Pittsburgh Film Industry Discussion

[Evergrey]

This is one of my favorite novels... it would be a tragedy if it was not filmed in the city that defined the story.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06111/683921-254.stm

Chabon's Pittsburgh movie may not be filmed here
Friday, April 21, 2006

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Cue the cloud factory. And if a little money rains down in the process, all the better.

If all goes as planned, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," Michael Chabon's 1988 novel that put him on the literary map, will be made into an $8 million to $9 million movie starring a yet-to-be-cast actor in the lead, plus Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller.

Still to be decided, however, is whether the movie in which Pittsburgh is a virtual character will be made in Pittsburgh.

"We've always, always, always wanted to shoot in Pittsburgh," Michael London, CEO of Groundswell Productions, said yesterday by phone. "It's hard to imagine this story not being shot in Pittsburgh. But film production is really costly, and it varies a great deal from state to state, based upon the crew rates and the incentives individual locations can offer a film production company.

"We're looking for some compromises in Pittsburgh to allow us to shoot there and not have to leave and shoot somewhere less expensive," said Mr. London, whose producing credits include "The Family Stone," "Sideways," "House of Sand and Fog" and "Thirteen."

"The Pittsburgh film commission has been enormously helpful but they can't change things like basic crew rates, so we're in conversations now with the commission about everything from breaks on hotel rates to breaks on locations."

Mr. London called the Pennsylvania tax rebate program "very strong, very enticing" and said he wouldn't even be talking about Pittsburgh were it not for the state and city. Still, he said if he has to import and house most of the crew for months, that expense would eat into his budget.

Although the crew strength isn't what it was in the early 1990s, the business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 489 says membership hasn't shrunk since "The Mothman Prophecies" (released in 2002) or "Wonder Boys" (2000) were filmed here.

"The difference is a lot of our people obviously do a lot more commercial work than they used to," Jean-Pierre Nutini said yesterday. While there wouldn't be enough crew to staff three movies, "I think we're as deep as we have been for the last 10 years."

The balance between locals and out-of-towners (even if Pittsburgh has able workers, some key staffers prefer to bring their own crew) will factor into expenses. With three months of pre-production and two months of shooting, likely to start in August or early September, housing costs are key.

"I think everyone is motivated to get us to Pittsburgh. We're motivated to shoot in Pittsburgh, but we have to get our budget down ... or we have to look at other locations," Mr. London said.

He said he wasn't being wooed by other cities but "there are places like Louisiana and Canada, where either the crew rates are a lot cheaper or the incentives are even more significant." Money, of course, drove George Romero and his zombies to Canada for "Land of the Dead."

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said she has been working with the filmmakers for months. "We hope to have good news soon. We would love to have them here."

As for the man who wrote "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," he says good-naturedly, "Look, it's in the title, right? I really hope and pray and wish that it can be worked out."

Talking from his home in California yesterday, Mr. Chabon added, "Of course, I don't know anything about how these things are done and it's not my job to make those kinds of decisions, but I think it would be great for the movie and it would be great for the city, too," just as the film of "Wonder Boys" was. Mr. Chabon is a University of Pittsburgh graduate.

"Mysteries," to be written and directed by Rawson Thurber ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story"), would be the first movie under Mr. London's new Groundswell banner. Although "Dodgeball" might seem an unusual warm-up, Mr. London said Mr. Thurber grew up on "Mysteries" and it's the reason he wanted to make movies, so he could turn the book into a film.

"Mysteries," a coming-of-age story set almost entirely in the East End, is about a character named Art Bechstein, a Pitt economics graduate spending the summer working in a bookstore. He becomes involved with two students, Phlox Lombardi and then Arthur Lecomte, who work at Hillman Library.

Actors, known and unknown, are reading for the lead of Art.

The screenplay calls for the characters of Arthur (not to be confused with Art) and Cleveland Arning to be consolidated into one, played by Mr. Sarsgaard. An actor who effortlessly moves between indie and mainstream movies, Mr. Sarsgaard last year was seen in "Jarhead," "Flightplan," "The Skeleton Key" and "The Dying Gaul."

Ms. Miller toured The Andy Warhol Museum in November, in preparation for her role as Edie Sedgwick in "Factory Girl." She would play Jane, who in the book is Cleveland's girlfriend and a blond Southerner.

Mr. London said financing is virtually complete. "No movie is completely a go, no matter what anyone ever told you," but he feels confident the movie will be shot this fall.

"The only thing that's holding us back now is figuring out whether we're shooting in Pittsburgh. We're in daily conversations with Dawn Keezer. ... She's been really helpful."

Mr. Chabon, meanwhile, is working on a screenplay of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." It's the story of two fictional comic-book creators set primarily in the 1930s and '40s.

He interrupted his writing to recall stopping in the Curtain Call shop Downtown a few years ago and finding "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" among the souvenirs. "It made me feel really happy."

As for the changes Mr. Thurber made in adapting the book, Mr. Chabon called them bold and in service of storytelling. "You're not just making a transcript of the novel with pictures, you're trying to reinvent the story so it works as a movie. ... I think it's going to be great."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

[PhillyRising]

I don't understand why there is so much filming done down in Philly that it's cost prohibitive in Pittsburgh? Sounds like a flimsy excuse to me by the producer. Louisiana? How in the hell can you make any place in Louisiana look like Pittsburgh? Hell....the one thing about "Queer As Folk" was that Toronto doesn't look a thing like Pittsburgh and it always bothered me seeing a flat city posing for Pittsburgh. How many cities have a 500 foot hill looming across from it's downtown?

[PittPenn 03]

Agreed. Considering what it could do for the city's image if it were filmed here, I think the state should ante up some funds or additional tax relief for it. All the money that is wasted on things like coming up with a theme song, or branding campaigns, it would be ridiculous to squander the possible publicity this movie could generate for the city.

[Grego43]

I've been recently wondering when "Mysteries...", one of my all-time favorite books and kinda/sorta my own coming-of-age-story would be filmed...then I read the story in the Post-Gazette online this morning. It would really suck if this isn't filmed in town. $8 to $9 million seems to be a shoe string budget for a film today, so I guess costs really are a major hurdle. I really hope the Pgh Film Office can work with all the parties involved and find a way for this, and future productions to once again find Pgh an irresistable location.

I live in South Florida and see filming quite often. Take away palm trees and the Atlantic...a blander location never existed.

[SuperstarMark]

Well, here's hoping they work it out and shoot the movie in Pittsburgh. It's always exciting to see H'wood films shot here!



Don't get me started on QaF. :hell:

[passdoubt]

So many movies that are supposed to take place in the Northeast have their outdoor scenes shot in Toronto these days that if they shot it in Pittsburgh people would probably be confused and think it was another country.

[donybrx]

It would give authenticity to the film, filmed on location in Pittsburgh. That's important to the film's integrity IMO. Why they don't identify the reasons why not and ask the appropriate officials to negotiate a resolution to make sure it happens.

[proud_pittsburgh]

Pittsburgh can not buy the kind of publicity that this movie will bring to the city. It is akin to the All-star game, Bassmasters, etc. Movies about Pittsburgh, filmed in Pittsburgh, adapted from a great book written by a Pittsburgher don't come along every day. The region needs to do what it has to do to ensure that this is filmed here.

[themaguffin]

That would really suck if that happens.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06121/686419-192.stm

Editorial: Made right here / Do the deal to film 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh'
Monday, May 01, 2006

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's not "The Mysteries of Baton Rouge," "The Mysteries of Santa Fe" or "The Mysteries of Toronto."

It's Michael Chabon's 1988 coming-of-age novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," and the movie version should be filmed in Pittsburgh, as were the films "Wonder Boys" and three of the four George Romero zombie pictures. Mr. Chabon hopes it will be shot here and the film's producer says he always has wanted to shoot it here.

"But film production is really costly," Michael London, CEO of Groundswell Productions, told the Post-Gazette. "We're looking for some compromises in Pittsburgh to allow us to shoot there and not have to leave and shoot somewhere else less expensive."

Although Pittsburgh is a player on the national filmmaking landscape, it has been losing out as a shooting location to other cities, states and countries that offer more money and perks. Even Mr. Romero, who put Pittsburgh on the map as a movie location with his zombie flicks, shot his last one, "Land of the Dead," in Toronto, which offers more breaks to the industry.

Movie makers are accustomed to receiving free hotel rooms, free police services, free office space and other extras that help reduce their bottom line. In Pennsylvania, filmmakers can get a 20 percent tax credit on their budget. But the total pot of such tax credits available in a fiscal year is $10 million. The state House is considering legislation to change the tax credit to an outright grant, but still with a $10 million cap.

"Cash is better than credit, but we need to increase the amount to at least $30 million to be competitive with everybody else who wants this extremely lucrative business," says Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. Louisiana and New Mexico are extremely popular movie locations right now because they offer some of the most lucrative state incentives to movie makers.

We appeal to Gov. Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Mayor Bob O'Connor to work together with the state and local film commissions to try to make this film happen, here, in Pittsburgh.

Filmmaking can inject millions of dollars into the local economy. If Pennsylvania is serious about luring filmmakers, it has to court the film industry -- a $10 billion a year enterprise -- as it would a Toyota assembly plant or a Downtown developer.

Don't let the film version of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" go the way of "Land of the Dead." Cue zombies. Exit country, North!

[WZ1]

I heard this will be shot in the Toronto area, more specifically Hamilton as it is a industrial steel city with a mountain similar to Pittsburgh

[themaguffin]

if this is true, then a leading character will be lost. pathetic.

[PittPenn 03]

Whatever happened to that Steelcity group of Pittsburgh Hollywood people who were going to turn Pittsburgh into this great movie making mecca?? Are they still an operating entity? I knew it wouldn't amount to anything when they all came rolling into town 2 or 3 years ago with all their promises. It is a shame because they managed to get all of those people into town and they all seemed like they were committed and then nothing. Though I think most of those people were has beens or never beens, they did get some heavy hitters involved and it seems like this could be a little project to get the group energized again. I mean if between them, the government, and the Pittsburgh Film Office cannot land a movie where the city itself is so important, then what good are they?? Seems like we will always get a small handful of projects whether they exist or not.

[themaguffin]

It's a no brainer that the state must get more aggressive in its efforts to lure film production. I would love to see post production done and a small stable film making community created.

[themaguffin]

A local in the industry adds his 2 cents...



The Private Sector: Pittsburgh no Hollywood ... yet
Facilities, funds, unity and cooperation needed to expand local media production industry
Tuesday, May 02, 2006

By Todd Eckert

Last month I opened the paper to find an article saying the film of Michael Chabon's excellent novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" might not be shot here. This was disappointing, but not a shock. After all, "Chicago" was shot in Toronto. "Gangs of New York" was made in an outer borough called Italy. I personally am producing a feature film about a guy who was a driving force of the music scene in the British city of Manchester. We're shooting in Nottingham.




"Mysteries" is not confirmed one way or another, so for the moment I'll leave it alone and the city's film folks will undoubtedly do whatever they can to help the producers make it here. I'm sure they would like to shoot it in Pittsburgh, just as I would have preferred to work in Manchester (nothing against Nottingham, but filmmakers generally like shooting where they're actually supposed to be).

For us it all came down to money and communication, just as it does on any media project and undoubtedly as it is with "Mysteries." No incentives were available from Manchester and the film office wasn't all that engaged in keeping us there. In Nottingham (or more accurately the East Midlands), there was a regional fund that would give us a big slug of money so long as we met certain criteria, such as utilizing as much local crew as we could and spending at least three times our grant in the region (we're spending five times). Thus Nottingham -- simple.

So, the "Mystery" remains unsolved and uncertain, at least as far as Pittsburgh is concerned. And if a film with the name of the town in the title isn't a lock, why would anyone else come here? And perhaps more importantly, why should media production matter to anyone other than the locals looking to ski the choppy waters of stardom?

It's important to recognize that media is not simply film and television production, though both are obviously important. It's also video games, online content, publishing, software -- in essence, all distributed communications. In a modern economy, being a media hub means money and jobs. And as it turns out, Pittsburgh is full of resources most cities can't even imagine, regardless of size.

The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, for example, is the world's premier institution for a master's degree blending the fine arts and technology. And it may be better known around the rest of the world than it is here.

I was at a corporate function in Berlin not long ago and introduced as being from Pittsburgh. Someone I'd never met, smiling broadly, said the ETC was excellent. He was really excited, and he was right to be -- the future of all media is as much about emerging technologies as it is creative spark, and the best place in the world to meld those sensibilities is a stone's throw from Downtown on the Mon.

There's also Pittsburgh Filmmakers (one of the few media-exclusive schools in the country), the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the regional offices of the state Department of Community and Economic Development and the governor's office (they really do care!) and one of the most robust foundation communities to be found anywhere. Additionally, there's Steeltown Entertainment (a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging local production through Pittsburgh expats working in Hollywood) and the Pittsburgh Film Office. Finally, the Pennsylvania Legislature has passed a vigorous incentive package for film and television production. It's among the best in the country (at least the new version is).

Of course, most of these attributes have been here for years, and the Pittsburgh media industry remains anemic and almost entirely destination-oriented. Certainly there are success stories -- Jesse Schell, a faculty member of the ETC at Carnegie Mellon, has successfully started Schell Games, creating content for clients such as Disney and growing like crazy. The Downtown production firm PMI does a ton of TV syndication work. But a few companies and the periodic location shoot do not make for a vibrant industry, nor do they make much of an economic impact, and that's what really counts.

I believe just a bit of tweaking within the existing institutions, as well as a couple of key additions, would transform Pittsburgh into a hub of media production while allowing it to control much more of its own economic destiny in these industries:

1. Pittsburgh needs facilities: While there are some stages (studios) and post-production facilities in the city, there is not a world-class production campus capable of producing a major, modern feature film in its entirety. A facility incorporating new technologies -- perhaps in concert with the ETC, along with the basic necessities of workshops, offices, wardrobe areas, etc. -- is crucial to the success of the region. First-rate post-production suites (editing, sound design, etc.) also are important, as the future of media is in many ways controlled beyond the camera.

2. Put together a local incentive package: Once the facility has been established, it makes sense to augment the Pennsylvania state benefits with a local subsidy for media production. Such a program can be established without additional cost to taxpayers and with little risk, and will serve as the carrot that will keep the facility booked year-round. Such consistent activity will indicate that the industry has established a foothold in Pittsburgh, and media professionals will move here for the work.

3. Get local groups to work as a united front: If a media community seems fractured, it's not inviting to anyone, from people coming to the city to work on single projects to companies looking to establish production centers. All the local institutions -- schools, groups, government bodies -- must be actively cooperative and supportive of each other, even if they are competing for business. Get the projects here and everyone will benefit.

4. Get nontraditional businesses involved: Media businesses require many professional people outside of traditional production jobs. Pittsburgh will benefit hugely if it can offer media banking, insurance and legal services to productions. This would be simple, cheap to implement, hugely profitable and allow the city to control more of the production process, and therefore more of its industrial destiny.

In the future I hope to see "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" as a problem solved -- a local treatise made global via celluloid shot in our very own back yard. But ultimately, I'm most interested in the big picture: the impact media can have on the economy and image of the city.

This is an industry, a big, moving factory that doesn't make the rivers smell and employs lots of people at good wages. And they're not just artsy sorts -- they're carpenters, drivers, agents, cooks, programmers, electricians, editors. They're a thousand different skilled and nonskilled positions. They can change the complexion of a city in no time. And I'm hopeful -- reasonably, realistically hopeful -- that this is exactly what will happen.

[Evergrey]

in other Pittsburgh film news... this is so bizarre...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06125/687601-325.stm

Goldblum's 'Pittsburgh' rides line between reality and role playing
A doc or a mock?
Friday, May 05, 2006

By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060507wap_goldblum_tribeca_450.jpg

NEW YORK -- Is it real? Or just "real"?

That's what the cinematically hip audience at the Tribeca Film Festival wanted to know at a premiere screening of "Pittsburgh," a new 84-minute comic documentary (or is it "documentary"?) by Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache.

The wry, comic story (or "story") is all about actor Jeff Goldblum, returning to his native town with a couple of show-biz pals and his young Canadian girlfriend, Catherine Wreford, to star in a July 2004 production of "The Music Man" at Pittsburgh CLO. The audience laughed as it watched the onscreen Goldblum obsess over taking a break from his film career to return to the musical comedy stage in a challenging role, then rehearse, obsess, panic and perform.

When the film was over and Goldblum, Bradley, LaBrache and co-star Illeana Douglas stood up in three-dimensional reality to answer questions, they mostly dealt with the dominant issue facing all art and media today, the line between reality and fiction.

"Was that really your mother?" they asked Goldblum. Or more to the point, was "Harvey Tyson," who seemed a comically hyper-real figure from a Christopher Guest mockumentary (a summer theater version of "Waiting for Guffman," say), really his stepfather? Was that Goldblum's agent? Had he really turned down high-budget movie offers to go do summer theater?

Peering impishly through owlish glasses, the live Goldblum responded, "That's interesting ... did it seem like my mother?"

Actually she is. "Life," it seems, imitates life. And art imitates both.

As far as this happy, intrigued audience was concerned, "Pittsburgh" could easily be the story of a movie star rather like Goldblum, conspiring with a young woman performer who might or might not really be his girlfriend, to go to a fictional place rather like Pittsburgh and play Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian right there in the barn -- although in this case, the barn is the 2,800-seat Benedum Center.

But for me, who interviewed Goldblum extensively when he was here that summer and then reviewed his "Music Man" performance not once but twice, the movie is clearly more than 90 percent actual documentary footage, spiced up with planned scenes to heighten plot or character points. But even though I knew that the fellow with the British accent really was CLO director Richard Sabellico and not some actor playing an idea of a comically distressed director, even I doubted that stepfather.

It turns out he's real. Still, I momentarily wondered if the whole thing been an extended put-up job. Was the then-23-year-old Wreford really the fiancee of the 51-year-old Goldblum? (After all, they're no longer together.) The real Goldblum really did struggle with his stage role; his onscreen anxiety is surely real; but is it "enhanced"? Did he possibly go through all that solely for the sake of this comic documentary? Where did the acting begin -- always a question with Goldblum, even in real life?

Then I realized the dynamic at work. Put a distancing frame around anything and it acquires self-consciousness and tilts toward parody, implying fiction, especially in this boundary-crossing age. Imagine watching yourself on film reading the newspaper: Presto, you're an actor. More than just about anyone in that audience, I knew most of the footage was real. But some moments are clearly not, and others fall in between, and it may be impossible to sort them out, even for those involved.

Better just to enjoy the movie, in which Pittsburgh does not, I'm happy to report, look especially foolish -- not even City Councilman Doug Shields, announcing Jeff Goldblum Day in a scene in the mayor's office, for all the silliness of Goldblum's overreaction.

(Disclosure: Like everyone else who dealt with Goldblum during those weeks in 2004, I was shot for the movie, too, on a half-day I spent with him visiting the scenes of his childhood in Squirrel Hill, Homestead and Munhall. But you won't find me complaining that I ended up on the digital cutting-room floor.)

There's an interpretative clue to the movie in the filmmakers' obsession over shots of the Clemente Bridge. I'd guess that's because they were staying right there at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, but it points up the neat parallel between our city of three rivers and "Music Man's" fictional town of River City, Iowa. It isn't straining to see a similar parallel between Harold Hill's arrival there, with a con game to launch, and Goldblum's arrival at the CLO, with his own mixed motives (mixed even to him).

At first glance, the skittish Goldblum makes as ambiguous a match with self-assured Harold in real life as he did in his erratic performance on stage. Harold arrives in River City with a firm plan and achieves more than he intends, finding love to boot; Goldblum left Pittsburgh with less stage success than he hoped (and we don't know about the love).

But the movie suggests otherwise, showing a standing ovation to suggest that the opening night went well, and it supplies a Hollywood happy ending with Goldblum and Wreford dreaming of co-stardom on Broadway -- not a bad parallel to Harold and Marian. On film, Goldblum is a very effective "Jeff Goldblum."

And after all, perhaps Goldblum's experience on stage, encouraged by Wreford, is rather like Harold's, who is encouraged and produces a sort of a boys' band in spite of himself. Meanwhile, movie actor Goldblum did leave town with a success after all: the 400 hours of raw footage which were whittled down to these entertaining 84 minutes over the next year and a half by Bradley and LaBrache.

The completed movie's chief targets of gentle parody are Goldblum's goofy obsessiveness, his pal Ed Begley's goofy (however sincere) environmentalism and the totally bizarre on-screen relationship between Douglas and musician Moby. However the latter may have been enacted through improv, it seems entirely storyboarded, like the phone calls from Goldblum's agent about supposed movie deals.

Begley and Douglas are involved because Goldblum talks them into coming along as a package deal, to play Mayor and Mrs. Shinn in the musical. They never seemed especially at home on stage, but they are great in the film, wryly sending themselves up. Wreford always appears mainly as an adjunct to Goldblum, never speaking up for herself. She wasn't at all like that in person.

The quasi-fictionality of the actual "Music Man" performance (and were those shots all of opening night?) is increased by the limits placed on the filmmakers. They could use only a certain amount of creator Meredith Willson's material, so composer David G. Byrne supplies ingratiating accompaniment; and some of the actors didn't sign waivers, so they were further limited in what they shot.

It's never made clear in the film that much rehearsal was extra work done with Goldblum before CLO's famously brief six-day sprint to production. That's a practice that could have been cited in extenuation of the visitors' performances -- and in defense of Goldblum's acting, he turned in a fine nonmusical performance the following year in Broadway's "The Pillowman."

The film is 47 minutes old before Goldblum actually arrives in Pittsburgh, to be interviewed by KDKA's Jennifer Antkowiak, and it's 70 minutes before we arrive at opening night. That performance, though clearly tentative in parts, ends with the ovation which puts a shiny gloss on the troubles Goldblum has had along the way.

That standing O was really (I'd say) for all those Pittsburgh kids playing townspeople.

But what's real?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette drama critic Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666. )

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060505ho_goldblum_play_580.jpg
Jeff Goldblum as Professor Harold Hill in Pittsburgh CLO 's production of "The Music Man."

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06125/687596-325.stm

Actors, filmmakers give story behind comic film 'Pittsburgh'
Friday, May 05, 2006

By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060505ac_goldblum_trbecaPJ_580.jpg
The principals from the film "Pittsburgh" field questions after the picture's Tribeca Film Festival screening. From left: actor Jeff Goldblum, actress Illeana Douglas, and filmmakers Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache. "Pittsburgh" was screened at the AMC Loews Village movie theater on 11th Street in New York City.


The Monday screening of "Pittsburgh" was the second of three at the Tribeca Film Festival, so it didn't have the red carpet and party of Saturday's premiere, which was attended by such real Pittsburghers as Doug Shields.

But when it was over, filmmakers Chris Bradley and Kyle LeBrache (who write, shoot and edit in tandem) and star Jeff Goldblum and actor/comic Illeana Douglas, who's featured in the movie, stood up to answer questions. And then conversations continued out into the corridors and lobby.

