Merrick moviemaker unveils newest film

A moviemaker from Merrick, Rob Siegel, who wowed audiences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when he wrote "The Wrestler" last year, premiered his directorial debut, "Big Fan," at the Sundance Film Festival on Aug. 28.

The story of Paul Aufiero, a 35-year-old parking garage attendant living with his mother on Staten Island, with an obsessive habit of calling his local local sports-radio station, 760 The Zone, to share his appreciation of the New York Giants over the airwaves, is a tale taken straight from Siegel's Merrick roots.

"As a kid growing up on Long Island, every night I would crawl into bed, turn out the lights and turn on WFAN, the local sports-radio station. " Siegel said in a director's statement. "There in the dark, I would listen in on the lives and obsessions of an exotic cast of characters... Massapequa Mark, Frank from Flushing, Doris from Piscataway...Years later, when I got interested in movies, I gravitated toward films that were about people like the ones I heard on that little alarm-clock radio in my childhood bedroom."

While "Big Fan" stars comedic actor Patton Oswalt, it is a dramatic movie hailed as one of the stars of this year's Sundance Film Festival. Siegel also garnered accolades for "The Wrestler," a dark movie that he wrote about struggling professional wrestler Randy "The Ram." The role, played by Mickey Rourke, has been credited as bringing the once-lauded actor's career back to life after a very public retreat from the spotlight.

Siegel got his start in writing as an editor for the satirical newspaper, The Onion, where he went on to co-write the screenplay for "The Onion" movie and write and edit a number of best-selling books.