Can a Famous Name Launch a Film Career?

Feb. 6 -- Jacob Gentry and Alex Motlagh are two 20-something filmmakers from Atlanta you've never heard of, but their first feature film, The Last Goodbye, could change that.

Watch the full story tonight on 20/20.

The film's greatest special effect maybe a marketing idea that went on behind the scenes. It's grabbing attention in Hollywood and giving Gentry and Motlagh their big break.

Until now, the novice filmmakers have made a handful of short films, some for as little as $40. So when Gentry wrote the screenplay for The Last Goodbye, he and Motlagh planned on using friends and family as cast and crew, scraping together pennies to pay for it.

"We had a little bit more money than we usually have, which is none," Motlagh said.

In fact, the duo set up their production office at the only place they could afford, a neighborhood bar.

Meanwhile, 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles, Cassandra Gava, a Hollywood producer was looking for her next project, had an idea. Her idea soon changed the future of Gentry and Motlagh's little film. The idea? Nepotism.

While the filmmakers were prepared to operate on their usual shoestring budget, Gava had something bigger, more expensive — more Hollywood — in mind.

A ‘Big-Name’ Cast

So, rather than relying on a cast of Gentry and Motlagh's friends, Gava thought she'd play on her Hollywood connections and look for some actors with name recognition.

Here are some of the cast of The Last Goodbye: Liam O'Neill, son of Faye Dunaway; Clementine Ford, daughter of Cybill Shepherd; Kansas Carradine, daughter of David Carradine; and Alex Quinn, son of Anthony Quinn.

Dunaway, who won an Oscar for the movie Network, has had her share of success and knows that it often takes a clever ploy to get a break in Tinseltown.

"This film happened to all of these kids because of a kind of interesting conceit of the producer, you know, which was actually a rather good idea," she said.