Goldblum's answers usually mystified, playfully obscuring the boundaries between documentary footage and scenes improvised to fit the "story." He encouraged the audience to regard the CLO's "The Music Man" as just a subset of the overriding plan to make a movie. So when he revealed that his mother and other family details in the film are real, one questioner was embarrassed that he had assumed they must be fictional.

"They actually gave me that [Jeff Goldblum] Day," he said, to general laughter. But "we really did do the show."

Asked about the truth of the subplot of her deteriorating love relationship with Moby, Douglas took a long pause and then said, "It was based ... on true events."

LaBrache addressed the border between real and fictional: "The idea was to create scenes where everyone could pull from their real lives ... in a semi-fictional situation they all have back stories to draw on that seem realistic."

I asked why the movie is called "Pittsburgh" and not "Goldblum." Bradley said it was because Pittsburgh was the "passionate" goal. Goldblum cited "Nashville." I expect they think that name adds to the humor. Go figure.

Later, Bradley and LaBrache had a clearer answer when asked why they label as actors the people who are themselves in the film. Everyone, they said, turns performer when you turn on the home recorder or video camera.

Me included. "You were good," they said in passing about footage in which I took Goldblum and his then-fiancee Catherine Wreford around town, interviewing him about his youth. My guess is that they cut these scenes of Goldblum in Homestead and Munhall because they might have been too real, discordant in the overall goofiness. (But there may be a DVD with added material, so perhaps the threat is not past.)

Bradley and LaBrache praised Goldblum, who was willing to be the butt of much of the humor. "It was a collaboration. We were afraid he might object to some stuff, but he was fine."

In the audience was late night TV host Conan O'Brien, who appears in the movie when Goldblum goes on his show and finds he's in the No. 2 slot because he's just going to talk about a stage play in Pittsburgh. He admitted that a backstage scene in which he tells Goldblum he's now set a precedent and may not get back to No. 1, was in response to the filmmakers' invitation to have fun. Normally, he would never tell guests such hard truths, he said.

O'Brien also said that Goldblum is just about a perfect talk-show guest, because even his awkwardness is funny.

Joining in the conversation were Michael McKean, from the Christopher Guest mockumentaries and now starring in "The Pajama Game" on Broadway, with his wife, actress Annette O'Toole, and "Pajama Game" co-star, Joyce Chittick. Maybe seeing McKean encouraged the audience's expectation of mockumentary fun.

The filmmakers like the idea of bringing "Pittsburgh" to the Three Rivers Film Festival. It will be interesting to see if the audience here is so ready to regard documentary scenes as comic constructs.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette theater editor Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.)

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060505ac_goldblum_conanPJ_580.jpg
Among the crowd spilling out of the theater after the screening of "Pittsburgh" were late night talk show host Conan O'Brien, who appears in the movie), actor Michael McKean and Actress Annette O'Toole.

[Evergrey]

YAY!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06160/696817-254.stm

Film notes: Chabon's 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh' will film here
Friday, June 09, 2006

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh will play itself -- in all of its Cloud Factory, Lost Neighborhood, Checkpoint of Too Much Fun glory -- in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh." Unless something unforeseen happens, the movie will not be the one that got away.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060609ho_minghella_450.jpg
Max Minghella, recently of "Art School Confidential" has been tapped to star in "Mysteries of Pittsburgh."


In April, there was doubt that Pittsburgh would land the movie version of Michael Chabon's novel, but the production company found ways to cut costs, with the help of the city, county and state.

If "Mysteries" had gone elsewhere, it would have been a psychological, moral and financial blow. Chabon told the Post-Gazette at the time, "Look, it's in the title, right? I really hope and pray and wish that it can be worked out."

Director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who also is adapting the novel, will be in town this weekend scouting locations for the film.

It will star Max Minghella, an up-and-coming actor who is the son of "The English Patient" director Anthony Minghella. He will play the lead alongside previously announced actors Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller.

A star of "Art School Confidential," Max Minghella was George Clooney's teenage son in "Syriana" and the religiously rebellious brother of the champion speller in "Bee Season," also featuring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.

"I think that we feel pretty confident that Pittsburgh is giving us every reason to make the movie in Pittsburgh. Our issues are more just pleading the financing for the movie now, which we're in the home stretch of," Michael London, CEO of Groundswell Productions, said by phone.

"It's more like when we shoot in Pittsburgh now than if we shoot in Pittsburgh," London added. He has shaved the budget to $6 million to $7 million and hopes to start shooting in early September.

"The city and state were very aggressive in terms of what they offered to us, so part of the scouting trip is just to talk about the nuts and bolts and make sure that we can take advantage of everything they've talked about. It's kind of a fact-finding mission just to be sure that everything that's been discussed we can actually make concrete."

London, who wasn't flying to Pittsburgh on this trip, said the production had been discussing hotel costs, crew rates and the state's grant initiative, which can return 20 percent to a production company.

Vicki Dee Rock, the head of physical production for Groundswell who was production accountant on "The Silence of the Lambs" here, said help was being provided on a number of fronts, from financing the scouting trip to securing office space at very little charge.

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said yesterday, "We're thrilled. It's been an exciting process to have the governor's office and county executive's office all step forward to offer them much needed assistance to secure the filming of 'Mysteries' in Pittsburgh, where it belongs.

"We're hopeful that this will bring even more opportunities for more cooperation from these entities to have even more work in the region. Pittsburgh's been fortunate to have some of the lowest union rates in the country," and that, coupled with a change in incentives, could lure other projects.

Starting July 1, the state will offer outright grants rather than tax credits to filmmakers, a change that should make Pennsylvania more attractive in an increasingly competitive world.

The state will provide up to a 20 percent film production grant. Sixty percent of the total expenses of a feature or TV movie, TV pilot or episode must be incurred in the state, and some expenses are eligible (construction, lighting, wardrobe, for instance) and others (marketing and music rights, for instance) are not. The pool of money will be capped at $10 million a year.

"Mysteries" is a coming-of-age story set almost entirely in the East End. It's about a character named Art Bechstein, a University of Pittsburgh economics graduate spending the summer working in a bookstore.

The novel put Chabon on the map and held up a new mirror to the city for natives and newcomers alike. Among the book's most vivid descriptions is the "Cloud Factory," where a building spits out "these great clouds, perfectly white and clean, white as new baseballs."

No details yet on who will handle local hiring or casting.

[PittPenn 03]

Well that is a relief!! I had already figured Toronto was a done deal - which would have been a tragedy.

[themaguffin]

It would have been just unacceptable to have this one done in Canada etc.

This is great news. Now let's hope that the movie gets some publicity when it comes out.

[Evergrey]

http://www.cinematical.com/2006/06/24/miller-sarsgaard-head-to-pittsburgh/

Miller, Sarsgaard Head to Pittsburgh
Posted Jun 24th 2006 12:01PM by Martha Fischer
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Newsstand

Michael Chabon is in the news again. Last week, Erik reported that Natalie Portman was considering a role in the screen version of Chabon's mindblowingly wonderful The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (for fans of the book, Chabon himself offers a great update on the movie over at his blog, including what elements of his work will be included, and which have been cut from the screenplay), and now Production Weekly is reporting that the cast is in place for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which is based on Chabon's first novel. Set to star in the film, a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Pittsburgh, are Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, and Max Minghella. The novel focuses on Art Bechstein (to be played by Minghella), and the group of friends he meets during "the last summer of [his] youth." Among the group are "the witty and beautiful Arthur Lecomte [uncast], "the equally stunning Jane (Miller), her boyfriend, the legendary Cleveland (Sarsgaard), and worldly, exotic, and slightly eccentric Phlox [also uncast]." Whoa. So, if nothing else, this is going to be a damn pretty movie.

One of the main concerns of the novel seems to be sexual identity; it'll be interesting to see in what direction screenwriter-director Rawson Marshall Thurber takes the film. (Personally, I'm immediately prejudiced against him because he's wearing a Manchester United jersey in his IMDb photo.) Production begins next month in Pittsburgh; the film is due out in 2007.




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768218/

Sienna Miller
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/images/sienna-miller.jpg

Max Minghella
http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/flipbooks/img/movies/premiere_photos/s/syriana/56223730AJ080_Warner_Bros_P.jpg

Peter Sarsgaard
http://eur.yimg.com/i/xp/premier_photo/6/6d24638b09.jpg

[AaronPGH]

Hello Max, I'm Aaron.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06223/712694-254.stm

Film Notes: 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh' will film here next month
Friday, August 11, 2006

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060811ho_foster_450.jpg
Jon Foster will star in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," starring Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller and Mena Suvari, is scheduled to start filming here after Labor Day.

Foster, cast earlier this year as a violent teen in "Tenderness" opposite Russell Crowe, is stepping in the lead role once linked to Max Minghella. His other credits include the movies "Stay Alive" and "The Door in the Floor" and the TV series "Windfall" and "Life As We Know It."

Rawson Thurber is directing and writing the screenplay, based on Michael Chabon's novel. It's about a character named Art Bechstein, a University of Pittsburgh economics graduate spending the summer working in a bookstore.

Khristina Kravas, vice president of Groundswell Productions, and others have set up shop in Pittsburgh. She said the shoot will start just after Labor Day and stretch to mid- to late October. The book is set in the 1980s and the movie will be, too.

Asked what locations will factor into the $7 million film, she said, "It's a little bit premature to say that. We haven't locked in our location deals. We're really excited about some of our locations. Pittsburgh is beautiful."

Donna Belajac, whose Belajac Casting is handling local casting, is still looking for a very overweight actress, 20 to 25 years old, and a man in his 20s or 30s with a Mohawk haircut. These are speaking roles so experience is desired, Belajac says.

If you fit either part, go to www.donnabelajaccasting.com and e-mail her. Auditions will be Monday.

Mosser Casting is looking for 700 extras. For information: www.mossercasting.com or 412-434-1666.


Roping in Romero


The Hollywood Reporter says George Romero will write and direct a thriller called "Solitary Isle."

It's based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, who wrote the novels inspiring "The Ring" and "Dark Water." The story chronicles an expedition to a deserted island that turns deadly as the explorers face an unknown force, the trade publication reports.


Fest honors


Two made-in-Pittsburgh movies were honored at the Indie Gathering Film Festival this month in Cleveland.

"Dumpster," a Three Rivers Film Festival selection written by Jim Daniels, won first prize for drama/comedy while "Doing Therapy" was the top film in the comedy/romantic category.

"Dumpster" stars David Conrad as a long-in-the-tooth frat boy and Jeffrey Carpenter as a college maintenance worker. It was shot for roughly $10,000 in five days on Carnegie Mellon University's campus.

Joe Giacobello wrote and directed the lighthearted "Doing Therapy" and also appears in it alongside actress Barbara Winters. Set in present-day Pittsburgh, it tells the story of a Hollywood actress who develops a problem with panic attacks.


Counter culture


"Mysteries" may be coming to town but criticism of the Pittsburgh Film Office, its board and director hasn't gone away.

A newly chosen spokeswoman for a group trying to reinvent the office says plans are in the works for a rally before summer's end to draw attention to its campaign and to raise operating funds.

Adrienne Wehr, producer of "The Bread, My Sweet," has been picked as the chair and spokeswoman for a committee that emerged from a July 31 meeting at Pittsburgh Filmmakers that drew roughly 70 people.

A smaller group of 27 has been charged with hammering out details on how to expand, reshape and fund a film office that can lure the big projects from Hollywood and yet foster the smaller ones at home.

They insist a regional executive director must be based in Pittsburgh, and they also propose changes in who would sit on the office board and how the overseers would operate. In addition to crafting mission and position statements, the group is in the process of picking a name for itself.


Remembering 9/11


Robert Morris University will mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with a special DVD edition of its student-produced documentary, "America Talks." It will include interviews with RMU students who worked on the 45-minute video plus a behind-the-scenes look at its creation.

Originally intended as a student project for professor James Seguin's television production course, "America Talks" eventually represented the work of two dozen students. They spent 25 days filming and conducting interviews outside the White House gates, on the streets of New York and near the Shanksville crash site and elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, and 40-plus days editing.

The documentary examines the sentiments of Americans in the weeks after the attacks. Seguin calls the documentary a life-altering experience for him and his students and a snapshot of America at the time.

To order, send a $12 check payable to Robert Morris University to: RMU, Center for Documentary Production and Study, 6001 University Blvd., Moon Township PA 15108. Allow two weeks for delivery.


Convenient donation


"An Inconvenient Truth" has grossed more than $20 million, which makes it the fourth highest documentary of all time. Paramount Classics promised it would donate 5 percent of box-office receipts to the Alliance for Climate Protection, so that has spelled a $1 million donation. Al Gore already had promised to turn over any proceeds he made from the movie and a companion book, "An Inconvenient Truth," published by Rodale and priced at $21.95 on its Web site.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

[SteelCity15]

I don't understand why there is so much filming done down in Philly that it's cost prohibitive in Pittsburgh? Sounds like a flimsy excuse to me by the producer. Louisiana? How in the hell can you make any place in Louisiana look like Pittsburgh? Hell....the one thing about "Queer As Folk" was that Toronto doesn't look a thing like Pittsburgh and it always bothered me seeing a flat city posing for Pittsburgh. How many cities have a 500 foot hill looming across from it's downtown?


who knows. Where the hell are they gonna film in Louisiana anyways?

[Dr Nevergold]

I think "cost of production" is a LAME excuse for not wanting to film in Pittsburgh. Its one of the lowest cost cities to do business in. If they aren't going to film it here, where? Toronto? Where average hotels are considerably higher?

Right... I think its an excuse used to get more tax incentives.

At least they decided to film it here.

[EventHorizon]

A shame that Max Minghella won't be in the film -- though I'm sure Jon Foster will be brilliant.

Great that they're going to film here!:D

[Evergrey]

Wouldn't it be cool if we could get an SSPer into the movie?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06226/713301-254.stm

Casting call set for 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh'
Monday, August 14, 2006

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Filmmakers for "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," based on the best-selling novel by Michael Chabon, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller, are holding an open casting call on Friday.

Nancy Mosser Casting is looking for people between the ages of 6 and 75. Specific groups include college-age students for a punk club scene and patrons for an upscale restaurant and hotel scene. "Mysteries" will shoot in and around the Pittsburgh area from Sept. 5 to Oct. 20.

Auditioners are asked, if possible, to outfit themselves as they might have in the early 1980s, when the film takes place (they suggest that you reference munkeysocks.tripod.com for '80s fashion trends). Bring a snapshot of yourself and a pen to Nancy Mosser Casting, 239 4th Avenue, Suite 1217, Downtown, between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

More information: 412-434-1666 or www.mossercasting.com.

[AaronPGH]

hmmm, I do have some slammin 80's garb. hmmmm again. I could try to swing by after work since I'll be downtown anyway.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06231/714796-254.stm

'Mysteries' casting call transports city to '80s
Saturday, August 19, 2006


http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060819acmovie1_450.jpg
Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette
Casting director Katie Shenot, 25, of Green Tree, takes measurements for Cody Lebo, 19, of Polish Hill, at Nancy Mosser Casting, Downtown, during an open casting call yesterday for the filming of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," based on the best-selling novel by Michael Chabon.

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Melissa Moraes was born one year after Michael Chabon's first novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," was released in 1988, but at yesterday's casting call for the movie, she had the '80s nailed.

Think Madonna -- but 17, dark-haired and tan, with the little skirt over the leggings, the arm bangles, the loppy hair and an ingenious use of a pair of cutoff pink-and-black striped tights.

"I cut out the feet," she said, wiggling her fingers from the holes and grinning. "I call it an arm warmer."

Throughout the day, dozens and dozens of girls and women eager to be in the movie's punk club scene waited in cutoff jeans over fishnet tights under scrunch socks and Converse All-Stars, or leg warmers and scrunch socks and heels, layers of little tops, long gloves with the fingers cut out, plastic bracelets, blue eye shadow, sinister eye liner and teased and towering hair.

Earlier this week, Nancy Mosser Casting, Downtown, put out a call for extras for "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," which will be filmed here from Sept. 5 to Oct. 20.

Set here in 1983, the story -- without giving too much away -- takes us through a summer in the life of a college student who falls into a love triangle with a man and a woman.

One hour into the daylong collecting of photos, measurements and bios, Ms. Mosser's assistant, Katie Shenot, said, "It's 11 o'clock and we're 52 people in already. Lots of hours left."

About that time, Ellen Harlow and Frank Colaizzi waltzed in, effortlessly affecting the look of two people you might see at a party of museum patrons -- the scene they were aiming for. Before having her photo shot, she jammed her sunglasses into a mass of lush, silver-blond hair and smiled like a pro.

Asked if they have been in show business before, Mr. Colaizzi said, "I never have, she has."

"I've been in amateur productions," she said.

They read the casting call and thought, "Why not?" she said.

"Something to do," he said.

Renata McCormish and her daughters, Heather, 13, and Emma, 9, showed up to be extras. Ms. McCormish is a commercial model whose agent alerted her to the opportunity.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060819acmovie2_450.jpg
Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette
Kasie Fiano, 21, of Mount Pleasant, has her picture taken at Nancy Mosser Casting during yesterday's open casting call for filming of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

"I asked them if they'd like to try it," she said, nodding at the girls, who, like their mother, wore colorful halter-top dresses with glittery designs.

Ms. Mosser took two pictures of each person. Those who didn't know their measurements stood like Frankenstein to be tape measured, then went on their way with the promise, "We'll be in touch."

"We probably will use almost everybody," said Ms. Mosser. "We need 700 [extras]."

The same extras need to appear three days in a row for the continuity of one scene, she said. That's a demand that makes casting people antsy. "A huge part of our job is hoping people will roll out of bed and show up," she said, explaining, "It's minimum wage."

The real payoff, of course, will come next year -- sitting in the theater with their friends when their scene comes on.

"He could be our minister," said Ms. Shenot, shooting a look at a stately, bearded man who appeared in the doorway. He wore an elegant black jacket over a pearl-colored silk shirt with a tab-free collar. A retired fireman, John Agnole, roared when she repeated the suggestion to him. He said he has "always" had acting aspirations and worked as an extra in "Striking Distance," a 1993 movie that was filmed locally starring Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker.

It was easy to tell the veterans of casting calls. They popped in confidently, calling Ms. Mosser by name, and knew where to stand and had their measurements on the form. They had their poses practiced, too. One tall blonde slumped one shoulder, hooked her thumb at her hip and pursed her lips like a fish.

Walt Myal walked in with his hair sticking up in a mohawk. "Hi, Walt," Ms. Shenot said brightly to the young man who served as her assistant on a public TV docudrama. He has been in advertisements and worked as an extra before.

"You know the Kennywood billboards?" he asked, waiting a moment for effect. "I'm the 'Night Rider.'"

With his hair-raising experience, he recommends molding wax for mohawks. "It's the best product I've tried."

The "Mysteries" costume department is advising extras to "remember" that in 1983, "everything was worn tighter," so no baggy jeans, loose T-shirts, pants or skirts on hips and no bulky tennis shoes. It also eschews "huge shoulder pads" for those playing the rich people.

Like many who turned out yesterday, Ms. Moraes wasn't born in time to remember the 1980s or have any '80s clothing. She achieved the look of a material girl with help from the Web and her own ingenuity. "Plus my favorite movie of all time is 'The Wedding Singer,'" a 1998 movie set in 1985.

Several little girls came in with their mothers looking like miniature "Flashdance" understudies -- in big off-the-shoulder sweaters cinched with wide belts.

Ms. Mosser said few children will be needed. "There's a bookstore scene where we need some little kids. There's a pickup soccer game where college-age boys join in with little kids."

That's about it for kids. But some needs remain: "We need to find a real string quartet," she said, "and we're looking for a man with a missing leg."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06235/715444-254.stm

Nick Nolte to join 'Mysteries' movie cast
Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Nick Nolte has been added to "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" cast as the gangster father of the lead character, being played by Jon Foster.

Although the movie could easily open in a different manner, the book's first sentence describes a lunch between Art Bechstein and his father, "in town for the weekend to transact some of his vague business." Art is nervous and drinks more than he eats while his father carefully consumes a steak.

As previously announced, "Mysteries" will star Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller and Mena Suvari. It will shoot here from Sept. 5 to Oct. 21. Rawson Thurber ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story") is adapting the Michael Chabon novel and directing the movie, set in the 1980s.

Nolte recently was among the voices cast in the animated "Over the Hedge" and will be seen in "Peaceful Warrior," scheduled to open here Sept. 1.


-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor

http://www.poster.net/nolte-nick/nolte-nick-photo-nick-nolte-6207059.jpg

[themaguffin]

This is an update on the film office in general, but seemed appropriate to post in in the default film thread......

New film alliance wants to see office reinvented
Friday, August 25, 2006

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



A group that wants to change the way the entertainment industry is nurtured, courted and served in Pittsburgh is talking about reinventing the Pittsburgh Film Office rather than starting an alternative agency.

However, leaders of the newly named Pittsburgh Film and Media Alliance insist the director must be based in Pittsburgh rather than Los Angeles, and they want an updated, expanded mission and a board that includes more government, labor and industry representatives.

They will make that case Sept. 7 at a meeting called by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato to thrash out the direction of the 16-year-old office.

"The Pittsburgh Film and Media Alliance is proposing that the Pittsburgh Film Office must be reconfigured from the ground up," spokeswoman and "The Bread, My Sweet" producer Adrienne Wehr said yesterday.

"It is not about its executive director, it is not about disputed facts and figures, it is about the very charter of the initiative itself. Whether or not a brand-new film office would be formed or just the current one would be reconfigured, that remains to be seen. But we are asking and proposing change."

While the film office's mission worked for much of the 1990s, bringing Hollywood production here and keeping people employed, it doesn't any longer, Wehr suggested. "We are proposing that a new model is warranted, and the time for change is now," she said.

She and Christopher Lacey, assistant executive director of Pittsburgh's AFTRA chapter, met with the Post-Gazette's editorial board to talk about better serving everyone from first-time directors to Hollywood veterans. While they still want to see the big fish land here, they want more attention paid to the little projects no less dear to their cast and crew.

"What we're looking toward is a broader umbrella, something more inclusive," Lacey said.

"This region needs more: more diversity, more inclusion, more hard work. And the best part about that is, it's being done, but it's being done piecemeal. Adrienne does a movie; when someone else wants to do a 'Bread, My Sweet,' they have to reinvent the wheel, rather than having a knowledge base or a resource base to foster production."

They pointed to the Greater Philadelphia Film Office as a model, although it's an older, bigger and better-funded operation that enjoys free office space courtesy of the city. Now a nonprofit corporation, the Philadelphia office employs nine people instead of three, as in Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia gets the lion's share of applications for the $10 million in grant money the state offers TV and film producers. Wehr, Lacey and others would like to see the total tripled, with Pittsburgh dipping deeper into that pool.

"This is not so much a grant as an investment in the economy of the state," Lacey said, along with an effort to tap into the trillion-dollar entertainment business that stretches around the world.

