DeLorean stars in hybrid time machine

A film project 15 years in the making travels back to the past and features not one classic DeLorean but two: the car and the man.

Framing John DeLorean — a nifty allusion to both the on-screen narrative and the government's failed drug prosecution against him in the 1980s — chronicles the rise and fall of the former General Motors executive and entrepreneur.

Unlike a traditional documentary, this 109-minute hybrid work has crucial scenes acted out by a cast that includes Alec Baldwin as a very credible-looking DeLorean. A trailer is posted on YouTube.

Producer Tamir Ardon has owned a DeLorean DMC-12, of Back to the Future fame, for 22 years. Ardon told Automotive News that it was DeLorean himself who dreamed up the idea of casting Baldwin. Around 2004, he said, DeLorean called Baldwin and asked if the actor would portray him in a biographical film. That project never got off the ground, and DeLorean died in 2005.

Ardon said Baldwin relied on his "Saturday Night Live" hair-and-makeup crew to transform him into a convincing DeLorean, contrasting eyebrows and all, and was satisfied with the results.

The film is scheduled for its world premiere at New York's Tribeca film festival on April 30, followed by screenings in Michigan and a June 7 limited release in theaters and video-on-demand outlets such as Apple TV.