told us in school, 'If you find something special, other people will, too,'" he said.

Covel hopes that philosophy carries over to "Broken Hill," which will be released to audiences in February.

The film is set in the Australian Outback, where farm boy Tommy has big dreams to create his own symphonies. He and his dream girl, Kat, get arrested when a prank goes terribly wrong. Ordered to complete 20 hours of community service, Tommy forms an orchestra with the inmates of a local prison.

Vega, who portrays Kat, had known Covel for a few years, when he asked her to read the "Broken Hill" script.

"I read through it, and it was really, really great," she said. "I have to say it was the best experience I've ever had in a film."

For more information and a "Broken Hill" trailer, go to www.brokenhillthemovie.com.

Contact Eric Lochridge at 394-8321 or eric.lochridge@rapidcityjournal.com.