The alliance is also talking to the Allegheny Conference and state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D.-Highland Park, about supporting a study, possibly with a total of $50,000, on an entertainment incubator and how to better present what Pittsburgh can offer the industry.



I don't think that a $50,000 study is necessary. Appropriate leaders need to come up with their strategies and then put their heads together to create a new mission statement and structure, complete with state funding.

this should be a top notch operation, not some half assed group, relying on a fundraiser to stay afloat.

Staying afloat should not have to be a concern of the office.

The office should be able to match any offer - any - from another location.

[Evergrey]

Yinz might wanna check out the trailer for the new CBS crime thriller "Smith". The premiere episode, airing Sept. 26, was filmed in Pittsburgh. In the trailer you can see extensive shots of the Mellon Institute and some downtown scenes. It stars Ray Liotta.

http://www.tv.com/smith/show/58081/summary.html

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/smith/

[Evergrey]

from the Biz Times Sept. 22

"Mysteries" production company plans to shoot second film here
"Smart People" would begin filming in November

by Tim Schooley

A new production company is calling for a Pittsburgh movie-making encore.

Beverly Hills, CA-based Groundswell Productions is looking to piggyback on its current production of a film adaptation of Michael Chabon novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" with a second film to be set in Pittsburgh.

Called "Smart People", the new film is scheduled to start shooting in Pittsburgh in early November, not long after "Mysteries" wraps up production in late October.

Expected to star Dennis Quaid, Rachel Weisz and Thomas Haden Church, "Smart People" involves a professor's challenges dealing with a new love and failing career.

In a city that has faced years of slumping film production, the decision by Groundswell could bring two back-to-back productions valued at between $8 and $10 million.

"One company doing two productions in one location one after the other is quite rare", said Emma Cooper, a publicist for Groundswell who confirmed the company's plans. "The wouldn't be doing another production if they weren't really happy."

Groundswell began shooting "Mysteries" here this month under the direction of Rawson Thurber and starring Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller and Mena Suvari.

Cooper said Groundswell has "fallen in love" with the location enough to shift the university setting of "Smart People" from Cleveland as it was written to Pittsburgh.

Groundswell also hopes to tap a $10 million state program that provides grants of up to $2 million for major national motion picture productions, which are required to incur a majority of their expenses within Pennsylvania.

Mickey Rowley, deputy secretary for tourism within the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development, confirmed the state is in discussions with Groundswell, though an incentive package had not been finalized by press time.

"I think we're going to have a deal in the end," said Rowley. "We're working real hard to bring state support that will lock them in." He added that support for Groundswell may come from local and county levels as well.

In addition to the possibility of state grants that would make filming here more financially appealing, Groundswell likely would save time and money by not having to relocate its office, crew and equipment, which already are on location for "Mysteries".

"They obviously want to put as much money on the screen as possible," Cooper said.

...


How exciting!

Groundswell was started by Michael London, who produced "Sideways" (also starring Thomas Haden Church!



Dennis Quaid
http://home.rixtele.com/~urdskalla/Skivomslag/Dennis_Quaid.jpg

Rachel Weisz
http://www.poster.net/weisz-rachel/weisz-rachel-photo-rachel-weisz-6232727.jpg

Thomas Haden Church
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/fox_searchlight/sideways/thomas_haden_church/sidewayspre.jpg

[themaguffin]

Rachel Weisz in Pittsburgh... :)

There some other film news, though less significant, it's important for the long term for these projects to happen....


Headwater Films hopes to make headway in seeding local films
Pittsburgh Business Times - September 22, 2006by Patty Tascarella


The CEO of a local film company is raising $1.5 million to back production of a documentary on Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden.

While the film is an out-of-state project, Headwater Films LLC's Henry Simonds believes the fundraising effort could help create a crop of angel investors who could eventually seed local films.

Simonds started raising $500,000 for director George Butler's Bowden documentary, "Bound for Glory," in late 2005. He was close to his goal by midsummer this year when he decided to triple the original goal -- increasing the field of investors and defraying their individual risk in the film, expected to debut next fall. Butler

directed the 1976 body-building epic "Pumping Iron" that introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to American audiences.

"I'm lucky to be associated with artists of his caliber," Simonds said. "It looks good on my resume to have a producer credit."

The Headwater Films Fund I is currently at $425,000. In addition to the $1.5 million Simonds is raising, the remainder of the film's $3 million budget will come from corporate sponsorships, resulting in an earlier payback for individual investors, who have each taken a $10,000 stake.

"I'm trying to ensure that anyone involved in the process is as assured as they would be in a traditional investment like real estate," he said. "After all, this is someone's money."

Simonds has raised money for two other largely locally funded projects -- $3.5 million toward "Romance and Cigarettes," an independent film by actor John Turturro, as well as $100,000 for Ric Burns' "Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film," which was scheduled to air on PBS Sept. 20-21.

Jeffrey Letwin, managing partner of law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, Downtown, and a former board member of Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Film Office, said Pittsburgh needs to have the ability to seed some independent film projects.

"We have funds to support manufacturing, life sciences and tech, so why not also support film making?" he said.

[AaronPGH]

Booya. Take that, Cleveland. Sorry....I couldn't resist. lol.

[DeBaliviere]

After reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh this weekend, I couldn't imagine the film being shot anywhere but Pittsburgh - the city is an essential part of the story.

I look forward to seeing the sites and neighborhoods described in the book brought to life in the movie! (Nick Nolte was a bit of an odd casting decision though)

[Evergrey]

more info on "Smart People"



http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06279/727785-254.stm

Movie to start filming here Nov. 6
Friday, October 06, 2006

By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The Hollywood production company that's in town filming "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" has opened another office here and is already scouting locations for its next movie.

"Smart People," a comic drama starring Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church and Rachel Weisz, will begin filming Nov. 6. The first screenplay by novelist Mark Poirier will be filmed by commercial director Noam Murro in his feature film debut.

The story follows a grumpy Carnegie Mellon University professor (Quaid) who's still mourning the death of his wife eight years earlier when his adopted brother (Church) moves into his Pittsburgh home. The prof is hurt in a fall but falls head over heels for his emergency room doctor (Weisz), his former student who hated him as a teacher because he was so darned grumpy.

Screenwriter Poirier was raised in Arizona, the fifth of 11 children. He's a graduate of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and was awarded a James Michener fellowship. His novels "Modern Ranch Living" and "Goats" were published by Miramax Books, and he lives in Portland, Ore.

Location manager Kathy McCurdy of Pittsburgh has been knocking on doors in Squirrel Hill, Edgewood and Oakmont, searching for what her assistant Alex Mary Hamilton calls "a typical Pittsburgh house" to serve as the movie's central location.

"The producers liked the [Pittsburgh-filmed] 'Wonder Boys' house but want one that's bigger," said Hamilton, also from Pittsburgh. "We're looking for a three-story house. [Quaid's character] is depressed. His wife died, so it has to look like he hasn't kept up with it for eight years -- no new kitchen or recent improvements like that. We're still looking all over the city."

Groundswell Productions plans 25 days of filming from Nov. 6 through mid-December. CMU scenes will be shot at the Oakland school, and producers hope to shoot the hospital scenes at Allegheny General Hospital.

Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office said Groundswell was able to tap into Pennsylvania's $10 million-per-year film production grant program when other projects dropped off the waiting list.

Groundswell is responsible for 2003's "House of Sand and Fog," 2003's "Thirteen" and 2004 Oscar winner "Sideways," which collectively have grossed more than $100 million worldwide. "Mysteries of Pittsburgh," adapted from the Michael Chabon novel by screenwriter Rawson Marshall Thurber, is still filming at locations throughout the region and will wrap on Oct. 17.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(John Hayes can be reached at jhayes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1991. )





...

I didn't realize Groundswell also did "The House of Sand and Fog"... another one of my favorites. I have high hopes for these two new Pittsburgh-filmed movies.

btw, the "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" film has a website: http://www.mysteriesofpittsburgh.com/

http://www.mysteriesofpittsburgh.com/media/photos/2006-09-21/04-large.jpg

[themaguffin]

MTV picks Pittsburgh scene for cutting-edge drama series
Network envisions new show in two-minute installments
Pittsburgh Business Times - October 13, 2006by Tim Schooley


MTV is bringing its brand of short attention span programming to Pittsburgh for a new experimental drama.

This week, the cable music channel began production here of "Chloe," a short-form soap opera depicting a young woman starting her adult life after college. Written by Pittsburgh native Terry McCluskey, a founder of East Liberty-based advertising firm, The Idea Mill, and directed by local film production professional Steven Parys, Chloe will be produced in short episodes of only a minute and a half to two minutes long.

Kevin Mackall, senior vice president of promotions for MTV, expects between 25 and 30 episodes will be produced at a total cost of about $200,000.

Mackall said he's still unsure how MTV will broadcast and schedule Chloe, a concept he has been discussing with McCluskey for nearly six years. He hopes to air the show on MTV's two cable channels, as well as on its Web site, www.mtv.com, and perhaps for viewing on mobile phones, as podcasts or in other new media formats.

"It feels like success that we're going to do it. We're doing scripted drama. That's a new paradigm for MTV," Mackall said, noting the cable network is still best known for music videos and reality-based programming. "I'm proud of that."

MTV chose Pittsburgh for its quality of locations and crew and to avoid the kind of big cities on the coasts the network has typically chosen for shows, Mackall said.

The shoot includes a production crew and cast of between 30 and 40 people and stars Eryn Joslyn, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, as Chloe.

With production scheduled for two weeks, Chloe will be shot on location throughout the city, using a variety of local landmarks, including Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Diamond Gym in Oakland and Club Cafe on the South Side.

Chloe is part of a new initiative by MTV, a business unit of Viacom, the international media conglomerate, to develop a variety of short-form content that it can cross-promote in a variety of media.

"This to me should be a game-changing effort on MTV's part in terms of short form. If we could have some degree of success with this, there should be some notice in the industry," said Mackall, a graduate of North Allegheny High School. "Every chance I get, I'll talk about Pittsburgh."

To Chris Ivey, a local independent filmmaker, the news of MTV's shoot here suggests Pittsburgh's film-making scene can attract smaller productions, as well as major studio films.

Currently, Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Groundswell Productions is shooting its film adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" here and will begin production of a second film, called "Smart People," in November.

"I think it's a really big boost for independent productions," Ivey said.

Todd Eckert, a North Side-based film financing consultant and producer of a new biopic of punk rock legend Ian Curtis, saw great promise in the fact that MTV is working to create a new kind of content here.

"The idea that something that genuinely changes the way people view content is being explored here is probably as exciting as anything we could possibly get," he said.

---

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06290/730527-254.stm

Soon to be filming in Pittsburgh ...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Don't Think About It," a direct-to-DVD movie starring Emily Osment from Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana," will shoot in Pittsburgh Oct. 25 to Nov. 19. The movie will land on store shelves in time for Halloween 2007.

The sister of actor Haley Joel Osment plays a 13-year-old who feels like an outsider in her new school and neighborhood. She cooks up pranks on her classmates, but a mysterious stranger has a plan for her, as well.

The $3 million movie, written by Dan Angel and Billy Brown and directed by Alex Zamm ("Inspector Gadget 2"), will be filmed under the banner of "R.L. Stine Presents."

Universal Studios Home Entertainment and The Hatchery LLC, a specialist in original family entertainment, will market and distribute it and future installments, which will be based on Stine's "The Haunting Hour."

The project found its way to Pittsburgh through Steeltown Entertainment, which has been working with The Hatchery and a long list of backers, financial and otherwise, to bring the work here. Steeltown raised $975,000, with the largest contributors the state Department of Community and Economic Development ($300,000) and Colcom Foundation ($200,000).

Nancy Mosser Casting is looking for extras age 4 to 17 (with a particular need for 12- to 14-year-olds). Go to www.mossercasting.com for details.

--Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor


MTV filming Web series here


As part of its short-form development slate for MTV.com, the music network is shooting an online series of 20-to-30 two-to-five-minute episodes of "Chloe" in Pittsburgh this week.

Created and written by Pittsburgh native Terry McCluskey and overseen by Pittsburgh native Kevin Mackall, senior vice president of on-air promos for MTV and MTV2, "Chloe" will be a soap that follows the life of an "adorably likable teen girl and her circle of friends," according to an MTV release.

All of MTV's short-form programs are intended to play on its broadband site, but some could also find their way onto the cable channel.

"Chloe" does not have an air date, but it's likely to premiere in early 2007.

--Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor



...

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/10/16/daily5.html?t=printable

Series of made-for-DVD movies to be shot in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Business Times - 4:21 PM EDT Mondayby Tim Schooley
The Hatchery, a film production company, has finalized plans to shoot the first in a series of made-for-DVD movies in Pittsburgh under the banner "R.L. Stine Presents."

The first production, starting next week, will be called "Don't Think About It" and will star Emily Osment, co-star of the hit Disney Channel television series "Hannah Montana."

With Universal Studios the partner to market and distribute the series, the Hatchery's first production here represents the first major production recruitment for the Steeltown Entertainment Project, a nonprofit initiative established to draw on the influence of Pittsburgh natives working in the entertainment industry to bring projects to the region.

"Don't Think About It" is expected to generate an estimated $4.2 million to $4.9 million in economic benefits in the Pittsburgh region, said Ellen Weiss Kander, Steeltown's executive director. "This project also provides an opportunity to build on Fred Rogers' legacy and once again make Pittsburgh a center for quality family entertainment production," she said.

It's also expected to be the first of many movies based on the works of popular children's author R.L. Stine and his "The Haunting Hour" series.

Stine has sold more than 300 million books worldwide, many as part of the wildly popular "Goosebumps" series.

According to Kander, executives from Los Angeles-based The Hatchery were introduced to Steeltown Co-founder Carl Kurlander, a Hollywood scriptwriter originally from Squirrel Hill, by Pittsburgh native Greg Nicotero, a special effects artist.

After more than a year of negotiations, the Hatchery chose to shoot in Pittsburgh with a broad range of financial support from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Allegheny County, the office of late Mayor Bob O'Connor and $200,000 from the local ColCom Foundation, among other support.

The new project from the Hatchery comes during a time of both surging production activity in the region as well as conflict within the local film community.

Currently, MTV is shooting a short-form soap opera in Pittsburgh. At the same time, Beverly Hills-based Groundswell Productions continues its shooting of an adaptation of the popular coming-of-age novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," written by University of Pittsburgh graduate Michael Chabon.

Groundswell will also begin shooting a second production called "Smart People" next month.

Kander is hopeful the Hatchery project will bring more production work here, as funding from the production is paid into a revolving fund intended to spur a continuing slate of projects.

"That, to me, is what's so exciting about this," she said.

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 481-6397 x244

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06290/730530-254.stm


No mystery: Writer-director knew he was the one to bring Chabon novel to the screen
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061017ho_sienna_450.jpg
Bruce Birmelin, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"
Rawson Marshall Thurber directs Sienna Miller in a scene from "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."




By Barbara Vancheri
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Rawson Marshall Thurber doesn't fake it. He's either in love with the idea of a movie or he isn't.

"It's too hard to pretend to be in love for that long. It's too hard, it really is, the actual act of writing and directing something, unless you are 1,000 percent desperately, dopey-eyed in love with it."

That way you can deal with working till 5 a.m., with shooting a swimming pool scene in frosty October, with gladly rearranging a schedule to accommodate the birth of an actor's baby, with reshoots caused by X-ray damage to film, with a brouhaha that blows up around one of your stars and with other developments.

Thurber was smitten with Michael Chabon's novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" when he read it in the summer of 1995.

"I kind of knew I wanted to make the movie of the book pretty much before I knew I wanted to make movies," writer-director Thurber said one recent afternoon at the Omni William Penn before heading to the "Mysteries" set.

The grand hotel doubled as movie location and home for the 31-year-old, who stayed there long enough that a waitress recognized him, came over to say hello and offered to brew fresh coffee. Thurber may be making a $10 million movie, but he is anonymous to everyone else this day, just another patron in jeans and a neat olive shirt needing lots of caffeine refills.


He lived at the Omni for a month before renting a house in Shadyside. His girlfriend, a screenwriter, is visiting with her dogs, and Thurber says, "I get to walk around the neighborhood a lot. It's just beautiful; I can't get over it."

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061017bw_thurber_450.jpg
Bill Wade, Post-Gazette
Rawson Marshall Thurber, outside the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown, his home away from home for a month before renting a house.

The California native, who bought a home in the Hollywood Hills in December, was taken by the city the first time he visited, long before the project found a home at Groundswell Productions. He stayed at the Hilton, Downtown, and took the bus -- surely the anti-Hollywood means of conveyance -- around town.

Thurber had told Chabon he was coming here to do research, and the Pulitzer Prize winner e-mailed him a must-visit list that included the Original Hot Dog shop and Jay's Book Stall. Friends who went to Carnegie Mellon University suggested "pancakes at Pamela's," and he also rode the "funicular," as Chabon always calls the incline, to Mount Washington and did other touristy stuff.

"I was blown away by how beautiful it is. I didn't realize it's as hilly as it is, as green as it is, and in the film, I've been hoping or trying to go for this Edward Hopper vibe, both from a compositional standpoint and a color palette standpoint, and Pittsburgh just lends itself to that," with its brick buildings and many bridges.

Hopper was famous for his poetic portraits, as with his lonely all-night diner in "Nighthawks," and Thurber spent one evening and early morning last week in the rain, wind and chill at a Tarentum diner where a scene between stars Jon Foster and Sienna Miller takes place.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061017ho_Chabon_450.jpg
Bruce Birmelin, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"
Michael Chabon, left, and director Rawson Marshall Thurber discuss filming at the fake book store in Richland Mall.

"Mysteries" stars Foster as Art Bechstein, spending the summer in suspension between college graduation and real life and caught in a romantic triangle with Peter Sarsgaard as a hoodlum named Cleveland and Miller as Jane, his debutante girlfriend.

The cast also includes Mena Suvari as Phlox, Art's sometime girlfriend, and Nick Nolte as his gangster father. Three father-son dinners form the spine of the screenplay, set in the early 1980s.

Noticeably absent is a key character from the book named Arthur Lecomte. "It always seemed to me a more efficient cinematic engine to employ a love triangle versus what exists in the book, which is a four-pointed rhombus, for lack of a better term," Thurber explains.

While Thurber has made other changes -- he's shooting the famous "Cloud Factory" in Rankin and eliminated the Hillman Library location -- he says the movie captures the novel's heart and spirit.

"There's a sense of beauty to the novel, a sense of fun, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia at play, of memory, and it's a great summertime novel in the same way that 'The Great Gatsby' was a great summertime novel. So I think it's a classic American story, it's a coming-of-age story, it's the story about that last true summer of your life."

Thurber then ticks off more themes: love, friendship, memory, adventure. "And the novel's really funny. I think a lot of people forget it, because it's so beautifully written," thanks to Chabon's enviable descriptive powers -- "he's a superhero."

"I think if fans of the novel go to see the film expecting to see a direct kind of translation or transcription of the novel, they'll either be surprised or disappointed or both, but if they go to see the movie that feels like the novel they love, I think they'll be deeply pleased."

It was Thurber's success writing and directing "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" that paved the way for "Mysteries." His agent advised him to "capture the essence of the moment," which meant pitching another project along the same lines, a romantic comedy about darts or curling or competitive eating. All good advice, if your goal is to make money, he says.

Thurber, who holds a bachelor's in English and Theater Arts from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and an MFA in producing from the University of Southern California, instead decided to test the "Mysteries" water. He wrote Chabon a fan letter.

"I love your novels. I love your writing. I love 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh.' I'd love to buy you breakfast and talk about it."

Chabon agreed, and they met over coffee and eggs at a local haunt near Chabon's home in Berkeley, Calif., and Thurber offered to write a six-page treatment with his "pretty radical take." He later sent the outline and, much to his shock, Chabon said yes.

The novelist also read Thurber's first draft of the script, made suggestions and then gave his blessing to a revised draft. If that weren't proof enough of his endorsement, Chabon recently shot a cameo at The Book Barn, the store where Art and Phlox work.

The Book Barn, a Richland Mall set so convincing that the crew had to shoo away potential customers, is a store where books come to die and where the calendars are 6 months old. "It's a pretty grim affair, frankly, but it looks fantastic."

Chabon approaches a store employee and says, "Excuse me, do you know where I could find the new Clive Cussler?" And the clerk replies, "Pal, do I look like I [expletive] read?"

The mall location is just one of many Thurber has used, along with Downtown, the South Side, Fox Chapel, Edgeworth, Mount Washington and Rankin. The movie wraps on Friday, and Thurber, who will be editing it in his Los Angeles guest house, hopes to have it completed by late March or April.

If all goes well, he wants to submit "Mysteries" for the Cannes Film Festival and aim for a commercial release in fall 2007. That's also when he may be shooting a big-screen "Magnum, P.I" movie in Hawaii, with a star to be named later and a mantra of "No short shorts, no mustaches, no cameos."

By that point, the Miller controversy about her unkind remark in Rolling Stone and attempt to patronize a South Side bar without proof of ID (the details of which have turned into a he said-she said kerfuffle) should be long over.

"I know Sienna feels awful about it, she's embarrassed about it, from what she's told me." She had been logging 16-hour days in the first two weeks of the shoot, sleeping during the day and working most of the night, Thurber says.

"She's sweet and beautiful and incredibly talented but has a funny sense of humor, a goofy sense of humor, and sometimes those jokes don't play when they're typed up," without the tone, delivery and context vital to comedy.

Producer Michael London calls the movie a "love poem to Pittsburgh" and says the publicity surrounding Miller has been unfortunate since, "We've had a wonderful experience shooting in Pittsburgh, so much so that we decided to shoot a second film here."

Dennis Quaid and Rachel Weisz will star in "Smart People," scheduled to start filming next month.

As for Miller attempting to pursue the cherished Pittsburgh tradition of grabbing a drink on the South Side and the media storm that followed, London says he believes her account that "she left quietly with her parents and friends and went elsewhere. Sienna is actually one of the most down-to-earth actresses I've ever worked with. So what's happening right now is especially painful for her."

All of this will blow over, he says, but it could make other productions, especially those with prominent stars, hesitant to shoot here. "That's a shame for those movies and a shame for Pittsburgh."

Thurber, meanwhile, can appreciate the crush of a shooting schedule. When he's not directing or sleeping, he's watching dailies, working in the editing room or rewriting.

Before the movie wraps on Friday, he wants to tour three places: Fallingwater, The Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory. He made it as far as the Warhol lobby, to drop off his mother when she was visiting, but no farther.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(John Hayes contributed to this report. Movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

[themaguffin]

Spike TV to film series here in 2007
Thursday, October 19, 2006

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



"The Kill Pit," an eight-hour drama series coming to cable's Spike TV, will film in Pittsburgh in early 2007. Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer will make an official announcement today about the program, expected to air next summer.

John Leguizamo ("ER," "Moulin Rouge") will star in "The Kill Pit," about a team of Iraq war veterans who rob a bank and take hostages. It will be produced by Lionsgate Entertainment, which has a history with programs filmed outside of Hollywood, Vancouver or Toronto, the largest entertainment production centers. ABC Family's "Wildfire" shoots in New Mexico and an upcoming drama for The CW is in production near Phoenix.

