Dean Stoecker has a hard time picking his favorite set location for “The Man Who Changed the World,” a $14.5 million movie shot entirely in Colorado that follows his father’s dramatic journey up and down the creative and business ladders.

That’s because each location tells its own story, he said, ranging from Spinelli’s Market in Park Hill to The Boulder Theater and Denver’s Grant-Humphreys Mansion. Now that it’s wrapped filming, the forthcoming feature can boast more than a dozen notable Front Range locations including historic urban neighborhoods, colleges, parks and private residences in Westminster, Northglenn and Lafayette.

“It was my personal family story, so I was on set every day to make sure the cast and crew were honoring the truth of Bud and Lollie Stoecker,” said Dean Stoecker, who is executive producer on the movie, shot over six weeks in February, March and April. “Emotionally, picking locations was important because it had to feel like a true story, not just a film.”

“Guided by the visionary spirit of architect Buckminster Fuller and the steadfast wisdom of his wife, Lollie, an optimistic father of five, Bud, pursues his dream of building a family business amidst turbulent 1969,” the film’s tag line reads. The family-friendly title stars Christopher Lowell (“Glow”), Jeanine Mason (“Roswell”), Ileana Douglas (“Goodfellas”) and Wallace Shawn (“The Princess Bride”).

The real-life Lawrence “Bud” Stoecker was so deeply inspired by Fuller’s futuristic ideas and architecture that he became an engineer and entrepreneur himself. He founded Delta Vacation Homes, which offered hundreds of pre-built A-frame houses that can still be seen across Colorado, and a 1966 prototype for a striking, mid-century modern take on the Christmas tree. He also worked on the Saturn V rocket, which was central to NASA’s Apollo missions.

The movie about his life is supported by a $1.8 million rebate from the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media, with 90% of the crew being local. Producers also recruited about two dozen local actors for variously sized roles, as well as hundreds of extras, Stoecker said.

Since Stoecker and director Greg Pritkin ended up tapping so many Front Range spots for starring roles in their period piece, public exteriors often required custom or retooled business signage, vintage cars, costumed extras, and other touches that accurately re-create its 1969 setting. (Even then, Stoecker said, they’ll use CGI to clean up any anachronisms.)

It’s likely the biggest movie made entirely in Colorado by Coloradans, according to Colorado film commissioner Donald Zuckerman. It could be released as early as this fall, depending on post-production timelines, or as late as next fall — timed to the holiday season, given its Christmas themes (more on that below).

“I learned a lot about the sausage-making of Hollywood,” Stoecker said with a laugh, noting that cities such as Boulder were easier to work with than Denver on, say, securing filming permits or shutting down streets. He attributed that to how much experience they’ve had doing it — which is not much compared to cities in states with big film incentives such as Albuquerque, he said.

As owner of the newly formed Ranch Productions, Stoecker paid for the film out of his own pocket. A Colorado native and Colorado Springs resident, he graduated from Ranum High School in 1975 before going on to create the billion-dollar software company Alteryx. After nearly three decades at that helm, he’s turned to turn to filmmaking.

Matt Bliss, Stoecker’s nephew and the grandson of Bud and Lollie Stoecker, said the resources required for a period-piece that spans the 1940s-’60s were intense, but necessary to tell an authentic story written with flair by screenwriter Heidi James.

“I decided to start Modern Christmas Trees to pay tribute to my grandfather,” said Bliss, whose company has since 2011 sold chic, design-forward Christmas trees based on Bud Stoecker’s 1966 design.

“I went to school at the University of Denver and spent over a decade trying to make a film in Colorado,” said producer Michael Downey. “I eventually had to move to Los Angeles to break into the business, but my heart was always here. To come back and produce a movie in my home state — and to do it alongside my friend Matt Bliss — has been nothing short of a dream come true.”

Colorado’s time-warping in the film included shipping in 3,000 vintage-looking costumes from California. It completes the illusion, Stoecker said, especially when certain locations were more or less ready as-is. In Denver, East 23rd Avenue between Cherry and Dexter streets provided exterior shots of mid-20th-century life.

Set designers and decorators retrofitted the interior and exterior of Spinelli’s Market (on down to the prices in the deli case, Bliss said), and erected custom signs to rename Honey Hill Cafe into The Corner Cafe, as well as Park Hill Dental Arts (Lora Lee), Park Hill Community Book Store (Penny’s Florist), and Italian restaurant The Cherry Tomato (Mr. Steak).

Portions of Northglenn’s Ranum Innovation Campus at W. 80th Ave. and Zuni Street, formerly Ranum High School, were converted into a production sound stage (doubling as the Stoecker home’s interior) and construction shop for sets, according to Westminster Public Schools. Students got to sit in on sessions and learn from the filmmakers, while Hidden Lake Secondary School played host to a faithful re-creation of Ranum High.

Filming outside the Boulder Theater in March coincided with a visit from Gov. Jared Polis, Zuckerman and other officials announcing that the Sundance Film Festival would move to Boulder in 2027. That led to lots of questions about the nearby classic cars and production trucks from industry types who suspected there might be a crew on site, Stoecker said. It was a full-circle moment of sorts, as the marquee read “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” during filming — the 1969 Robert Redford movie from which the Sundance festival takes its name, which is coming soon to the same city where Redford attended college.

More scenes were shot in Boulder at a fully-rented Hotel Boulderado (where 160 cast and crew stayed for six weeks), Chautauqua Park, the University of Colorado campus — where Bud saw a formative speech from Fuller — and the Boulder County Courthouse.

Some scenes were also filmed at private residential locations and country roads in Fort Collins and Westminster. To re-create a scene on a Denver trolley in front of the Daniels & Fischer Clocktower in 1947, where Bud and Lollie first met, the crew filmed a historic trolley in Fort Collins, the last of its kind still operating along the Front Range.

In Boulder, various scenes were also filmed at an American Legion location, Sacred Heart of Jesus church, and Boulder Zen Center. In Denver, the Grant Humphreys Mansion got a starring role as the interior of Elitch Gardens’ former Trocadero Ballroom, while Loveland’s Carter Lake doubled for Maine’s Penobscot Bay.

“One scene was filmed on the street I grew up on, in a house just like the one I grew up in, which was crazy,” Stoecker said. “We were probably a nuisance in some locations, but everyone was so hospitable. There were challenges, but we were able to find all the perfect locations.”