JOHN SCHNEIDER
How he’s rebuilding his home after a devastating flood.
They say to write what you know, so John Schneider is working on a screenplay about the floods that recently destroyed his home and film studio in Louisiana. “It’s about a family that’s living in their attic after surviving flood after f lood,” he tells Closer. “I will manage to turn this into a movie and a great story.”
The Dukes of Hazzard alum, 56, has been living in a storage shed on his property since “we got a year’s worth of rain in a 10-hour period” in August, he says. In his home, “The water was gushing through the front door — the furniture was floating.”
As for the 58-acre John Schneider Studios, where he’s currently producing two films featuring actors like Barry Bostwick, Ruth Buzzi and John’s son, Chasen Schneider, “It’s all under water,” John says. “The wardrobe is muddy and moldy. It would cost over $100,000 to salvage it. We had a mess hall, gym, hair and makeup room, and all of it was ruined.”
John’s also dealing with the death of his mother, Shirley Ann Conklin, in early September. “She was 84 and very frail,” says John of his mom, who was in an assisted-living facility. “She rolled over to go to sleep and never woke up. There is a hole that will never be filled.”
Still, he swears he’ll start over. “I will rebuild this house and host a dinner party to tell the story of how I survived this,” he says. “If we weren’t fully engaged in the dream of running a movie studio, we would call this a loss and walk away, but that is not who I am. I look at adversity as a sign I’m on the right track. I have to think some good will come of this. I don’t have a choice.” — Bruce Fretts,
with reporting by Ilyssa Panitz