"The Kill Pit" will be the most extensive national television production to film in Pittsburgh, with speculation of an initial investment of $18 million locally. CBS's Pittsburgh-set series "The Guardian" filmed scenes here over its three seasons, but the series was filmed almost entirely on the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif. "Kill Pit" is expected to film entirely in Western Pennsylvania.

The premiere episode of "Kill Pit" was written by James DeMonaco, an executive producer on the short-lived 1999 Fox drama series "Ryan Caulfield, Year One." He also wrote the 2005 Samuel L. Jackson film "The Negotiator" and 2005's Ethan Hawke feature "Assault on Precinct 13."

"Kill Pit" follows several other heist-themed series in the past year, including FX's "Thief," the first-season ABC drama "The Nine" and CBS's recently canceled "Smith," which filmed a portion of its pilot in Pittsburgh. Each "Kill Pit" episode will "follow the escalating action as the volatile soldiers plot their way out, the negotiator anticipates their moves and the hostages desperately try to survive," according to a Spike TV description of the series released last month.

Mr. Leguizamo starred with Simon Baker (star of Pittsburgh-set drama "The Guardian" and "Smith") in the 2005 Pittsburgh-set horror movie "Land of the Dead," which was filmed in Canada.

An announcement about "Kill Pit" is expected at a news conference this afternoon with Lionsgate executives and a phalanx of local leaders in attendance, including Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

"It's great for the City of Pittsburgh to once again be showcased," the mayor said. "Any opportunity we get to host a production like this in the city is great as a showcasing opportunity and as an economic generator" because it brings jobs and spending here.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Evergrey]

The film project news seems to be daily now... this latest announcement is huge... even if it's called "The Kill Pit"... perhaps Dawn Keezer's controversial move to L.A. is paying off.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06292/731280-237.stm

Spike TV to film series here in 2007
Thursday, October 19, 2006

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



"The Kill Pit," an eight-hour drama series coming to cable's Spike TV, will film in Pittsburgh in early 2007. Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer will make an official announcement today about the program, expected to air next summer.

John Leguizamo ("ER," "Moulin Rouge") will star in "The Kill Pit," about a team of Iraq war veterans who rob a bank and take hostages. It will be produced by Lionsgate Entertainment, which has a history with programs filmed outside of Hollywood, Vancouver or Toronto, the largest entertainment production centers. ABC Family's "Wildfire" shoots in New Mexico and an upcoming drama for The CW is in production near Phoenix.

"The Kill Pit" will be the most extensive national television production to film in Pittsburgh, with speculation of an initial investment of $18 million locally. CBS's Pittsburgh-set series "The Guardian" filmed scenes here over its three seasons, but the series was filmed almost entirely on the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif. "Kill Pit" is expected to film entirely in Western Pennsylvania.

The premiere episode of "Kill Pit" was written by James DeMonaco, an executive producer on the short-lived 1999 Fox drama series "Ryan Caulfield, Year One." He also wrote the 2005 Samuel L. Jackson film "The Negotiator" and 2005's Ethan Hawke feature "Assault on Precinct 13."

"Kill Pit" follows several other heist-themed series in the past year, including FX's "Thief," the first-season ABC drama "The Nine" and CBS's recently canceled "Smith," which filmed a portion of its pilot in Pittsburgh. Each "Kill Pit" episode will "follow the escalating action as the volatile soldiers plot their way out, the negotiator anticipates their moves and the hostages desperately try to survive," according to a Spike TV description of the series released last month.

Mr. Leguizamo starred with Simon Baker (star of Pittsburgh-set drama "The Guardian" and "Smith") in the 2005 Pittsburgh-set horror movie "Land of the Dead," which was filmed in Canada.

An announcement about "Kill Pit" is expected at a news conference this afternoon with Lionsgate executives and a phalanx of local leaders in attendance, including Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

"It's great for the City of Pittsburgh to once again be showcased," the mayor said. "Any opportunity we get to host a production like this in the city is great as a showcasing opportunity and as an economic generator" because it brings jobs and spending here.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Ask TV questions at www.post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A. )



...


too bad to hear about CBS canceling "Smith" already... whose debut episode was filmed in Pittsburgh... I never had the chance to see it... perhaps the show could've succeeded with a slightly more interesting name

[Evergrey]

more on THE KILL PIT

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/10/16/daily24.html?surround=lfn

TV drama to shoot in Pittsburgh next year
Pittsburgh Business Times - 4:26 PM EDT Thursdayby Tim Schooley
Dawn Keezer, the embattled executive director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, on Thursday announced a 65-day production shoot in the region next year for an eight-hour TV drama called "The Kill Pit" starring John Leguizamo.

Produced by Lionsgate Films for male-oriented cable network Spike TV, the story revolves around a bank robbery conducted by a group of American Iraqi war veterans.

With PFO board members, a host of public officials and representatives of Lionsgate in attendance, Keezer described the series as the first to be shot in its entirety in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The production is expected to begin next near and take about 65 days, according to Gary Goodman, executive vice president of television production for Lionsgate.

Goodman said Lionsgate had planned to bring to Pittsburgh another production, a show called Wildfire, but there wasn't a tax incentive that made it feasible.

Goodman estimated the production could bring $18 million-$20 million in direct spending to the region, excluding post-production costs.

Along with the tax incentives, Goodman said the decision to film here was helped by the availability of production crew.

Keezer and PFO board chairman Russ Streiner both said Keezer's relocation to Los Angeles was one of the reasons Lionsgate chose Pittsburgh.

"We've done this in the last two and half months," Keezer said. "It's directly attributable."

Streiner said Keezer's move of the Pittsburgh Film Office out west has paid off.

"The last installment of the plan has come together," said Streiner.

The PFO board's decision in July to allow Keezer to relocate ignited controversy, and inspired a variety of local film community leaders to call for a new organization.

Dan Onorato, chief executive for Allegheny County, said meetings over the controversy continue, but that he is working to bring a consensus to the film industry.

Lionsgate received a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, and Keezer expects the company will also receive the full $2 million allotment from the state's Creativity in Focus program, which gives grants to films which incur 60 percent of their expenses in Pennsylvania.

Dennis Yablonsky, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said Pennsylvania has grown the economic impact of film production from $93 million a few years ago to $249 million.

Among those Keezer personally thanked who were in attendance included Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Rep. Melissa Hart, a PFO board member, Mickey Rowley, the deputy secretary for tourism within the Department of Community and Economic Development, and Leslie McCombs, a UPMC Health Journal reporter described as a friend of the Pittsburgh Film Office.

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 481-6397 x244

[themaguffin]

Since I have added non Mysteries film news, as you have Evergrey, and other folks as well, maybe this should be retitled the Pittsburgh Fillm thread... hopefully this activity will continue... this is the most film news since the "heyday" of the early 90s when NYC productions were stalled.

[Evergrey]

Since I have added non Mysteries film news, as you have Evergrey, and other folks as well, maybe this should be retitled the Pittsburgh Fillm thread... hopefully this activity will continue... this is the most film news since the "heyday" of the early 90s when NYC productions were stalled.


I agree... I believe a moderator would have to change the title. The current title is misleadingly negative compared to the content of the thread.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06293/731487-237.stm

Filming TV series here opens doors
Friday, October 20, 2006

By Rob Owen and Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The decision by Lionsgate Entertainment to film the upcoming eight-hour Spike TV series "The Kill Pit" in Pittsburgh next year could be just the beginning of a relationship between the company and the region.

At the moment, "Kill Pit" is the only Lionsgate project slated to shoot locally, but this small, scrappy independent television production company took similar initial baby steps in New Mexico, first filming the ABC Family series "Wildfire" there.

"Wildfire" is now filming its third season in Rio Rancho, N.M., and other Lionsgate projects followed, including the feature film "Employee of the Month" and the December Sci Fi Channel mini-series "The Lost Room," which is partially set in Pittsburgh and was created by three Carnegie Mellon University graduates, Christopher Leone, Paul Workman and Pittsburgh native Laura Karkcom. Lionsgate considered filming "Lost Room" here, but settled on Albuquerque due to economic reasons.

"The incentive program wasn't here and we couldn't figure out how to afford to bring the product here," said Gary Goodman, Lionsgate executive vice president of television production.

For "The Kill Pit," Lionsgate is using new state incentives that issue production companies up to $2 million per project from a $10 million annual grant program, after 60 percent of the filming expenses are incurred in Pennsylvania. Gov. Ed Rendell met with Lionsgate personnel to help woo them to the city and issued them an extra $100,000 in development funds to cover start-up costs.

The state's Department of Community and Economic Development secretary, Dennis Yablonsky, met with Lionsgate officials yesterday afternoon to discuss bringing more work in.

"We'll be chatting with them about what other opportunities might exist after this series is complete, and to see if we can build a long-term relationship with these guys," Yablonsky said.

Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate president of programming and production for TV, said more local productions are possible. Producers want to work in an environment where they know they won't face any more challenges than those a normal day of TV production brings.

"People go towards things that work, and when something works, more business follows," Beggs said by phone from Los Angeles. "If this goes well, which I expect it will, Pittsburgh will be on that list when we're looking to do other projects."

The Pittsburgh Film Office was pummelled with criticism from other city film officials this summer after its director, Dawn Keezer, was authorized to move to Los Angeles but remain in charge of the local office. Rival groups, including Pittsburgh Filmmakers, independent producers and union officials have been pushing for the film office to be remade, with more emphasis on local filmmaking.

Thursday's press conference announcing "Kill Pit" -- attended by state, city and county officials, U.S Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Bradford Woods) and other film office supporters -- was in part a victory lap for Keezer's methods.

The Lionsgate decision "absolutely" was a result of her move to Los Angeles, Keezer said. "So far it's working and we're hoping that continues. We think this is the first of many big announcements we're going to be making for the region."

At yesterday's press conference, Goodman said he was attracted to Pittsburgh by the state incentives, an existing base of experienced film crews and actors and the physical look of the area.

"We hope to be able to have a home here," he said. Asked about Ms. Keezer's involvement Goodman said, "I don't know if it was kismet or not, but I think Dawn came in my office just before this project came to Lionsgate and we were talking about . . . something coming out we could shoot in Pennsylvania.

"When this happened, we already had a relationship with her and it kind of flowed from that. You might say it was in our thoughts because she had just been in our offices."

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato has been moderating meetings on possibly remaking the film office's mission. Remaking it is still "an option" he said yesterday, "but we're going to let the film organizations decide how to move forward and the governmental officials will hear from them in the next couple weeks."

Mr. Yablonsky said state officials are leaving the issue to local government. His department has contracts in place to fund the film office with $100,000 this year -- half is being issued now and the rest in the spring.

The total budget for the "Kill Pit" project is around $20 million, Goodman said, with a projected $18 million of that to be spent locally. Each episode will cost approximately $2.5 million per hour, putting the show's budget on par with some productions on ABC, CBS and NBC.

Goodman said a series brings more benefits than a movie because of the consistency of work.

"If somebody works on a series ... they learn their skill in a much more nurtured way. There's a repetitive nature in doing a series," he said. "People learn, people move up and it's a great training ground for a crew to become more expert in their craft."

Goodman said the "Kill Pit" crew will number about 100. He said he hopes all but 10-15 of those positions will be filled by Pittsburgh-based crew members.

"The Kill Pit" will follow a band of American veterans of the Iraq War who stage a bank heist that goes bad. John Leguizamo stars as the lead robber, the show's anti-hero. He and his crew take hostages and play a game of cat and mouse with a negotiator, yet to be cast, but a role intended for "somebody of note," said Spike TV executive vice president of original programming Pancho Mansfield.

He said "Kill Pit," which is serialized and takes place over the course of about five days, will differ from ABC's bank robbery hostage drama "The Nine."

" 'The Nine' is about the aftermath and its more a melodrama," he said. "This is more action-packed, tense and takes place in real time. It's closer to '24' than to 'The Nine.' "

The original "Kill Pit" script is set in New York, but Goodman said Lionsgate is urging series creator James DeMonaco to change the setting to Pittsburgh.

The show's title, which could change before it airs, refers to what SWAT teams call the area where hostages are held. Mansfield let out a hearty guffaw when it was suggested "Kill Pit" could sound like an abbreviation of "Kill Pittsburgh."

"That never crossed anybody's mind here," he said, laughing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Timothy McNulty can be reached at tmcnulty@ post-gazette.com or 412-263-1581. )

[AaronPGH]

Nice article. I have to say, all of this recent news is suprising! (and awesome)

[Evergrey]

unfortunately the beautiful Rachel Weisz will no longer be in "Smart People"... she is replaced by Sarah Jessica Parker... who was previously in the early 90s Pittsburgh-filmed "Striking Distance" with Bruce Willis.

[themaguffin]

unfortunately the beautiful Rachel Weisz will no longer be in "Smart People"...

That sucks.

she is replaced by Sarah Jessica Parker...

...that doesn't make it better....

who was previously in the early 90s Pittsburgh-filmed "Striking Distance" with Bruce Willis

...but known for a little HBO show she did.

[Evergrey]

this movie sounds so weird

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06306/734864-254.stm

'Pittsburgh' premiere: Three Rivers Film Festival opens with quasi-documentary on Jeff Goldblum
Thursday, November 02, 2006


http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061102ho_PITTSBURG_450.jpg

Harry Giglio
Catherine Wreford and Jeff Goldblum starred in the 2004 Pittsburgh CLO production of "The Music Man," recounted in the film "Pittsburgh."




By Barbara Vancheri
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Chris Bradley is getting his fill of Pittsburgh -- happily -- this week.

Yesterday, he was scheduled to accompany the movie "Pittsburgh" to a film festival in Savannah. Today, he lands in the title city itself, and Friday he flies to Fort Lauderdale.

He is co-director of "Pittsburgh," the comedy about Jeff Goldblum's return to his hometown in summer 2004 to star in Pittsburgh CLO's "The Music Man" with his fiancee, Catherine Wreford. (They later broke up.)

The opening-night selection of the Three Rivers Film Festival defies easy description. It's not a straight documentary, like "March of the Penguins," or a mockumentary like "Best in Show."

Someone dubbed it a "biomock," and it floats between genres, a bubbly blend of fact and fiction. Audiences always want to know which is which, says Bradley, who feels like a magician asked to explain his tricks.

His question-and-answer sessions are a game of "Real or Not Real?"

The "actor" playing Goldblum's stepfather? His actual stepfather, Harvey Tyson, married to Goldblum's mother, Shirley Tyson.

Ed Begley's solar-powered invention? Not real, although the environmental activist told Bradley, "We were very close, one part away from having it work."

The calls from Goldblum's agent about a Michael Bay cloning movie? Well, Bay did make "The Island," but Goldblum wasn't offered a role in it, although he did pass up another film to pursue "Pittsburgh."

Goldblum and Wreford, who played Marian to his Harold Hill, actually encountered one of his boyhood competitors from Little League on a bridge near Downtown. You can't make this stuff up. Well, you could, but you don't have to.

Bradley, talking by phone from Los Angeles before starting his three-city swing, says, "I hope that people like the film. Who knows what the reaction will be? It could be mixed. I personally really enjoyed going there, I'm from Philadelphia. ...

"I wanted to try to create Pittsburgh itself as sort of a character in the film. One of the scenes is Jeff's homecoming, and we were staying right near all the bridges and PNC Park, and we really tried to incorporate the city into the movie as much as possible. It's really a beautiful city to photograph."

And the audience shouldn't think actress Illeana Douglas is pulling a Sienna Miller when she tells Begley, "It doesn't get better than this, right? Here we are. You, me, Pittsburgh. I'm gonna kill myself."

She was "in character," as "Illeana Douglas," talked into playing the mayor's wife in "Music Man" and mooning over Moby.

"If you asked Illeana about her time in Pittsburgh, I think she really loved it and thought it was a great city and enjoyed her experience there. Part of that, also, is her character in the film is going through the 'break-up' ... and she's alone."

Bradley, who worked with co-director Kyle LaBrache, said Goldblum was aiming for a "fictional-feeling story arc set in real life. He didn't want anyone to be acting or seeming to be acting; a lot of the people we would just tell, be yourself. ...

"There were no second takes, everything was just live, shot like a documentary. ... Also, we used some fictional styles and techniques. We didn't want to have interviews or people breaking the fourth wall, talking to the camera."

Any movie that attempts to document a version of real life raises the question of how the camera colors behavior. A tearful Goldblum prays, "Please, God, help me" before stepping onto the Benedum Center stage.

"That really was the moment before he walked on, on opening night ... Although Jeff will tell you he was acting pretty much any time the cameras were on, I think he absolutely was feeling that kind of stress about going on, and having to do this role that was definitely outside his comfort zone."

Bradley and LaBrache shot 300-plus hours of footage over six months in Pittsburgh, New York and L.A. They met Goldblum after making a documentary called "Jon E. Edwards Is in Love" and spent months kicking around ideas with him.

"In real life, Jeff met Catherine and it sort of got him inspired about musical theater again. ... Catherine's agent came upon 'The Music Man' in Pittsburgh, then we all kind of talked and thought, 'Is this a good concept for us to start filming this project?' "

He says they "took what was really happening and turned up the volume or tweaked it a little bit, hopefully in a comedic way."

Some moviegoers think the entire film is real and others think it's all fake. "We wanted to try and tell a story that you wouldn't be sitting there the whole time saying, 'Is this real or fake?' but more you'd be sitting there thinking this is funny and enjoyable.

"And, maybe at some point you'd be thinking, wow, that guy who just brought up the room service was good." He was, serving a side of wisdom with his cart of food at the Renaissance Hotel.

"Pittsburgh" will screen four times. Today's 7:30 p.m. show, at Regent Square Theater in Edgewood, costs $35, which includes a Q&A with Bradley followed by a reception at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

[Evergrey]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_479618.html

Region hopes film keeps rolling

By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, November 14, 2006


Public officials and a group of investors are pouring more than $1 million into a made-for-DVD family thriller being shot in Pittsburgh in hopes it stimulates the economy and sparks a regional filmmaking renaissance.
The nonprofit Steeltown Entertainment has helped raise nearly $900,000 -- half of that from the state and Allegheny County -- to bring the filming of "Don't Think About It" to Western Pennsylvania. A Los Angeles-based company producing the movie, the first in a possible series of "R.L. Stine Presents" films, netted a $381,405 state grant on top of that because it planned to spend at least 60 percent of its roughly $3 million budget in Pennsylvania.

The film, whose production schedule wraps up Sunday, is expected to generate $4.2 million to $4.9 million for the region's economy, according to a private, independent estimate conducted for the producers. Steeltown co-founder Ellen Weiss Kander and others tout that immediate impact, but stress the film's benefits loom larger, creating an environment that could lure future productions.

"We've incubated all this talent (in the past), but everyone had to leave to make it," Kander said. "The hope is, now that technology is changing, you don't need to be in L.A."





Among the local talent set to appear in the film when it's released around Halloween next year is Katelyn Pippy, 13, daughter of state Sen. John Pippy, R-Moon. Katelyn Pippy, a professional actress who spends part of her year in Los Angeles, was paid $737 a day, which is local union scale, from Oct. 25-27 to appear in a minor role in the movie, casting director Canice Kennedy said.

The senator said Monday he played no role in securing money for the film and wasn't aware the production was associated with Steeltown until the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review contacted him about it.

"I had absolutely nothing to do with that at all," he said.

Although the county's $150,000 grant for the film appears unprecedented, state money is not. Every year, Pennsylvania awards up to $10 million to producers who spend most of their film budgets here. Feature film productions are granted sales tax exemptions and can shoot on state-owned property.

The state, in turn, sees job growth and local businesses thrive, officials said. But the economics of film production are far from scientific. Variables make it difficult to know how -- or how many times over -- a film's budget leaves its mark on a local economy.

The Greater Philadelphia Film Office estimates that a film shot in its city will generate 2 to 2.5 times the total dollars a production spends. Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, is more hesitant to cite projections.

"Economists use multipliers all the time," Keezer said. "We don't know if it's one time (the dollars spent). We don't know if it's two times. We don't know if it's three times."

Keezer's office instead focuses on tracking "actual dollars" spent. "Graduation," a $3 million feature film, spent $1.8 million locally, while a "West Wing" episode budgeted around $3 million spent $1.5 million locally, she said.

Others talk about local impact in different terms.

Dennis Davin, Allegheny County's director of economic development, said the county's investment helps create about 100 jobs and could bring other film productions here.

"They make more money, they spend more money (and) when you put more money into the local economy, it filters down," said Michael Pehur, a project manager in the county's economic development office. "This project is not your typical film production. It's something seen as a relationship that can blossom with a (company) outside the state."

Those close to the film, such as the woman who heads the company producing it, don't find the level of public support necessarily unusual.

"I don't know whether this particular consortium of investors is common, (but) what I will tell you is films are mounted in many different ways," said Margaret Loesch, co-CEO of The Hatchery.

Kander said investors, including the county, can recoup their contributions through a percentage of the DVD sales and related merchandise. Though The Hatchery isn't required to shoot future R.L. Stine films in Pittsburgh, several people hope the project will trigger the renaissance Kander seeks.

"It could be the beginning of something really exciting," said Kennedy, the Pittsburgh-based casting director.

"Let's hope that's true," Keezer said. "We're always happy to see work in the region."



Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com.

[Austinlee]

A couple of weeks ago, I was partying in the strip district all night and then went with a small entourage of puerto-rican friends and a couple other people I know to this rich kids condo in The Pennsylvanian luxury building; And from out the window of his tenth floor apartment, I saw all kinds of lights and people and trucks in the strip only about two blocks from where we were; And it was like 3:30 in the morning; And I was like: "What the hell is all that shit going on down there?" and my friend was like, "Thats that Mysteries of Pittsburgh being filmed".. I was like oooohhhhh... Well, i guess its going to be filmed in the burgh after all!

[Evergrey]

another production coming to Pittsburgh

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_481824.html

By Brian C. Rittmeyer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 29, 2006


Teen idol Drake Bell is coming back to Pittsburgh for a concert performance next month, and plans are under way for a city-based reality show starring the young pop-rock musician.
Bell, half of the comedy team behind the popular "Drake & Josh" show on Nickelodeon, is scheduled to perform Dec. 27 at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.

Bell, 20, of Southern California, released his debut album in 2005. He was last in the area Aug. 26, when a crowd of about 6,000 descended upon the Ross Community Center for his outdoor performance that was part of the first Fallen Marine Memorial Run, which local organizers founded to benefit the widow and family of a North Carolina Marine killed in Iraq.

Next month's show is being produced by PEI Production Group, of Ross, which has reached an agreement to produce a 13-episode reality show located and filmed in Pittsburgh starring Bell.





The almost-finished pilot includes footage shot at the show in Ross, and more footage for the series will be filmed at the Soldiers & Sailors concert and two days later at a show in Buffalo, said Phil Isaly, president of PEI Production.

