After five weeks of principal photography and another devoted to picking up other footage, the cast and crew of the independent drama “Last Ounce of Courage” have headed their separate ways.

But not before giving Paola and Kansas City a thumbs-up for the hospitality and range of locations.

“It’s the most incredible adventure we’ve ever been on,” said the film’s main financier, Mississippi sign mogul Richard Headrick, who wrote the story with his wife, Gina Headrick. “We thought that we work hard, but the professionalism of the people who worked on this movie was just incredible.

“And Paola just rolled out the red carpet. The town gave us a barbecue, and store owners and extras went the extra mile.”

“Last Ounce” is a labor of love for the Headricks, Christians who decided to make a movie about what they view as the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

“Christmas is not just a holiday … it’s a holy day,” Headrick said during a break in filming in a home in the 3700 block of Genessee. “We prayed and started writing. Began on Thursday, and by Sunday we had the whole story.”

Director Darrel Campbell did some polishing to turn the Headricks’ efforts into a working screenplay.

In the film, a small-town mayor (Marshall Teague of “Walker, Texas Ranger”) runs into legal trouble when he attempts to hold a community Christmas celebration. Former KC Chief Fred Williamson plays a lawyer (think ACLU) who takes the mayor to court; Jennifer O’Neill (“The Summer of ’42) plays the mayor’s missus.

Producer Michael Wunsch of Lenexa-based Outpost Pictures said the decision to cast Hollywood pros in the central roles paid off.

“It’s quite a big feature on a fairly limited budget, but it’s come together really well,” he said. “A lot of that has to do with the actors. They’ve been fabulous.”

The shoot has gone like clockwork … except for the weather, Wunsch said.

“We’ve seen everything, from snow at the beginning of the shoot to tornadoes in the final days. Someone said that all we missed were the locusts.”

In fact, the mercurial Midwest weather provided a miracle of sorts. While the company was shooting a scene in which the mayor emerges from a courtroom and is greeted by townsfolk singing Christmas carols, it began to snow as if on cue.

Now “Last Ounce” goes into post production. Originally the Headricks had hoped to have a final print ready for home video distribution by Thanksgiving. But they’re moving the schedule back a year.

“We didn’t want to rush the promotion,” Headrick said. “This gives us plenty of time to plan.”

The film will be four-walled into theaters around Thanksgiving of 2009 (four-walling is when a film’s distributor rents an auditorium to show the movie) and then goes into DVD sales.

“I think it could be a perennial in the home video market,” Wunsch said.

“Last Ounce of Courage” plays into Outpost’s goal of creating commercial film and television in the Midwest, he said.

“This is a really big step. It will be exciting to see where it takes us.”