The show's premise has Bell moving to Pittsburgh and starting his career as a musician, with behind-the-scenes glimpses into the life of a pop-rock star. Each episode will include live concert footage. The as-of-yet untitled show may simply be called "Pittsburgh," Isaly said.

Additional footage would be shot in and around Pittsburgh, including in the North Hills and Ross, Isaly said.

"It just seems to be getting better and better as we go," he said.

Pittsburgh was chosen as the setting for the show because of the success of the August concert, support from area fans, and access to affordable locations, equipment and staff, Isaly said. "Everything worked so well on camera, from the size of the event to the way we were treated by the police department," he said.

Isaly said he expects the show to debut in four to six months. He was not able to disclose the network.

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said the show will be a boon for some of the more than 300 people who make a full-time living from the film industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

"We're very thrilled for them and happy to work with them. We're happy they decided to film the series in Pittsburgh. It's another great win," she said. "They've been working on it for quite a while, so it's exciting to see it come to fruition."

Southwestern Pennsylvania has hosted more than 128 film production projects since 1914. Other reality shows that have filmed in Pittsburgh: "Trading Spaces," "ElimiDATE," "The Joe Schmo Show," "Trauma: Life in the ER," "Wife Swap" and "Trading Spouses."

Like the Ross event, next month's concert is a benefit, this time raising money for Bonnie Patterson, of Cranberry, Butler County, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in June.

In addition to Bell, local artists Artistree and Vanessa Campagna are scheduled to perform.

Tickets for the concert, available through Ticketmaster, cost $25 and $45. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the concert beginning at 7 p.m. Isaly said he expects the show to sell out.



Brian C. Rittmeyer can be reached at brittmeyer@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7108.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06347/745576-237.stm

TV Notes: Drake Bell series to film here
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A hybrid series -- partially scripted, partially unscripted -- starring Drake Bell of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" will be filmed and set in Pittsburgh, though the particulars on the project have yet to be worked out.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061213ho_DrakeBell_450.jpg
Drake Bell of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" will be playing Pittsburgh later this month in a concert that will be taped to air as part of an upcoming reality series.

A joint production of locally based PEI Production Group and Los Angeles' Hudson Canyon Entertainment Group, the proposed 13-episode first season has not yet been sold to a network. PEI president Philip Isaly said two offers have been made, but none accepted.

Nickelodeon, a logical place for the project since it's the home of "Drake & Josh," has not been pitched on this Pittsburgh-based series, according to a network representative.

Bell, 20, is a budding rock star whose new album, "It's Only Time," was released by UniversalMotown earlier this month.

Scenes for the pilot episode were shot when Bell played a concert in Ross in August. He'll be in town again Dec. 27 to play at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, and more footage will be shot during that concert.

Thomas E. van Dell, Bell's manager and president of Hudson Canyon, said the series will be a cross between "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "This Is Spinal Tap."

The series will begin with Bell at a concert in Pittsburgh, where he gets news from his manager (Jerry Trainor, who plays "Crazy Steve" on "Drake & Josh") that Nickelodeon has canceled "Drake & Josh" (the show is in its final season). Bell decides to stay in Pittsburgh. Van Dell said the show will have a tie-in with the Pittsburgh mayor's office.

"The mayor's office will offer him everything to help him out, and everything they offer will be more of a mess," van Dell said. "Drake becomes a whole project for the mayor's office."

And van Dell does not envision a fictional mayor character.

"We're trying to use Luke," he said. "We want to be using every element that's offered by shooting in Pittsburgh."

Dick Skrinjar, communications director for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, said the mayor's office is aware of the project but not the specifics.

"We're always anxious and welcome production opportunities here in Hollyburgh," Skrinjar said. "The mayor has a pretty full production schedule of his own with the city. ... Being the mayor is a full-time job. Luke doesn't have any plans to become a Hollywood star. He's quite occupied and pleased with being the mayor of Pittsburgh. It's a full-time gig."

There's no schedule for when production on episodes beyond the pilot might commence, but van Dell envisions a spring start date.

"We're not trying to rush it," he said. "We're just trying to put our best foot forward with the pilot."

Former county Commissioner Mike Dawida put together the deal between PEI and Hudson Canyon and made the announcement at the Pittsburgh Film Office headquarters yesterday. Once considered a candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh, Dawida said he probably won't run.

"This is where the action is," Dawida said, referring to the Bell project.

Isaly said filming the pilot cost upward of $70,000, but van Dell said total costs on pilot development and production will be about $500,000. How much the series would bring the region won't be known until the project has a network partner. Typically, broadcast network programs cost significantly more to produce than basic cable fare.

Writers are now at work plotting episodes for the first season of the series, which does not yet have a title, van Dell said.

Isaly said Bell was impressed by the reception he received in Pittsburgh in August, and Isaly was impressed with Bell's devotion to fans, signing autographs into the wee hours of the night and spending time visiting sick kids at Children's Hospital.

"Drake is a very, very solid kid," Isaly said.

It's possible van Dell will bring other filmed projects to Pittsburgh, including a new "Sleepaway Camp" horror film, "Sleepaway Camp Reunion."

(Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor)

[Evergrey]

well... it's not filmed here... so whoopdeedoo... but it's some more PGH exposure

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06348/745972-237.stm

TNT gives Hollander's 'Heartland' a hearty thumbs up
Thursday, December 14, 2006

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


TNT's "Heartland," a Pittsburgh-set drama pilot about a transplant surgeon played by Treat Williams ("Everwood"), has been given a green light for series production. The show was created by Pittsburgh native David Hollander, executive producer of CBS's 2001-2004 Pittsburgh-set drama "The Guardian." "Heartland" is expected to premiere next summer, airing at 10 p.m. Monday after the TNT hit "The Closer."

TNT canceled the paramedic drama "Saved."

Produced by Warner Horizon, a new division of Warner Bros. that makes lower budget cable series, the "Heartland" pilot was written, directed and executive produced by Hollander. It was shot in Los Angeles, where the series will also be filmed. Hollander said the pilot uses exterior establishing shots of Pittsburgh just as "The Guardian" did, but trips back to Pittsburgh with the cast, as "The Guardian" routinely made, are unlikely.

"That's pretty much impossible," Hollander said by phone from Los Angeles yesterday. "My budget is so small. I may come by myself and shoot some exteriors as I've done in the past."

Production on the series is expected to begin in March with between 10 and 13 episodes in the show's first season.

Set at the fictional St. Jude's Regional Transplant Center, "Heartland" centers on Williams' lung and heart transplant surgeon and his ex-wife (Kari Matchett, "Invasion"), who is the regional coordinator for an organ recovery center.

"The pilot examines their relationship as much as it examines the world of transplant surgery," Hollander said. "The thesis of the show for me was to look at bringing people together and coming apart and coming together again. We'll look at it through an emotional, familial, romantic lens."

Other regular characters include a head ICU nurse (Danielle Nicolet, "Second Time Around"), a surgical nurse (Morena Baccarin, "Firefly") and another transplant surgeon (Chris Martin, "Stone Undercover").

"Guardian" star Dabney Coleman has a role in the "Heartland" pilot as Williams' boss. Coleman may or may not appear in subsequent episodes.

"To me there are amazing ways to tell stories that have to do with donors and recipients," Hollander said. "I love being able to tell stories that cross over an entire community. Not unlike 'The Guardian,' transplant stories touch, potentially, every socio-economic place everywhere in the city."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, TNT has also ordered "Grace," a drama starring Holly Hunter as a dispirited Oklahoma City police detective "who is visited by an irascible angel and offered an opportunity to redeem her life."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Ask TV questions at www.post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A. )

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Dennis Quaid on the set of "Smart People" at Carnegie-Mellon

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Dennis_Quaid_Smart_People.jpg/800px-Dennis_Quaid_Smart_People.jpg

[themaguffin]

'Kill Pit' now set in PIT
Spike TV's upcoming series "The Kill Pit," starring John Leguizamo and filming eight episodes in Pittsburgh starting in March, has now changed its setting to Pittsburgh.

Originally, the show's writers had the series set in New York, but in October when the series' filming location was announced, Gary Goodman, executive vice president of television production for Lionsgate, the studio producing the show, said he would encourage the writers to change the location to Pittsburgh. Now they have.

---

[Evergrey]

well that's nice :)

[themaguffin]

Any word on the status of the Film Office? There was to be some serious discussions and it seems like no news since the summer...???

[Evergrey]

i haven't heard anything... but Dawn Keezer has been looking pretty good lately due to her role in landing a lot of these projects... I think she was pretty instrumental in "Kill Pit" and that new Nickelodean thing featuring the teeny bopper rock star... among others... despite the bad taste concerning her moving to L.A.... it might actually be paying off...

[Evergrey]

so as a new resident of Bloomfield... I'm reading my free copy of "The Bulletin", which covers the going-ons in Bloomfield, Garfield, Friendship, E. Liberty and Lawrenceville... and there's an article on "Smart People"...

so they used one of those beautiful large houses on Graham St. in Friendship as the doctor's (Dennis Quaid) house...

the movie is set entirely in PGH... much of it filmed at Carnegie-Mellon...

a bit disappointed to find out that "Smart People" is set in THE EIGHTIES... just like "Mysteries" and "Rock Star"... while I generally like 80s period films... the 80s was not a kind decade to PGH... it would be nice to actually see a contemporary version of Pittsburgh portrayed on the silver screen for once...

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07039/760293-120.stm

'God Grew Tired of Us'
'God Grew Tired of Us' tracks African refugees as they adapt to America
Thursday, February 08, 2007

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A young man named John Bul Dau provides the title to the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" and one of its most heart-wrenching moments.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070208ho_godgrew_450.jpg
National Geographic Films/Newmarket
Regarding doughnuts with sprinkles, the "Lost Boys" wonder: "Is this a food?"

At age 13, he was one of the oldest "Lost Boys" of Sudan and certainly one of the tallest. That meant he became a leader by default but, in fact, his maturity and sense of duty might have made him a leader no matter what.

He was in charge of 1,200 other boys, orphaned or hopelessly separated from their decimated families, and he shepherded them through life and death. "I learned how to bury the dead bodies. That was part of my job. I have to go and bury my fellow brothers," he says.

"Imagine at the age of 13. ... It was so bad."

And yet he did it, never shucking his sense of responsibility once he left a United Nations refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, and settled in Syracuse, N.Y. Two other remarkable young men, Daniel Pach and Panther Bior, landed in Pittsburgh, where they, too, proved the human spirit can be remarkably resilient.

Immigrant stories form the foundation of America, but the Lost Boys were just 3 to 13 when orphaned by a civil war and forced to flee their villages on foot through the desert. They encountered famine, dehydration, disease, hyenas, lions and rebel soldiers; they had only each other, and they never forgot that.

John, Daniel and Panther took a distant spot on a world map and made it home. Arriving in cities where everything was foreign, from refrigerators and alarm clocks to doughnuts with sprinkles ("Is this a food?"), potato chips and Downtown bus stops, they carved out lives.

Although Daniel and Panther once wondered how they would become acquainted with the ways of Pittsburgh, they learned to field questions about their homeland, to juggle jobs, bus schedules and college classes and to become accustomed to a culture where a group of young men entering a store together is seen as intimidation rather than a sign of a makeshift family.

Hearing narrator Nicole Kidman say that merchants filed complaints with the police over this makes you embarrassed to be a Pittsburgher. After all, the boys once had traveled in a line that stretched for miles. They were bound, as if by an invisible rope, as much as mountain climbers are lashed together for protection.

"God Grew Tired," directed by Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker, was years in the making. It started with a trip to a Kenyan refugee camp in 2001 -- they were drawn first to Daniel, who created something called "Parliament" and entertained the others -- and the filmmakers accompanied the young men to America.

They spent the next four years visiting Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and the movie documents the men's assimilation and milestones, such as marriage plans, unexpected family reunions, new jobs and, briefly, efforts to improve life in Africa.

In August 2004, Pittsburgh Filmmakers booked another movie called "Lost Boys of Sudan." The subject is the same, but not the subjects. As with stories of Holocaust survivors or World War II veterans or Ellis Island arrivals, they are all different.

That it takes a lesson about the aftermath of a distant civil war and brings it to Pittsburgh simply makes it all that richer. It addresses a complicated chapter of world history, and it shows us the faces of sorrow, survival, second chances ... and inspiration.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07065/767052-254.stm

Underwood to direct film here
Tuesday, March 06, 2007

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Blair Underwood, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, is back in Pittsburgh, this time to direct his first feature film.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070306ho_blairunderwood_450.jpg
Blair Underwood -- His movie is set on the North Side.

The actor is in town preparing to make "The Bridge to Nowhere," a crime drama starring Ving Rhames, along with Mt. Lebanon native Daniel London (recently seen in fest favorite "Old Joy") and others still to be announced. Principal photography will start March 26 and is expected to last about four weeks.

The movie is about a group of 20-something North Siders in dead-end jobs who are always scheming to make extra money, producer Mike Wittlin said yesterday. They cook up an idea that involves prostitutes, but their resulting pimp and drug business takes off and gets out of hand.

Rhames, who has 10 projects in various stages of production, will play a mentor to the North Side newcomers. The movie, written by Chris Gutierrez, is budgeted at just under $2 million and it will feature Pittsburgh as Pittsburgh.

"The Bridge to Nowhere" will represent Underwood's most ambitious directing project -- his credits so far include music videos and a 30-minute short called "The Second Coming."

The 42-year-old Underwood, who found success early with such projects as "L.A. Law," is often cast as the male romantic lead. He starred in "Something New" opposite Sanaa Lathan a year ago, and more recently, he played a teacher on "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and is working on an HBO series, "In Treatment."

Smithfield Street Productions, named for the Downtown home of the first Nickelodeon, has set up shop in Green Tree and is still nailing down locations. Expect to spot crews in the Woods Run area of the North Side, along a bridge or two (although the title also is symbolic) and elsewhere around the city.

"Everybody's been wonderful, the city of Pittsburgh, the mayor's office, Dan Onorato. Dawn Keezer bent over backward to help us out. We're Pittsburgh guys, we're loving this," Wittlin said. He and fellow producer Brian Hartman, from Shadyside, expect to create 100 jobs with their production.

Nancy Mosser Casting is handling local actors and (come mid-March) extras. Call 412-434-1666 for more information.


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(Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

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Night clubs and casting calls may not mix
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



A "casting call" for a Pittsburgh movie proved to be too much of a good thing, prompting the DejaVu Lounge to double its announced cover to $20 on Thursday -- and sending some experienced actors away in anger.

Yesterday, one of the owners of the Strip District club claimed he broke even for the night, the production company underscored it had not organized the event, and casting agent Nancy Mosser said she had been invited to stop by and did get nearly 200 applications filled out for "The Bridge to Nowhere."

She said about 10 speaking roles (in addition to extras) remain to be filled but acknowledged, "That isn't how you do casting for movies. You start with Screen Actors Guild members and actors with resumes, and there were some people there that had headshots and resumes. ... You don't do it normally through a nightclub."

Some hopefuls read lines with actor Blair Underwood, who was at the club for a couple of hours. He will make his directing debut with "The Bridge to Nowhere," scheduled to start shooting in Pittsburgh next week.

Mosser is still handling local and extras casting, and interested parties can contact her office at 412-434-1666.

Last week's event was organized by the club, and while it got publicity for the Strip District venue and fresh faces into the door (and to Mosser), it also angered experienced actors, who say $20 may sound like a bargain to a newcomer, but auditions never carry fees.

"Legitimate casting is never done where you have to pay to audition," Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, confirmed yesterday. "It sounds like a great big miscommunication," she said, emphasizing the legitimacy of the "Bridge to Nowhere" producers, who hope to make more than one movie here.

Part of the problem had to do with how the event was announced: through an e-mail press release that made no mention of a cover charge. When the Post-Gazette inquired about a cover, Jim Cook, who is one of the bar owners and a lawyer for the production company, said there would be a $10 cover charge to get inside. Some news reports made no mention of a cover.

Yesterday, he said TV reports drew so many interested parties that he had to hire extra staff and doubled the cover, but few people bought food or alcohol.

Cook said 190 people paid the fee. "We didn't make any extra money," especially since he couldn't take advantage of the crowd eager to watch the Pitt basketball game, which was a magnet elsewhere.

"I broke even on the bar and gave them a chance to get in a movie," Cook said, acknowledging the event was designed in part to promote the business. "I really think people got what they paid for."

In the future, however, Keezer said it's important to remember that casting is not done on a "pay to play" basis.


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(Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. )

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lots of info in this article... and a witty title

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07082/771813-237.stm

Tuned In: City's attributes captivate makers of hostage series

Friday, March 23, 2007

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You know Hollywood has arrived in Pittsburgh when the West Coast folks bring a touch of home with them: designated parking spots nearest the production office front door for the show's top producers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070323ho_JohnLeguizamo2_450.jpg
Gina Gayle/Associated Press
John Leguizamo will star in Spike TV's "The Kill Pit" dramatic series, to be filmed in Pittsburgh starting Wednesday.

It's a perk found on every lot in Hollywood, and it's been transplanted to the former Lawrenceville warehouse that serves as a soundstage and production office for Spike TV's "The Kill Pit."

The series chronicles a bank robbery perpetrated by an Iraq war veteran (John Leguizamo) that turns into a hostage crisis. Donnie Wahlberg plays the police negotiator who tries to end the siege peacefully.

Other actors cast in the eight-episode summer series include Frank Grillo ("Prison Break," "Blind Justice"), Jennifer Ferrin ("As the World Turns"), Jeremy Davidson ("Roswell," the upcoming "Army Wives"), Leo Fitzpatrick ("Kids," "The Wire"), Mike McGlone ("The Brothers McMullen"), Michael Hyatt ("The West Wing") and Dana Ashbrook ("Twin Peaks").

An additional 10 to 13 roles will be filled by local actors -- cast by Donna Belajac -- including, but not limited to, Karen Baum, Patricia Cray, Brandi Engel and Larry John Meyers.

"None of us were aware of the talent pool in Pittsburgh," said Todd Harthan, a writer/co-producer on "Kill Pit." "To our pleasant surprise, it was quite deep."

Filming begins Wednesday on locations around town and will continue through June. The series premieres July 22 on Spike TV.

At some point, the production will take over Market Square (expect bus route detours when that happens). The old G.C. Murphy's building at the northeast corner of Market Square on Forbes Avenue will be used as the exterior of the bank. Harthan said a restaurant across the square, La Gondola, will be used as the exterior of a diner where negotiators set up their base of operations.

Interiors of both the bank and the diner were under construction last week on the show's soundstage. The L-shaped bank will include a steelworker-themed mural on one wall and will mix a modern look with what's supposed to be the bank's original marble floor and columns.

Harthan, who wrote several episodes either alone or with series creator James DeMonaco ("The Negotiator," "Ryan Caulfield: Year One"), said the pair worked out of Rockefeller Center in New York while writing. They would visit nearby bank lobbies for inspiration, looking around at the interiors and drawing the eye of security guards who eventually asked if they had business in the bank.

"The Kill Pit" was originally set in New York, DeMonaco's hometown, but after production company Lionsgate picked Pittsburgh as the filming location, executives encouraged producers to change the setting.

"We were like, wow, there's a subway in the show, we don't even know if there are trains in Pittsburgh. We knew nothing about it," Harthan said. "Then we were like, let's shoot in Pittsburgh and say it's New York. We went through that phase. But once we got here, it all went away."

Now they've scouted the Duquesne Incline for possible filming and T stations Downtown. And when Harthan can't remember what Pittsburghers call their subway, he said script coordinator Kylie Straub, a Pittsburgh native, reminds him.

Steve Shill, a veteran director with credits ranging from "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" to "The Sopranos" and "Rome," will direct all eight hours of "The Kill Pit."

"Every time we went on a scout to the different neighborhoods and different parts of Downtown, he'd say, 'We have to shoot here. We can't not shoot here,' " Harthan said of the director's enthusiasm.

"There will be no doubt about where this show is set," Shill said. "We want to get out and about and see the city. ... Our idea is to make Pittsburgh part of the DNA of the project."

Both Shill, a native of Keswick, England, and Harthan reside in Los Angeles, but they've been in Pittsburgh for a month and will be acting as "Kill Pit" show runners for the first season. Tim Iacofano, a veteran producer/director on "24," is also on staff as a "Kill Pit" producer.

Although Spike TV is positioning "Kill Pit" as a mini-series, if successful, there are plans for the show to continue into a second season in the same way that Showtime brought back its mini-series, "Sleeper Cell." Season two of "Kill Pit" would focus on another hostage situation in Pittsburgh that the Wahlberg character will have to resolve.

In January, Wahlberg said he signed on to star in "Kill Pit" -- named for the spot where hostages are held during the siege -- because of the writers and producers involved, as well as the chance to act opposite Leguizamo. His character is a top negotiator who finds himself in an escalating situation.

"There are so many exterior forces that start to come into play," Wahlberg said, "so this really, sort of cocky negotiator thinks this is going to be a textbook negotiation and a few superiors try to trump his authority. ... What is about to unfold is so much bigger than anyone can imagine, where this crisis is gonna go."

The show's name may change -- some want to take "Kill" out of the title, but then "The Pit" might make it sound like "Pittsburgh is a pit" -- but the early scripts are locked and the stars are doing their research. Leguizamo has spent time talking with veterans on Staten Island, and Wahlberg visited with a police negotiator in New York.


'Kill Pit' casting


Nancy Mosser Casting will be casting extras for "The Kill Pit." Anyone not on file with Mosser already who is interested in extra work should print out a form from the company's Web site, MosserCasting.com. No phone calls, please.


'Action News' picks Pittsburgh


Earlier this month I wrote about the fall Fox pilot "Action News," co-created by Steve Levitan ("Just Shoot Me"), an old friend of KDKA news anchor Ken Rice. At the time, the show -- starring Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") and Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") as news anchors -- was set in Buffalo, N.Y., but Rice was pushing to get the setting moved to Pittsburgh.

A publicist for 20th Century Fox Television confirmed Tuesday that the show will now be set in Pittsburgh, although he attributed the change to Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori weighing in on the Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo debate and picking Pittsburgh. Production designers have begun gathering clips of local newscasts (perhaps for comedic inspiration?) and plan to commission photos of the city to be used as the backdrop to the anchor desk.

But don't hold your breath waiting for Grammer and Heaton to come to Pittsburgh to film scenes. "Action News" is a multi-camera sitcom that will be almost entirely shot on a soundstage on the Fox lot in Century City, Calif. The show will be filmed in the same style as "Frasier," which only traveled to Seattle to film once in its 10 seasons of production.

Regardless, with "Kill Pit," "Action News" and the upcoming summer TNT drama "Heartland," Pittsburgh will be the setting of three scripted prime-time series scheduled to air in 2007. That has to be a record.


Another local shoot


"Kill Pit" isn't the only TV show currently in town. A production company making four new episodes of the Discovery Channel docu-reality series "Surgery Saved My Life" has landed at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The episodes are expected to air sometime this summer after the show's 9 p.m. June 28 season premiere.

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'Pit' changes its title to 'Point'

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Spike TV summer hostage drama series that's shooting in and around Pittsburgh has a new name: "The Kill Pit" has become "The Kill Point."

The title change comes as little surprise. TV show titles are often in flux, and even a few weeks ago series co-producer Todd Harthan said the show's title could change.

"Kill Point" stars John Leguizamo as an Iraq War veteran whose bank robbery plans go haywire and he ends up taking hostages. Donnie Wahlberg plays the police negotiator called in to help end the crisis.

Yesterday, "Kill Point" was filming in Three PPG on a balcony above Primanti Bros., where snipers take up position across from the bank. The old G.C. Murphy on Market Square at Forbes Avenue will be converted into the bank exterior in coming weeks. Scenes in front of the faux bank will be shot in mid-May and will require 300 to 500 extras per day.

Nancy Mosser Casting is seeking people ages 18 and older to work as extras for minimum wage, 12- to 14-hour days, including people who could appear for eight consecutive weekdays (meals, snacks, parking provided). Mosser is especially eager to find male military veterans to play SWAT team members, snipers and police officers. Extras to play protestors and supporters are also needed along with people with burn scars and missing limbs "to show the depth with which our military [members] has suffered for their country."

Those interested can visit Mosser Casting -- 239 Fourth Ave., Suite 1217 -- or fill out a talent registration form online at MosserCasting.com, noting availability under "special characteristics."


-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

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more on "Bridge to Nowhere"... and 4 more films to be shot here!


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_501877.html

Underwood returns to Pittsburgh to direct 'Bridge to Nowhere'

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Director Blair Underwood works on the set of "The Bridge to Nowhere" Friday night at Young Brothers bar in Brighton Heights.
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

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Director Blair Underwood (center) is working with producers Mike Dolan (right) and Ben Barton on "The Bridge to Nowhere."
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

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Cast members and extras rehearse a scene from "The Bridge to Nowhere."
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

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Bijou Phillips (second from right) and Alexandra Breckenridge rehearse a scene from "The Bridge to Nowhere" with Thomas Ian Nicholas (right) and Danny Masterson.
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

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Bijou Phillips (right) and Alexandra Breckenridge rehearse a scene from "The Bridge to Nowhere" with Danny Masterson (left).

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Director Blair Underwood (second from left) talks with Danny Masterson (right) and Ben Crowley on the set of "The Bridge to Nowhere." In the background is Daniel London.
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2007-04-09/0410bridge02-a.jpg
Bijou Phillips (right) and Alexandra Breckenridge rehearse a scene from "The Bridge to Nowhere" with Thomas Ian Nicholas (background).
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 10, 2007


When Blair Underwood says he's glad to be back in Pittsburgh, he doesn't sound like another slumming celebrity shoveling the schmooze.
Between takes on the set of "The Bridge to Nowhere," surrounded by crew members in ballcaps, headsets and cargo pants, Underwood pauses to sign autographs. He wears a long-sleeve, olive-drab T-shirt, jeans and an Army-style cap that says "Rebel." He sports a goatee. What looks like a tiny diamond earring sparkles in his left ear.

When a woman calls, "Mr. Underwood -- a picture?" she's just asking him to stand still while she takes a shot with her camera phone. But he insists the two of them pose together while a friend snaps the photo.

"I'm not Sienna Miller, and you can quote me on that," he cracks, flashing that killer smile that fluttered pulses on "L.A. Law" and "Sex and the City."

Set in Pittsburgh, "Bridge" is a crime drama about four buddies who get in over their heads when they start pimping and dealing crack. It features Ving Rhames, Bijou Phillips, Alexandra Breckenridge, Danny Masterson, Daniel London, Sean Derry and Bingo O'Malley.

"We're very fortunate," Underwood says. "We have an experienced crew. This cast is amazing. They may or may not be household names, but they all have a body of work."

The indie drama is the second project for Greentree-based Smithfield Street Productions, which was founded in December by Mt. Lebanon native Michael Wittlin and Brian Hartman, who grew up in Shadyside. Both spent several years working in the Los Angeles film industry.

It's Underwood's feature-length directorial debut. If he feels pressure, he's not showing it.

As a drama student at Carnegie Mellon University, Underwood says he underwent a trial by fire his junior year when he got the lead in a production of Moliere's "Don Juan."

"I had a weekend to learn the lines," he says.

If he could survive that, he can get through anything.

"I just try to stay calm in the face of adversity," he says.

Young Brothers Bar, a local watering hole along Woods Run Avenue, has been changed to Duke's Bar. A gaunt yellow-painted building across the street doubles as a hotel where the hookers do business.

That's not the only name change.

"The prostitute that dies, we changed her name to Sienna," Wittlin says, lowering his voice.

Smithfield Street Productions will shoot another four films, here, he says. The first, "Tremble," is set to begin shooting in August.

"Everything we do is under $2 million," he says, gesturing with an unlit cigar. "Think about box office numbers and what you could consider a flop. Flops are moneymakers for us."

"We know exactly how we're going to put the film together," says Hartman, whose first film-crew job was on "Silence of the Lambs." "We know exactly what shots we need. That cuts 70 percent out of the schedule."

Slouched at the head of the alley outside the bar, actors Thomas Ian Nicholas ("American Pie") and Ben Crowley ("Glory Days") get into character for a scene. Wittlin and Hartman watch the action on two high-definition television monitors. They're impressed at how Underwood softened the scene between the two, replacing macho antagonism with a degree of brotherly warmth.

Two other partners in the company are Ben Barton and Mike Dolan. Dolan was defeated last year in a special election to fill the 30th congressional seat vacated by disgraced state congressman Jeff Habay.

The crew shot some scenes in the closed State Correctional Institution down the road, says Barton.

"That place is like Shawshank," he says. "You don't have to do anything."



William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7986.

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"The prostitute that dies, we changed her name to Sienna," Wittlin says, lowering his voice.



that's funny.

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Tinseltown dreams on the Mon

McKeesport man looks to expand Glassport studio

Thursday, April 19, 2007

By Margaret Smykla

Even with a cigar clenched in his teeth and lots of padded girth, no one would confuse McKeesport's John Yost with film mogul Louis B. Mayer. Then again, no one would confuse Glassport with Hollywood.

But a Tinseltown on the Mon could be on its way if Mr. Yost can work out a deal for some property in Glassport on which he wants to expand his fledgling film studio.

From his Glassport office in an old warehouse overlooking railroad tracks and empty buildings left from the borough's glory days, Mr. Yost envisions the area as a home to movie studios on a scale unmatched in Pennsylvania.

Today, he said, film crews come often to Western Pennsylvania, but they shoot, then leave. His idea for expanded Glassport facilities would offer full post-production facilities that would provide the "brick and mortar" space for building "cities'' and other large-scale sets, which he estimates would slash production costs for filmmakers by $50,000 to $75,000 a day.

He estimates such a setup would cost a whopping $40 million to create. He would finance it privately, but tax cuts would play a role. Mr. Yost spent Tuesday in Harrisburg at a meeting with state film industry officials and Gov. Ed Rendell, talking about his ideas.

Yesterday Mr. Yost said Gov. Rendell told him that he expects the Legislature to vote later this year on new funding and tax credits for statewide film developments.

Mr. Yost, 40, is a writer, director and actor whose credits include lots of commercials as well as television and film roles. He played a Secret Service agent who protects the president on "The West Wing" television series and portrayed an FBI agent in "The Clearing,'' a movie starring Robert Redford. He also did a bit in "Lift," a well-reviewed film short shot in Pittsburgh in 2003.

"People say it can't be done, and we're doing it," he said, referring to the two buildings his operation already occupies in the former Copperweld building at Seven Allegheny Square, Glassport. The site is home to five multimedia ventures he owns under the holding company Mogul Mind, LLC. About a dozen people work there full time. It is also a hot spot for interns from local colleges who work for credit.

His businesses on site are Hotcards.com, for printing; Sonic Pictures, for motion picture production; The Film Mafia, for television commercial production; S.Net, for creative development and Black Box Studios.

The latter houses all the production equipment for shooting a film, commercial or music video. It includes a 900-square-foot soundstage, hair/make-up salon, green room, construction area, four editing suites and more.

The building was formerly Allegheny Rebar, a machine shop, and was empty except for "a ton of dirt," four years ago when he bought and renovated it for $40,000.

"It's a one-stop shop,'' he said of the streamlining of services through the companies to reduce costs for clients, such as advertising agencies, political campaigns, producers and small companies without a large marketing department.

He called S.Net his "most exciting'' venture with 40 projects in different stages of being pitched, developed or produced.

One of those is "Resort Too Cooking,'' a concept he devised that is part travelogue and part cooking show, which he hopes the travel or food channels will buy.

In the pilot, Mr. Yost, as host, teases a chef at a ''water park'' and the pair shares tips on food preparation. Mr. Yost also rides the ''park's'' water slides and offers a brief history of the travel site.

As much as he enjoys Glassport's small-town culture he said he might have to move because his lease is up for renewal in December, and he needs more space.

He said he is also talking with four other small communities within a 60-mile radius of Downtown.

"We're moving at glacial speed,'' he said of his conversations with Glassport about acquiring surrounding land.

More than two years ago, Mr. Yost asked Glassport council to take over by eminent domain some 7.8 acres and some empty buildings adjacent to his property, so he could level the site and build movie studios.

Records show the property owner is Elko Industrial Tradings in Toronto, Canada. Taxes are up to date.

Mr. Yost said while the borough exhibited initial interest, the follow-through has been lukewarm.

Solicitor Gary Matta said that eminent domain cannot be used and the borough doesn't have the financial resources to invest in it.

Still, council President John DeSue said that "Glassport has been nothing but cooperative; we want the business in town.''

And town Mayor Terry DiMarco said the expansion -- and the 125 new jobs Mr. Yost said it would bring -- "would be a great help to the town.''

Sandy Urbanski, former president of the Glassport Development Corp., is enthusiastic about Mr. Yost's plans.

"I think he has a lot of great ideas, and the ability to do this,'' she said.

Mrs. Urbanski said she would welcome new jobs and increased business for local establishments that an expansion could provide.

Mr. Yost is formerly of Penn Hills and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in finance. When he realized he was not happy in his chosen profession about six years ago, he decided to pursue acting, which he had dabbled in during high school and college.

He belongs to the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, American Guild of Music, Artists and the Actors' Equity Association.

He is married with two sons.

Mr. Yost is scheduled to direct a training video, which he also wrote, on May 8 for a company which makes communications systems for emergency medical services, fire and police.

Filming will take place at various Mon Valley sites, such as the Glassport borough fire station, just a block from Mogul offices.

For more information, visit www.mogulindllc.com.



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(Margaret Smykla is a freelance writer.. )

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Friday, May 4, 2007

Visiting 'The Kill Point'
Walking through the Lawrenceville warehouse that houses the sets for Spike TV's "The Kill Point" feels like strolling through Market Square: There's the Original Oyster House and, further down the block, Jenny Lee Bakery. Around the corner, you can see the spires of the PPG building.

No, they didn't rebuild Market Square here, but a large swath of this part of Downtown is visible on a translight, a long, gigantic curtain with a photo of Market Square on it. The translight hangs outside the windows of the Three Rivers Bank, the primary set for "Kill Point."

In the eight-hour series, premiering with its first two hours on July 22, John Leguizamo plays Mr. Wolf, an Iraq War veteran who stages a bank robbery. It turns into a hostage situation and a cop named Horst (Donnie Wahlberg) has to try to end the crisis.

The exterior of Three Rivers Bank is being built as a facade on Forbes Avenue at the real Market Square. The production will take over Market Square beginning May 14 for up to eight days of on-location filming, diverting bus routes and sure to draw onlookers.

The crew was already at Market Square for some filming atop a Three PPG building and scenes of snipers on other rooftops.

When cut together on film, the transitions from real Market Square exteriors to the fake bank interior should be seamless, right down to the bricks that line Forbes Avenue both in reality and the faux bricks that line the street on the soundstage.

The bank interior is painted in a "light dusty rose," per crew members. It has fake marble floors and columns and a stairway to a second story balcony. Along the wall leading up the stairs is a huge mural of steelworkers toiling in a plant. Pictures of steel plants, blast furnaces and steelworkers hang on almost every wall of every room of the set, which includes not only the public areas of the lobby, but also back rooms and offices.

The bank has already sustained heavy damage from a fire fight. Bullet casings lie on the floor and pock marks from an exchange of gunfire dot the walls. The bank's front doors, made of glass, are also riddled with bullet holes.

Attention to detail extends to the smallest touches, including business cards on a desk for a bank employee named "Daniel Spaniel" to Three Rivers Bank home equity loan brochures that tout "Home Mortage" services, complete with a typo. (No one will see it on camera.)

In a scene shot Wednesday, Leguizamo took a call from Wahlberg's negotiator, who tries to strike a deal to secure the release of a hostage. The scene is shot in a small, claustrophobic conference room. Later, another scene was filmed in the bank lobby as Leguizamo's fellow robbers (played by Frank Grillo, Leo Fitzpatrick and J.D. Williams) watch coverage of the crisis on a TV newscast.

One of the challenges in writing about a TV show that I'm going to have to ultimately review is learning enough about it, but not too much. I want to be as surprised by plot turns as the rest of the audience. So when director Steve Shill ("Rome," "The Tudors") started showing me screen grab photos from earlier in the shooting schedule, I finally had to stop looking because I feared the pictures were possibly giving away too much.

But nosing around the set doesn't do much damage. I was able to watch video of a news reporter, played by former WPGH news anchor Leslie McCombs (formerly Leslie Pallotta), relaying information about the hostage situation for a non-existent Pittsburgh TV station, WWEJ Channel 14.

And although I don't know much about the bank manager character, my guess is he's a bit of a suck up: On the wall of his office, separated only by a painting of a steel plant, are framed photos of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. (A photo of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell hangs in an outer office.)

Already "Kill Point" has shot on the Duquesne Incline and at the convention center. Future shoots include the vault in a former West End bank and locations in McKees Rocks and along the Allegheny River.

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'Kill Point' filming brings a new rhythm to Market Square

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070516dskillpointcantor_450.jpg
Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette photos
Geoffrey Cantor, left, who portrays the bank manager Abe, gets ready for a take during the filming of the Spike TV show "The Kill Point" yesterday in Market Square.



By Rob Owen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A passer-by's double-take was not out of place in Market Square yesterday morning: Everything looked normal except for a caravan of cars simultaneously backing up Forbes Avenue.

"Resetting back to one!" shouted a production assistant on Spike TV's "The Kill Point," giving background extras their cue to return to their starting locations for the scene.

After the cars backed up and the extras were in position, a crew member shouted "Rolling! And background!" to kick things off again.

On cue, the cars began moving forward, bikes cruised down the street, and the extras -- pretty much indistinguishable from people who turned up to watch the filming -- began their choreographed movements through the square.

It was just a little slice of Hollywood in Downtown Pittsburgh where "The Kill Point" crew will film through next week.

Scenes shot yesterday morning were calm compared to what's to come: gunshots, protests and rallies.

The eight-hour series, premiering July 22, chronicles the robbery of fictional Three Rivers Trust in Market Square (the old G.C. Murphy building received a temporary facade face-lift to play the role of a bank). John Leguizamo stars as the leader of a group of Iraq War veterans who plan the heist. Donnie Wahlberg plays the police negotiator who makes his command post across the square in La Gondola, which has been renamed Marcos' for the TV show.

Before scenes involving the bank siege begin, the "Kill Point" crew filmed establishing shots, the brief scene-setters that give viewers a sense of place. To avoid continuity gaffes with regard to the time of day, a worker posted a round "Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership" placard over the clock in Market Square.

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At Market Place and Forbes Avenue, an entrance to the old G.C. Murphy Building has been changed to the Three Rivers Trust for "The Kill Point."

Brian Balog of Johnstown, a stand-in for actor Geoffrey Cantor (who plays Three Rivers Trust branch manager Abe), took his spot on a piece of colored tape stuck to the sidewalk in front of the bank. Crew members moved cameras into position for the shot that shows Abe talking to an armored truck security guard, who walks away from the bank entrance, past newspaper boxes set up by the production (including one for the long-defunct InPittsburgh alternative weekly) and climbs into the Security Transport Service truck.

Balog responded to a casting call and was given a role as a Pittsburgh police detective extra in scenes with Wahlberg inside Marcos'. Balog, a former territory manager for an outdoor power equipment provider, is about to launch his own technology business with friends, but first, he's learning how Hollywood works. After getting cast as an extra, his ability to follow instructions earned him additional tasks, including work as a stand-in and reading Wahlberg's lines off-camera while Leguizamo filmed a phone call scene.

"I am stunned at the hours they work and the camaraderie they maintain in the workplace at every level, even when they work 14-to-16-hour days," Balog said. He doesn't even mind the commute from Johnstown. "When do you get a chance to read lines with John Leguizamo? It's worth the commute for that alone."

His isn't the only commute affected by "The Kill Point." Because of filming, Forbes Avenue is closed to vehicles from Wood Street to Stanwix Street, including the portion of Forbes that cuts through Market Square. Port Authority buses that normally run along Forbes will detour, taking a left on Wood Street, right on Boulevard of the Allies and right onto Stanwix Street.

At 8 a.m. yesterday morning, detour traffic -- including several buses -- was backed up on Forbes from Wood Street to Smithfield Street, but "Kill Point" producer Tim Iacofano ("24") said early media reports about the street closure probably helped keep backups to a minimum.

"I didn't hear too many horns," he said, adding that merchants in Market Square have been "very generous in their support of what's going on here."

For some of the merchants, the filming has cut into business. Sergio Muto, owner of La Gondola, said his customer traffic was off 50 percent, but he's happy with the publicity the show will give his pizza place.

At Dogs Dun-Wright, owner Michael Wright said the production crew was making a good-faith effort by buying 100 hot dogs for the crew.

"We'll have to see how it goes for the rest of the week," he said.

At the newly opened City Cafe, business partners Emil Lester and Jeremie McKnight said the filming is good for the city (when the project was announced last fall, executives for production company Lionsgate Entertainment said they expect to spend about $18 million locally on the project), but maybe not so beneficial to individual businesses around Market Square.

"We've only been open a week, so it's kind of hard to gauge the ebb and flow," McKnight acknowledged.

Yesterday afternoon's scenes included shots of Leguizamo, dressed in a suit and trenchcoat, entering the bank with his crew. A scene involving a shootout between the robbers and security guards was also planned.

Despite signs warning passersby that they may be filmed, at least one woman seemed unconcerned.

"You're in the shot, ma'am," a production assistant said to a confused woman who was trying to cross Forbes.

Once the take was done and cars rolled backward up the street, she continued on her way.




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(TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Ask TV questions at www.post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A. )

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_507651.html

TV series 'Kill Point' films in Downtown

By Rochelle Hentges
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, May 15, 2007


Market Square has turned into "The Kill Point" this week, with the Spike TV series crew taking Downtown hostage to film a bank heist and shootout in the streets.
"The Kill Point" series, starring Donnie Wahlberg (of "New Kids on the Block" fame) and John Leguizamo ("ER"), is the first TV show to be set and filmed entirely in Pittsburgh. The week-long shoot will shut down Forbes Avenue between Wood and Stanwix streets, Downtown, and detour at least 20 bus routes around the set, but it also casts the city as a character in the bank-heist series.

"We couldn't do this in New York. It'd be impossible," said director Steve Shill. "New York wouldn't stop. They don't stop for this kind of thing."

The series, which originally was called "The Kill Pit," ditched its Manhattan backdrop for Pittsburgh after scouting the location, inspired to film scenes on an incline and in the tunnels.

"There's visually a great opportunity for us," said Shill, who is deliberately filming all exterior shots of Market Square with wide-angle shots to let the city-scape peek through. "We see the heart of the city in the background for free. We have great views no matter which way we look."

"The Kill Point" began filming smaller scenes in March on a Lawrenceville set. The story follows a group of American Iraq war veterans who stage a bank heist Downtown. The robbery turns into a hostage negotiation, with Leguizamo playing the heist leader and Wahlberg playing the hostage negotiator.

Wahlberg and his team take over a coffee shop in Market Square for their command center, and snipers look down on the bank from PPG Place.

"The series is incredible, because it's got a hidden political ideology about the vets coming back and not being taken care of," Leguizamo said.

Although Market Square was closed to traffic Monday, shops and restaurants still were open for business, pigeons still came out to roost, and the regulars continued to play chess along the low-lying walls in the center of the Square. A few passersby even became unwitting -- or, perhaps, just clever -- extras.

Nancy Mosser Casting has been hiring 3,500 extras for the series, about 100 of whom were on hand for Monday's filming. Brian Balog, 40, of Johnstown, was hired to play an extra as a detective opposite Wahlberg, but he also has acted as a stand-in and was subbing as a production assistant Monday.

"I've done nothing in the past like this," Balog said. "I've had many memorable experiences. I got to act two scenes of dialogue off-screen in place of John Leguizamo."

Most of the speaking roles have been filled by locals, with 31 of the 52 actors coming from the Pittsburgh region, says Donna Belajac, an independent casting director who has hired local actors for "Flashdance," "Silence of the Lambs" and "Wonder Boys."

"The number of big roles we've got to do (for 'The Kill Point') far exceeds anything else I've done here," Belajac said.

Many of the roles are recurring throughout all eight episodes of the first season, which is set to air July 22 on Spike TV.

"An actor making $40,000 for eight weeks of work in Pittsburgh is just incredible," she said.

When film crews come to Pittsburgh, they pump an average of $20 million into the local economy, says Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.

"The Kill Point" has rented warehouses for filming, hired local talent and production crew members and stays in local apartments and hotels.

The production also has created a buzz around Downtown. Stacey Dodds, 28, of Pleasant Hills, talked her colleague, Amy Lentz, into having lunch in Market Square Monday after she passed through on her way to work and saw the film crew.

"I think it's good for the Pittsburgh economy. It's nice to get the exposure," Dodds said.

But will they watch the series?

"Oh, yeah," said Lentz, 30, of Monroeville. "If worse comes to worst, I'll DVR it when it premieres. We can say, 'OK, we saw that, we saw that.' "



Rochelle Hentges can be reached at rhentges@tribweb.com or 412-380-5670.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2007-05-14/0515pfilm-a.jpg
John Leguizamo acts out a scene Monday for "The Kill Point" in Market Square. The Spike TV series about a bank robbery is the first television show to be set and filmed entirely in Pittsburgh. Nancy Mosser Casting still is looking for extras, especially war veterans or those with scars or missing limbs.
Michael Henninger/For the Tribune-Review

[AaronPGH]

Got to witness two gun battles today. Once during my walk to work, and also during lunch hour. Loud as hell! Pretty cool stuff.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/arts/television/19heff.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1179583269-+wfHRtrxmg87VklrO/udlw

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/19/arts/19heff600.jpg
Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton in the Fox sitcom “Back to You.”

Fox’s “Back to You” also uses tried and true stars. With its homely title, It’s a vintage-looking multicamera sitcom about a Pittsburgh newsroom. There’s very little to suggest it’s cool. But in the preview Thursday, the quippy, wide-faced stars — Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, both hyperaccomplished in prime time — seemed genuinely to irritate each other, in the kind of fast, feisty scenes with real payoff that TV stars like this couple can reliably deliver. If “Back to You” fails with this pedigree, the conventional sitcom really should be buried. (Please? Can we agree to that?)

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/tv/s_512717.html

'Heart' of UPMC team sparks Pittsburgh tv series

By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 15, 2007


As a teenager growing up in Mt. Lebanon in the '80s, David Hollander closely followed the exploits of a team that had nothing to do with black and gold.
This outfit was a liver and kidney transplant team, led by visionary surgeon Dr. Thomas Starzl.

Their breakthroughs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Oakland inspired Hollander to create "Heartland," a television series set in Pittsburgh at the fictional St. Jude Regional Transplant Center. He also directs and executive produces the show.

The series, which premieres at 10 p.m. Monday on TNT, stars Treat Williams as Nathaniel Grant, a pioneering transplant surgeon with a hectic schedule and fractured personal life.

His risk-taking brings him into conflict with his mentor, played by Dabney Coleman, and St. Jude's organ donor coordinator, played by Kari Matchett, who also happens to be his ex-wife.
"Starzl was walking on the medical moon," says Hollander, in a written statement. He was fascinated by the "social impact, how one stranger could give life to another stranger."

It's not Hollander's first series to be based in his homewtown. Hollander created and executive produced "The Guardian," a television drama series set in Pittsburgh and partly filmed here. It starred Simon Baker as a reluctant child advocate attorney and ran from 2001 to 2004 on CBS.

Hollander will direct his first feature film, "Personal Effects," this fall.

Bill Morris, transplant administrator of the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at Montefiore hospital, worked as a medical adviser on the show.

Morris, who lives in Squirrel Hill, began advising Hollander when he started writing the script for the pilot two years ago. Morris made several trips to Pasadena, Calif., during the shooting of the pilot, where he worked with set and costume designers, the special effects department and the actors. He also vetted the scripts for medical accuracy.

"David, being from Pittsburgh, was inspired by the sense that he grew up during the Thomas Starzl era," Morris says.

Before moving to Pittsburgh, Morris was CEO of an organ procurement organization in upstate New York. He was a first responder, the one who approached the relatives of an individual who had been declared brain dead, to persuade them to donate their loved one's organs.

Hospitals are required to report brain-dead patients to their designated organ-procurement organization.

"People inviting you into their lives at the worst possible time is an amazing thing in and of itself," he says. "A mother and dad who just had a child struck by a car and is now brain dead. The child is 6 years old, and the father is grappling with the fact that he didn't wear a helmet because he bought him a baseball cap for his birthday, and he was wearing that instead."

Morris' current job at the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute focuses on the organ recipients.

"I've seen both sides," he says. "I think that probably appealed to David. He didn't have to have a separate medical consultant on the donor side and the recipient side.

"He made a commitment to me that he would be true blue to organ donation and transplantation," Morris says. "Of course, it's Hollywood, it's drama, but it will cause people to talk about organ donation in a positive light."

"Heartland" also stars Gage Golightly, Rockmond Dunbar, Morena Baccarin, Danielle Nicolet and Chris William Martin.

Starzl, who is known unofficially as the father of transplantation, performed the world's first successful liver transplant at the University of Colorado in 1967. He came to Pittsburgh in 1981 and helped transform the University of Pittsburgh into a world-class transplant center. In February, he received the National Medal of Science from President Bush at the White House.

On average, a transplant is performed every 12 hours at UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Montefiore or Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Over 20 years, more than 12,000 transplants have been performed.



William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7986.

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http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/06/18/story12.html?f=et186&b=1182139200%5E1476460&hbx=e_vert

Tax credit bills would make Pennsylvania more enticing to filmmakers
Pittsburgh Business Times - June 15, 2007
by Peter Van Allen and Patty Tascarella

Filmmakers are poised to spend up to $500 million in Pennsylvania by year's end -- with one catch.

They're watching what will happen with proposed legislation that would increase the tax benefits of filming feature movies, television shows and commercials in Pennsylvania. Two separate bills have been introduced that would offer greater tax credits and other rebates. Advocates are putting on the full-court press to pass the bills before the Legislature adjourns June 30.

"It's vitally important to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the film industry of southwestern Pennsylvania that these bills are passed," said Dawn Keezer, executive director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "It's the only thing that's going to keep us competitive in this marketplace."

Both Keezer and Sharon Pinkenson, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, said film companies are basing decisions to make movies here on whether the legislation is passed.

"Lionsgate is in town filming a series, and if we get the tax credit, they'll bring more work," said Keezer, who has been based in Los Angeles since last summer but was lobbying in Harrisburg June 11.

An executive from Lionsgate, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based production house, was part of a meeting Gov. Ed Rendell hosted with leaders from the state House and Senate and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. Lionsgate has been filming the Spike TV series, "The Kill Point," Downtown. Shyamalan, director of "The Sixth Sense," is an eastern Pennsylvania native who has set most of his movies in or around Philadelphia. Rendell has been

receptive to the discussion of increasing the credit for filmmakers, Pinkenson said.

The $500 million represents the total budget of films, TV shows or commercials that have said they would like to film here in the second half of the year. Some $350 million is earmarked for the Philadelphia area, Pinkenson said.

Keezer, who has led the local film office since 1996, said tax credits for filmmakers serve as an economic development tool. Film production companies spend money on local hotels, restaurants, location rentals, film-and-sound production companies, security companies, limousine drivers and, of course, taxes. The resulting movies and TV shows help market Pennsylvania as a tourism destination.

Many places see film production as an economic development tool. Canada got into the game in the 1990s, offering an 11 percent tax credit, which was often matched or doubled by individual provinces. In the United States, New Mexico and Louisiana offered tax credits.

In 2004, Pennsylvania got into the act as well, by offering tax credits to filmmakers who spent at least 60 percent of their budget in state. However, because the tax credits were capped at $10 million for the whole state, filmmakers quickly realized the limits.

Pinkenson said that in the current fiscal year, ending June 30, the incentives were accounted for by July 11 -- 11 days into the year.

Even the proposed cap "is going to get chewed up very quickly," said Charlie Humphrey, executive director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers, an Oakland nonprofit. "I understand it's a start, but I'd like to see the cap go up."

Under the current proposals, there would be one law that would create incentives for filmmakers with a budget under $2 million -- makers of TV spots, documentary and independent filmmakers and the like. Those filmmakers who spend 60 percent of their budget in Pennsylvania would receive a 20 percent grant on all their expenses.

A second proposal would offer a refundable tax credit of 25 percent for productions with a budget over $2 million -- again, for productions that spend at least 60 percent of their budget in Pennsylvania, and there would be no annual cap or per-project cap.

Todd Eckert, a North Side-based film producer whose United Kingdom-made film, "Control," won three awards last month at the Cannes Film Festival, believes the incentive package could level the playing field.

"If this thing actually passes, and you have just this streamlined, wholesale, no-BS kind of program, films that were supposed to shoot in Massachusetts and New York and anywhere else will shoot here," Eckert said. "It may be even better for Pittsburgh than for Philadelphia because it's cheaper to shoot here."

PETER VAN ALLEN is a reporter with the Philadelphia Business Journal, an affiliated publication. He may be contacted at pvanallen@bizjournals.com. PATTY TASCARELLA may be contacted at ptascarella@biz-journals.com or (412) 208-3832. Reporter TIM SCHOOLEY contributed to this story.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07180/797966-237.stm

Tuned In: 'Kill Point' filming wraps as talk of tax break intensifies

Friday, June 29, 2007

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"All these people do is eat!" an extra said, marveling as crew members chowed down between filming scenes for Spike TV's "The Kill Point" last month in Market Square.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070629ao7qb00kd7_450.jpg
Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette
Donnie Wahlberg plays the police negotiator in Spike TV's "The Kill Point," filmed in Pittsburgh.

With that, an entertainment business hallmark made its way to Pittsburgh: Food provided by what industry folks call "craft services" is key to sustaining the cast and crew on a Hollywood production.

But Pittsburghers had more to learn about dealing with a film crew in town, something that could become increasingly important if tax breaks currently before the state legislature are approved. (If that doesn't happen, then no worries about educating ourselves; there won't be any films or TV shows coming here -- they'll all go to Connecticut, which has instituted aggressive tax breaks for filmmaking.)

Today is the last day of filming on "Kill Point." I visited the Lawrenceville set for the last time Monday to talk to producers about their overall experience making the eight-hour series (premiering July 22 on Spike TV) in Pittsburgh. My first visit to the set in March was accompanied by snow flurries; my last visit coincided with hot and muggy weather. In between and over 66 days, "Kill Point" employed 250 people full-time, 80 percent of them locals. At the height of the two-week Market Square shoot, an additional 300 extras were on the payroll, and the production spent at least $18 million of its approximate $23 million budget locally.

As for their experience, producers uniformly praised the work ethic of the local crew.

"The crew that's here is exceptional," said co-producer Bill Hill. "Most of these people I would take anywhere in the country. They know what it's like to come to work and show up and do the job. The attitude is wanting to show off Pittsburgh and what Pittsburgh can do. We just need more of them."

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070629rd_killpoint_450.jpg
Rebecca Droke, Post-Gazette
Director and co-executive producer Steve Shill goes over a scene on the set of "The Kill Point" in Market Square.

If the tax breaks go through, Western Pennsylvania is poised to reap the economic rewards, said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.

"I had phone conversations with five feature films in the space of two hours," Keezer said from Los Angeles last week. "Those were all based on tax credits. If those don't pass, we're not getting the [films]. They all want to talk to us now because they know it's in the works. People are spreading the word."

Lionsgate, the company that produced "The Kill Point," has also expressed a desire to return if the tax breaks are passed.

If more TV and film projects descend on Pittsburgh, there are lessons to learn from "The Kill Point" shoot in Market Square. The production took over the space for two weeks, upsetting some local businesses that saw their profits erode.

Never mind that WPXI overdid the "angry business owners" story, airing multiple reports, some with inaccuracies and a largely negative slant. But business owners' concerns are legitimate. Even "Kill Point" staffers were sympathetic.

"I think we strained things down there, inevitably," said director Steve Shill. "It was hard for local businesses to deal with it. There are occasions I've opened my front door and found the street full of white [production] trucks, and I didn't like it. I think they grinned and bore it, and we're grateful to them."

Here's where the problems started: Some media reports said Market Square was closed during the filming. Not true. Forbes Avenue was closed to vehicle traffic, but contrary to at least one report, foot traffic was not being stopped at Wood Street, nearly a block away.

Production assistants, some of them young, inexperienced and hired just for the Market Square shoot, were stationed at entry points, stopping pedestrians while the cameras rolled. What they weren't always good about was letting passers-by know they could proceed in just a few minutes. Hill admitted there was a learning process in teaching the new hires to communicate with the populace and let people through between takes.

"I think we've all learned a lot," Keezer said. "This was our first television series, and there's lots of room for improvement. We've begun conversations with the city to find ways we can do things a little better."

Before the next big production takes over part of town, there needs to be a public education campaign. Maybe the Film Office can call a press conference and present a "how-to" guide for citizens on what to expect from a film crew.

"In Los Angeles and other places where there's shooting all the time, people know where they can go and move," said "Kill Point" producer Tim Iacofano, a veteran of "24." "People just do their thing, and it doesn't get in the way."

As TV productions go, the Market Square shoot was also a bit of an anomaly.

"We were in there a long time," Iacofano conceded. "Normally in episodic television you go somewhere for two days, tops. Being there two weeks was probably a bigger disruption than anyone anticipated. If it was two days, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal."

Talking to Market Square business owners, it's clear there's a whole soap opera going on in that space that the rest of us are oblivious to (a recent rumor circulating there that "Kill Point" was coming back for re-shoots in July is not true). Their reactions to the shoot varied wildly.

At City Cafe, which opened just before filming started, Jeremie McKnight said foot traffic got worse during the second week of the shoot.

"It was probably good for the city generally, but locally, we took a hit," he said.

But Sergio Muto, whose La Gondola pizzeria was used as an exterior in the film (he won't say how much he was paid for that), said his sales were down only the first week.

At Dogs Dun Wright, which sits directly across from the exterior of the faux bank used in the show, owner Patty Wright said the production attempted to make good on the disruption by occasionally buying bunches of hot dogs (star Donnie Wahlberg purchased 80 one day for the cast and crew), but it still wasn't enough to make up for a normal day's sales of 150 hot dogs. She ended up satisfied with the production company anyway: Their security guard stopped a man from breaking into her shop one night.

At the opposite end of Market Square, a block from where most of the filming took place, Costanzo's restaurant owner JoHan Costanzo is still trying to collect $2,500, which she says amounts to 10 days' rent, from the production company. She contends that the blockade dissuaded people from coming to her restaurant. She was also offended by the presence of craft services trucks that parked in front of her restaurant.

"I think what they should have done was close down the square completely and paid us all a little bit to do what they wanted to do," Costanzo said.

That sounds like the production-company-as-ATM approach to having a film crew on the block.

"The Film Office was a great in helping to educate the businesses who have not been involved in filmmaking, but I think they need to educate more," Hill said. "Just cause it's Hollywood doesn't mean there's a ton of cash and that cash is not just there to be handed out. I think some people have the misconception that just because someone is shooting, someone will be doling out cash. That's what destroys a town for filmmaking."

Let's not have that happen. With a little more communication before the next big production comes to Pittsburgh, perhaps some of these conflicts can be mitigated.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07192/800674-85.stm

Deal close on film tax breaks

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

By Tim McNulty and Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A dramatic increase in state tax credits to help film and television productions in Pennsylvania was still on the drawing board yesterday, and final approval by lawmakers was still unclear.

Discussions were under way for a $75 million tax credit program to lure large productions to the state, matched with $5 million in grants for smaller ones. That would be a huge increase over the current incentives.

"We went from a $10 million incentive program to $80 million this year," said Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "We are thrilled and are very excited about the new opportunities that this will be bringing to the Commonwealth and Southwestern Pennsylvania."

Keezer said $215 million in filmed entertainment productions have expressed interest in filming in Western Pennsylvania if the tax credits came to pass, with another $320 million in productions interested in filming in the eastern half of the state.

To qualify, 60 percent of film expenditures (on wardrobe, transportation, food, lighting and such) would have to be in the state. Of that spending, productions could get up to 25 percent back in tax rebates.

It could take several days for legislators and the Rendell administration to finally approve the 2007-08 budget.


-- Post-Gazette staff writer Tim McNulty and PG TV editor Rob Owen

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/tribpm/s_518584.html

Hundreds pack Altar Bar for 'Kill Point' premiere

By Rochelle Hentges
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, July 23, 2007


Anthony Mahramus leaned forward in his seat, staring intently at the big screen TVs in Altar Bar.
"Oh, this is the scene," said Mahramus, 24, of Canonsburg, as John Leguizamo demanded to speak to Donnie Wahlberg in the season premiere of "The Kill Point," which aired last night at 9 on Spike TV.

"When we were outside, they were saying this is the scene," said Mahramus' friend, Bryan Novak, 24, of Canonsburg. It also happened to be a scene in which Mahramus, Novak and their friend Justine Ezarik, 23, of Carnegie, all played extras.

"I've got heart palpitations," Mahramus said as the three watched Leguizamo stride toward the door -- and then cut to commercial. "Of course."

"The Kill Point" is the first TV series to be set and filmed entirely in Pittsburgh. Leguizamo plays Mr. Wolf, the leader of a group of bank robbers trying to hit the mythical Three Rivers Trust. Wahlberg plays Horst Cali, the lead hostage negotiator for the Pittsburgh Police Department.
The Pittsburgh Film Office threw a party for the local cast and crew at Altar Bar last night to watch the world premiere live.

"It's such a postcard for Pittsburgh," said Jessica Conner, assistant director of the Film Office. The opening shot showed the Duquesne Incline, followed by Leguizamo driving over the Ft. Pitt Bridge into Downtown. "You see Downtown, you see PPG, the convention center."

And now production companies know that an entire series can be filmed in Pittsburgh, Conner said. "I think we're going to get busier," she said.

"Pittsburgh has a lot of potential," said producer Bill Hill, of Lionsgate, which co-produced "The Kill Point" with Spike TV. "We have a lot of projects we want to bring here."

Last night's two-hour premiere episode was met with sporadic cheering and applause at Altar Bar as the 100-plus crowd spotted themselves in scenes. "That's me! Did you see my head?" Novak exclaimed as he appeared over Wahlberg's shoulder in Market Square, where the series filmed for two weeks.

Ezarik held her digital camera over her head, taking pictures of her mirror image on screen, as she played a photojournalist reporting on the bank heist. "Well, that was a few weeks of our lives," she said.

Like Ezarik, most of the extras worked 12-hour days, sometimes for several weeks, only to get a few glimpses of themselves in the background. But many consider it a fair trade for the behind-the-scenes action.

Dave Ogrocowski, 39, of McDonald, met his girlfriend while playing a TV news cameraman in the series.

"There was this girl I met on the set. I was kind of flirting with her, and she was playing a reporter," he said. When his scene called for him to drive a news van, skid to a stop in front of the bank and jump out, Ogrocowski made his move -- and convinced the crew to put his lady interest in the shot.

"We were paired up for the rest of the movie at that point, and now we're dating, pretty much exclusively," he said.

A few locals were cast in recurring roles throughout the series, including Brandi Engel, 20, of Mt. Lebanon. Engel plays a hostage, Cass, and is considered a "regular" in the series.

"For my character, something pretty intense happens as the show goes on," she said.

"The first three weeks of filming, I had so many bruises and cuts on my legs from dodging bullets," Engel said. "When you're filming, you have to do the takes over and over again, so you get a pretty good workout actually."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catch it
If you missed last night's premiere of "The Kill Point," you can watch an encore presentation 10 p.m. Wednesday on Spike TV. Following episodes will be aired Sundays at 9 p.m.


Rochelle Hentges can be reached at rhentges@tribweb.com or 412-380-5670.

[EventHorizon]

You can also watch the first episode and up coming episodes on ifilm.

here's the first episode:The Kill Point S1E1 (http://www.ifilm.com/video/2876538)

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you da man, EventHorizon! :)

[Grego43]

Has anyone an update on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh release? The official website hasn't been updated since Nov. 13, 2006, and I read somewhere that major issues are arising with the editing.

Seems to me the film version of this fantastic novel may be going "direct to video".

[Evergrey]

Has anyone an update on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh release? The official website hasn't been updated since Nov. 13, 2006, and I read somewhere that major issues are arising with the editing.

Seems to me the film version of this fantastic novel may be going "direct to video".

No updates. I'm definately not all that excited to see this. They eliminated Arthur... and they had some uninspired casting (Sienna Miller).

That company also did "Smart People" here last year... which was slated for release "in the second half of 2007"... well, the "second half of 2007" is here and I haven't heard a thing.

[themaguffin]

From glancing at this week's Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie preview, I did not see it listed, though I didn't review the magazine carefully.

and they had some uninspired casting (Sienna Miller).


She's an ass but she has been cast in similar roles (or movies I should say) more or less.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07235/811400-237.stm

'Kill Point' races toward powerful finale

Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Rob Owen Pittsburgh

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200708/20070823tv_killpoint1498_500.jpg
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images for Spike TV
How will things turn out for Leo Fitzpatrick, left, JD Williams, John Leguizamo, Jeremy Davidson and Frank Grillo in Sunday's finale of "The Kill Point"?

The first season of Spike TV's Pittsburgh-set "The Kill Point" comes to a close Sunday at 9 p.m. with a two-hour finale that's as intense and action-packed as every episode, a testament to the value of short-form storytelling. This is the series "The Nine" should have been and never was.

"Kill Point" has the added benefit of a story that's easy to join in progress. While story threads have continued week-to-week (and benefit from some edge-of-your-seat cliffhangers), the basic premise is not at all complex: Bank robbers led by Mr. Wolf (John Leguizamo) hold hostages inside a Downtown Pittsburgh bank. Police negotiator Horst Cali (Donnie Wahlberg) tries to end the standoff peacefully. Story explained.

Certainly viewers who have been watching all the way through have the benefit of greater understanding about the characters, but the scripts have never made a big show out of giving us background on the characters (I never can remember which of the two robbers are brothers because the script never made it particularly important until, perhaps, tonight's finale).

Director Steve Shill has done a terrific job of keeping the show moving at a rapid pace to the point that some of the lapses in logic are quickly forgotten. Writers Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco bring the story to a satisfying conclusion -- as long as viewers are willing to forgive a rather ridiculous riverside firefight.

Overall, "The Kill Point" works well because of its compact, short run. It didn't ask viewers to commit to 22 hours, just eight, a much-easier sell these days, especially as viewers feel burned by commiting to serialized shows that are canceled before there's any resolution.

"Kill Point" resolves all but one story thread, and I don't think producers intend to follow up on that one in future seasons.

Through Sunday's episode, "The Kill Point" has averaged 1.8 million viewers, a good number for Spike TV. Even better, Sunday's fifth episode garnered its best ratings yet in the network's core demographic, men ages 18-34. A second season seems likely, though not yet announced.

If "Kill Point" does return to Pittsburgh to shoot a second season early next year, I hope that in addition to Wahlberg, producers bring back some of the supporting police characters, most notably actress Michael Hyatt, who plays Connie, Cali's second-in-command. Even in a supporting role, she's made her presence known by making Connie tough but compassionate and unwaveringly loyal to Cali.

For anyone who wonders about the dedication at the end of the series ("In memory of Scott Brazil"), Brazil was a producer-director on FX's "The Shield," who was originally attached to executive produce and direct "Kill Point." He died at age 50 in April 2006 from respiratory failure due to complications from Lou Gehrig's disease and Lyme disease.

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-AP-on-TV-Jeff-Goldblums-Pittsburgh.html

Goldblum Film Plays With Fact, Fiction

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:00 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jeff Goldblum and his hometown of Pittsburgh, whether it likes it or not, have combined to create a surprising summer delight.

''Pittsburgh'' is a witty variation on a Christopher Guest mockumentary that swirls together fiction, reality and an unlikely cast including Goldblum, Ed Begley Jr., Illeana Douglas, Moby, Conan O'Brien and unsuspecting Pittsburghers, all as themselves.

Goldblum, who first contemplated taking advantage of video technology for some sort of personal project about six years ago, says he didn't want to create a film as mundane or revealing as a journal.

Instead, he and his collaborators ended up with an approach that owes a tip of the hat not only to Guest (''Waiting for Guffman,'' ''Best in Show'') but also, as Goldblum sees it, to the spontaneity of directors John Cassavetes and Robert Altman.

''It's not like we've discovered a new planet,'' Goldblum told The Associated Press. ''But I thought the way we tried to skin it is a little bit different than anybody else. The tone we hit and somehow the way it came together and what we tried to do, I thought, was pretty nifty.''

Making its TV debut Sunday on Starz Cinema and out in September on DVD, ''Pittsburgh'' follows Goldblum, 54, as he takes on the starring role in a Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of ''The Music Man,'' a daring move for an actor known for his acting, not singing and dancing.

(Goldblum is hosting the film on the Starz Cinema channel, along with weekend showings of the Dixie Chicks documentary ''Shut Up and Sing'' and ''The Heart of the Game.'')

The plot of ''Pittsburgh'' has Goldblum tackling ''The Music Man'' out of love, both for the venerable musical and for his fiancee, Catherine Wreford, a Canadian actress who must get a job or risk losing her visa.

Why not sell themselves as a package to the trusting folks of Pittsburgh, a hometown boy made good (a Hollywood movie star! ''Jurassic Park''! ''The Fly''!) and his lovely girlfriend with an impressive voice, thus benefiting both the city and the couple?

And how about roping in friends, Begley and Douglas, to appear in the show and, helpfully, in Goldblum's video project?

What could have been a raging exercise in ego or Pittsburgh-bashing turns out to be a winning combination of Goldblum's sly, offbeat charm and deft improv as the celebrities involved neatly skewer themselves. The civilians escape unscathed.

In a scene in which the story meanders into the life of Douglas and Moby, who are portrayed as a couple, the musician jumps in with abandon. Meeting Goldblum, Moby casually says he hasn't bothered to see any of Douglas' work but he IS a film buff: ''I like amateur porn,'' Moby offers as Douglas squirms.

When environmental activist Begley hits up Goldblum to help promote his latest passion -- a (fictional?) portable solar power device -- the pair film a spot in which Goldblum is reluctantly shown hoisting a travel coffee mug bearing the Solar Man logo.

''Get a jolt from a clean volt!'' Goldblum dutifully recites. Then he can't help himself: He asks to do another take, and then another.

''Pittsburgh'' also offers the fun of unraveling a puzzle. Unlike Guest's comedies, some of what happens in ''Pittsburgh'' is real -- or at least that's what Goldblum claims.

All evidence considered (including polite reviews), he and Wreford did appear in ''The Music Man'' in Pittsburgh for two weeks in 2004. Goldblum says he explained away the camera that accompanied them by saying it was for a home video.

But as he picks through instances of truth vs. fiction for an interviewer, there's a sneaking feeling he's extending the film's shell game.

Goldblum swears to the following: That he was engaged to Wreford, that she did have immigration worries, that he's always loved the Meredith Willson play, that the couple presented as his colorful mother and stepfather are, indeed, his colorful mother and stepfather.

The play's director really did tell musical theater novice Goldblum, not long before ''The Music Man'' started its two-week run, that (gulp) he was taking his character of Professor Harold Hill completely in the wrong direction.

''A quirky mixture of documentary and improvised fiction, `Pittsburgh' has generated a buzz,'' was the diplomatic e-mail reply from Van Kaplan, executive producer for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, when asked for comment on the film.

Ask Goldblum what Wreford, now his ex-fiancee, thinks about it, and he murmurs in poetically indirect Goldblumesque fashion that ''we sort of drifted apart, although very sweetly.'' He has heard rumors that she may have left show business and is selling mortgages.

Oh, c'mon, Mr. Goldblum, that extremely gifted young woman, who's done Broadway musicals, appeared in several movies and has one, ''The Metrosexual,'' in the can? And in this credit crisis? We're not that gullible.

''I may be wrong. But I hear she's doing very well, one way or another.''

------

On the Net:

http://www.starz.com

------

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org

[themaguffin]

'Superbad' director to take helm of Pittsburgh production
Pittsburgh Business Times - 12:55 PM EDT Thursday, August 23, 2007by Tim Schooley
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The first fruits of Pennsylvania's new $75 million film tax credit program for Pittsburgh will be a comedy called "Adventureland," written and directed by Greg Mottola, who directed the summer hit, "Superbad".

Mottola will write and direct the film about a recent college graduate forced to take a mimimum-wage job at an amusement park. The film will be a joint production between Miramax Films and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, with shooting expected to begin in the fall. The film's budget was not disclosed.


Dawn Keezer, executive director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said the production is one of three that are considering Pittsburgh for shoots.

She said Ted Hope, a principal of production firm This is That, and Mottola are both familiar with Pittsburgh. Hope has considered Pittsburgh for previous productions and Mottola attended Carnegie Mellon University and took classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

[themaguffin]

'Superbad' director to take helm of Pittsburgh production
Pittsburgh Business Times - 12:55 PM EDT Thursday, August 23, 2007by Tim Schooley
Print this Article Email this Article Reprints RSS Feeds Most Viewed Most Emailed
The first fruits of Pennsylvania's new $75 million film tax credit program for Pittsburgh will be a comedy called "Adventureland," written and directed by Greg Mottola, who directed the summer hit, "Superbad".

Mottola will write and direct the film about a recent college graduate forced to take a mimimum-wage job at an amusement park. The film will be a joint production between Miramax Films and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, with shooting expected to begin in the fall. The film's budget was not disclosed.


Dawn Keezer, executive director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said the production is one of three that are considering Pittsburgh for shoots.

She said Ted Hope, a principal of production firm This is That, and Mottola are both familiar with Pittsburgh. Hope has considered Pittsburgh for previous productions and Mottola attended Carnegie Mellon University and took classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

[Evergrey]

yet another "Pittsburgh in the 80s" movie (Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Smart People, Rock Star)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07236/811685-53.stm

'Superbad' director Greg Mottola set to film in Pittsburgh

Friday, August 24, 2007
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Greg Mottola, the director of the superhot "Superbad," is returning to Pittsburgh to make a comedy he wrote called "Adventureland."

Set in summer 1987, "Adventureland" is about an uptight, recent college grad who is forced to take a degrading minimum-wage job at an amusement park when he realizes he cannot afford his dream European tour. But along the way, he discovers love, friendship and newfound maturity.

Jesse Eisenberg, who played the elder son in the wrenching "The Squid and the Whale," will star, according to a press release from Miramax Films, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and This is that corporation.

Production is scheduled to start in October, and filmmakers have scouted Kennywood and received photos of Idlewild Park. Mary Lou Rosemeyer, Kennywood spokeswoman, said the park has been approached before but it cannot displace patrons or endorse negative stories (such as coaster accidents).

"The story line for this really sounds good. Amazingly, it is the one time of year that it's even thinkable to do it, because our rides are still in operation for Phantom Fright Nights but we're closed during the week. So while we are still doing a great deal of work during that time, our major maintenance is all done in the winter."

No contracts have been signed but Rosemeyer expects to talk again to the filmmakers next week and is optimistic that a deal will be reached.

The news came days after the R-rated teen comedy "Superbad" opened at No. 1 with $31.2 million.

"We are thrilled to be working with Greg Mottola. It's so rare to read a smart comedy like this with great characters and emotional depth," Keri Putman, Miramax production president, said in a statement announcing the project.

Producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey added, "We can't wait to bring this unique blend of humor and heart to the screen now that he has been so fully embraced by the audience."

Mottola honed his skills at Carnegie Mellon University, where he received a degree in art in 1986, and Pittsburgh Filmmakers before attending graduate film school at Columbia University.

He shot "Daytrippers," a festival favorite starring Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey and others, in 16 days for about $65,000. His credits also include directing episodes of TV's "Undeclared," "Arrested Development" and "The Comeback."

Brady Lewis, director of education at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, remembers Mottola from an advanced 16mm production class. He returned to town when one of his shorts was featured in the Black Maria Film and Video Festival and provided a quote for a Filmmakers brochure and, later, ad.

Lewis, who has kept in sporadic touch, recalls asking Mottola how he could make "Daytrippers" for such a modest amount, given his cast. "I had been living in New York for 10 or 12 years and was involved in theater circles and they were all my friends," he told Lewis, and they essentially worked for free.

Lewis hopes to extend an invitation to see Filmmakers' digs and talk to a class. When the nonprofit corporation is asked about artist alums, it won't hurt to name-drop the director of "Superbad."

"And he was a nice person, too, so that makes it better."

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said "Adventureland" could be the first of many projects this fall and winter. "This will be a great project for the area and it is a direct result of the new film incentive program put into place by Governor Rendell."

In fact, director Gavin Rapp is preparing to shoot a noir crime drama called "Trapped." From Winter Morning Pictures, it will star Corbin Bernsen and Tom Atkins and film in and around Pittsburgh starting next month.


...

Jesse Eisenberg
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/he/photo/movie_pix/sundance/sundance_film_festival_2005_photos/jesse_eisenberg/sunoutdoorsquid.jpg

...

stars from "Trapped"

Corbin Bernsen
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Corbin_Bernsen_at_the_39th_Emmy_Awards_cropped.jpg

Tom Atkins
http://tomatkinsonline.net/Images/Bob_05.png

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07247/814381-42.stm

TV/DVD Review: Locally filmed 'Haunting Hour' delivers frightful Stine-style fun

Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200709/20070904ho_hauntingemily_500.jpg
Universal Home Entertainment
Emily Osment plays Cassie, a girl who likes the Goth look, in "R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It," which is in stores today on DVD and will air on the Cartoon Network at 7 p.m. Friday.
Squarely aimed at the "High School Musical" crowd, "R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It" is a solid piece of tween entertainment that's sure to appeal to children who obsessively watch Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows. To see this new made-for-DVD movie, they'll have to buy it (in stores or online today) or tune to Cartoon Network, which premieres "The Haunting Hour" at 7 p.m. Friday.

Filmed last fall in Western Pennsylvania and rated PG for "scary content and thematic elements," "The Haunting Hour" is suspenseful and may give younger children -- under, say, age 10 -- nightmares, but it's not bloody. It's more ... gooey.

The story kicks off when 13-year-old Goth girl Cassie (Emily Osment, Haley Joel's little sister who plays Lilly on "Hannah Montana") tries to make friends with blond, somewhat dim dude Sean (Cody Linley, "Hannah Montana"). But Priscilla (Brittany Elizabeth Curran, "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," "Drake & Josh"), leader of the junior high's Mean Girls, plans to take Sean to the Halloween dance, so she does everything she can to make Cassie feel unwelcome.

Cassie, who has the World's Most Annoying Little Brother (Alex Winzenread), vows to take revenge on Priscilla and ultimately creates a scene that's sort of a Disneyfied version of the blood-soaked "Carrie" prom scene, using bugs instead of blood.

Cassie also checks out a strange Halloween shop run by a creepy clerk (Tobin Bell, "Saw," "The Kill Point"), who sells her a book called "The Evil Thing." Its first page warns not to read the book aloud, but after a particularly annoying interlude with brother Max, Cassie reads him the book to scare him.

"The evil thing is not real unless you think about it," the book says, leading Cassie to warn Max, "Don't think about it." Of course, he does, which conjures a two-headed, slime-drooling monster that gives birth to babies that look like a cross between a slug and a shrimp. The babies look and move in a manner that sort of screams, "low budget!" but the mama monster remains creepy thanks to its splitting head and director Alex Zamm's wise decision not to show the monster in full too often.

Inspired by the scary novels of children's author Stine, "Haunting Hour" was written by TV veterans Billy Brown and Dan Angel ("Night Visions," "The Fearing Mind," "Goosebumps"). Their script is more clever than one might expect from a movie in this genre. When Cassie gives Sean a treatise on Edgar Allan Poe, including his contributions to horror conventions, Sean marvels, "Aw, I've never been to a horror convention!"

Between the scares, "Haunting Hour" offers a pro-social message, espoused by Sean, a kid who is popular but not mean, a welcome change from the norm. Sean is as appalled when Priscilla laughs at Cassie as he is when Cassie humiliates Priscilla.

"So she dissed you," Sean says to Cassie. "Be cool."

Although "Haunting Hour" was filmed locally, the location is never named in the film. But if you look carefully, you might recognize some local touches -- a Howard Hanna for-sale sign in front of a home; Eat'n Park Smiley Face cookies; the Carnegie business district; the former Knoxville Middle School.

Steeltown Entertainment Project, which will ultimately invest more than $900,000 in the film's more than $3 million budget, has a production credit at the start of the film, and many locals are thanked in the end credits, including locally based retailer American Eagle, which outfitted the film's stars.

Extras on the DVD include a music video featuring Osment, who sings a song written for the film, "Don't Think About It." An eight-minute "making of" feature takes viewers behind the scenes of the production, a "Scare-O-Meter" test tells you which character you're most like, and, in "R.L. Stine's Journey of Imagination," the children's novelist discusses what's really scary:

"What you can't see," he says.

'R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It'

TV: 7 p.m. Friday, Cartoon Network.
DVD: In stores today, $19.98, Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Web site: rlstineshauntinghour.com

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07248/814618-42.stm

Filmmaking in city working on Scene 2

Pittsburgh sees resurgence of activity in movies, television

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200709/2070905vwhc_hollyburg_500.jpg
VWH Campbell Jr./Post-Gazette
Mike Wittlin, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Street Productions, watches scenes and makes notes at his office in Green Tree.
Film producer Mike Wittlin used to have an office in a back lot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles before trading it in last year a new one in Green Tree.

Driving through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, rather than a Hollywood studio's front gates, is not the usual route to movie success. But Mr. Wittlin, like a growing number of TV and film producers, has returned to the city, sparking talk that Pittsburgh may be within striking distance of its 1990s movie-making heyday.

"As much fun as that was -- and it doesn't get more Hollywood than driving around in your own golf cart in a back lot -- you can't find a better back lot than Pittsburgh," Mr. Wittlin said. "Every neighborhood, everything you could possibly want is right here. You couldn't recreate stuff here if you wanted. The whole look and feel of the city is great."

Pittsburgh scored its latest coup on the movie front with Miramax Pictures' "Adventureland," a film by "Superbad" director Greg Mottola, a Carnegie Mellon University grad. Spike TV's "Kill Point" filmed around the city for two months this summer, and Groundswell Productions filmed both "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "Smart People" here last year.

The momentum has been aided by state film tax credits the General Assembly approved in July, a deep talent pool of local actors and film crews, and boosterism from the publicly funded Pittsburgh Film Office and private groups such as Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Steeltown Entertainment.

It is getting people to reminisce about film productions a decade or so ago, when Pittsburgh hosted "Striking Distance," "Silence of the Lambs" "Sudden Death" and other films.

"The last couple years have really started to change back to the way they used to be in the '90s," said Nancy Mosser, who owns Nancy Mosser Casting, Downtown, and has been in the business since 1990. "It's really feeling hot now again."

Membership in the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 489, which represents electricians, lighting designers, wardrobe and special effects experts, carpenters and others vital to the production business, has jumped from 120 a few years ago to nearly 200, said Local 489 business manager Jean-Pierre Nutini. That's enough to support two large productions at once, but not quite enough to handle three, which was doable when the local's membership peaked at 250 in the 1990s.

Mr. Nutini is hoping more some of the film workers who left town looking for greener pastures will return to take advantage of the upswing. The same goes for movie productions themselves.

"We're spreading the good word around, so more people come," said Mr. Nutini, a 53-year-old gaffer -- lighting and rigging expert -- from Squirrel Hill. "We have the reputation for a hard-working town that can fill all departments."

Mr. Wittlin, a Mt. Lebanon native who runs Smithfield St. Productions in Green Tree with three partners, shot the drama "Bridge to Nowhere" with stars Ving Rhames and Blair Underwood here this spring. They are submitting the film to the Sundance Film Festival this month and are not yet sure if it will see theatrical release or go straight to DVD.

Smithfield's next Pittsburgh-based production, "Tremble," is a thriller penned by Larry Charles.

Budgets for Smithfield's films are typically in the $2 million range, Mr. Wittlin said, which are large enough to land known actors and require union sets. Pittsburgh also is increasingly home to smaller productions that also go the DVD route, after getting made on a shoestring.

Winter Morning Pictures starts shooting "Trapped" Friday with stars Corbin Bernsen ("L.A. Law," "Major League") and Pittsburgh's Tom Atkins. The crime drama is written by Gavin Rapp, who will also direct, using a small crew of a dozen people. Mr. Rapp, who has experience with corporate videos and commercials, will also edit the film himself.

"Our model is we want to prove Pittsburgh has a pool of talent and money. We can write the story and do everything from soup to nuts," he said.

Mike McGovern of Bloomfield shot "Carmilla's Kiss" over about 11 days last summer with borrowed cameras and other equipment in a vacant house in Gibsonia. The budget was about $70,000. After a premiere Sept. 7, he's hoping to get it into film festivals before releasing it on DVD.

Mr. McGovern's film is not the kind of economy-boosting production that gets help from the Pittsburgh Film Office, or even much attention in the press. But he didn't ask for help either, preferring to do things on his own terms.

"What are we going to do, need Fifth Avenue to be closed? We're not quite that big," he said.




First published on September 5, 2007 at 12:00 am
Tim McNulty can be reached at tmcnulty@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1581.

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_533656.html

'Silent Bob' speaks up about Pittsburgh film

By Jolie Williamson
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, October 20, 2007


Director Kevin Smith, whose controversial movie "Dogma" was filmed in the region in 1998, might be headed back to Pittsburgh for another shoot.
Smith appears set to shoot "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" in the region, according to posts on his news Web site, which reports that the shoot will be 40 days in studio and on location in Pittsburgh.

Smith wrote Monday on his blog that he is discussing "the Pittsburgh trip and at what varying stages all of us will head east to Western Pennsylvania. We're now 12 weeks out from the start of shooting, so this is the point where logistics start taking shape, vis-a-vis dates, where the family will live, whether or not the dogs will come, etc."

"I'm hearing they're going to start in January," said Ming Chen, Web master for Smith's main Web site. Chen expects the production crew to be in the area for two to three months.

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said she has not received official confirmation of the film shoot, but said production representatives for Smith were in the area Friday scouting locations. Neither they nor Smith could be reached for comment.
"We're thrilled they're considering shooting here again," said Keezer, adding that she believes legislation that took effect in July offering additional tax incentives to filmmakers appears to be directly influencing more filmmakers' decisions to shoot in the area.

Keezer said she has not seen a script for Smith's upcoming film, but that despite its title, the film is not pornographic.

A description on Internet Movie Database said the film is about two 20-something friends who decide to begin an amateur porn studio -- "a knockout story for their upcoming high school reunion."

Smith's films, including the raunchy 1994 comedy "Clerks" that started his career, usually feature cutting-edge humor and provocative subject matter. Such was the case with "Dogma," which starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and featured rock singer Alanis Morissette as God.

His Web site said casting announcements for "Zack and Miri" could take place in about two weeks.


Jolie Williamson can be reached at jwilliamson@tribweb.com or 412-320-7822.

[PittPenn 03]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-10-21-kevin-smith_N.htm

The Kevin Smith film made a blurb in the USAToday.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07302/829298-42.stm

Film director and crew rekindle Pittsburgh ties on Kennywood set

Monday, October 29, 2007
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200710/20071029lf_kenny3_500.jpg
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
Greg Mottola, a CMU graduate, talks to actress Margarita Levieva while filming "Adventureland" at Kennywood Park on Thursday.Talk about superbad.

Those 1980s fashions have come out of the corners of the closet or been re-created by "Adventureland" extras, down to the stirrup pants or leggings for women, off-the-shoulder tops, big earrings and long hair worn with a fussy bow in the back. The men aren't faring much better, with red bandanas or terry-cloth headbands, track suits or tight shorts, with sweaters tied around the shoulders.

Yes, the clock is being reset to summer 1987 at Kennywood, where some of the trees are eternally green -- silk leaves never turn colors or fall off -- and a new manager's office has sprouted in the park. It was hiding in plain sight during Phantom Fright Nights, just decorated so you wouldn't notice the yellow wooden structure with orange trim.

Late last week, the office was occupied by "Adventureland" actors Ryan Reynolds and Bill Hader, while stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Wiig and Margarita Levieva were elsewhere, and Kristen Stewart wasn't scheduled that day.

The big-screen comedy, about halfway through a brisk 33-day shooting schedule, stars Eisenberg from "The Squid and the Whale" as a recent college graduate who thought he would be vacationing in Europe rather than operating a game called The Derby, with its hokey horse races.

"He's been accepted at Columbia University for grad school and he can't afford it, so he ends up getting a minimum-wage job at a theme park," said the curly-haired Eisenberg. So an intellectual finds himself "at a place where people are throwing up on rides."

The 24-year-old ducked out of a trailer for a quick interview, and when the makeup artist was called to give him the once-over, she said with motherly affection, "I think he looks beautiful," and let him be, with a pat on the cheek.

Talking about his character, Eisenberg said, "He had planned a trip with his friend to go to Europe for the summer. He had these very lofty goals, then he works at the least lofty place."

Two "Saturday Night Live" regulars are running the park: Wiig plays the manager and a mustachioed Hader is her husband, the junior park manager. Reynolds is a maintenance man with a mystique about his earlier days as a musician when he jammed with superstars.

The park is based on Long Island's Adventureland, where director-writer Greg Mottola (now riding the wave of success of "Superbad," which he directed) once worked in the games department. However, the real park has been renovated so extensively that it wasn't even an option for filming.

"They made it a very different place," Mottola, bespectacled and dressed in black, said of the venue where he manned the booth where patrons shot a squirt gun into a clown's mouth. Re-creating the 1980s at an amusement park proved an ambitious notion for a low-budget film.

"My idea was that it was supposed to be a place that had been built in the '50s or '60s and hadn't changed since then. Obviously anything that was overly corporate or chain like wasn't going to work for that. Of the places that could possibly work, Kennywood was probably the best, if we could convince them to let us do it."

The timing and story worked for Kennywood, and Mottola decided to set the movie in Pittsburgh. It's Pittsburgh playing Pittsburgh, not cheating for Long Island, complete with Zambelli International fireworks.

"I just thought, I know the city enough, I really like the city and it's beautiful, and I don't want to not be able to show the hills and the rivers," said Mottola, who studied art at Carnegie Mellon University and took classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

"I think the only unfortunate thing is, this movie will work least for people from Pittsburgh. They'll all go, 'What's Adventureland? That's Kennywood,' but we changed it."

Adventureland, after all, is a smaller, rundown park, although some signature Kennywood rides, games and even whimsical animal trash-can lids from Kiddieland will be visible.

The faux manager's office, decorated convincingly with a desk, time clock, hot plate, stuffed animal prizes, decoupaged clown plaques and "Employees Please Read" notices, looks across to the real Wipeout ride.

Nearby, Levieva (who plays the fetching games worker the men drool over) and another actress danced, sometimes bumping backs as they moved for the camera. They shimmied as much as the Wipeout, which mimics the ocean with its topsy turvy spinning; it's what they call a "spin and barf" ride in the business.

Just as Kennywood learned that a location scout could mean a visit from a party of 30, the production realized that a ride cannot be turned on without being cleared to run -- even if it's just designed to be in the background. "We can't run any of the rides until they're inspected," park spokeswoman Mary Lou Rosemeyer said, and that can mean a couple of hours of walking the tracks for the coasters.

Park employees are operating the rides either on or off camera, with ride supervisor Keith Humbel of Munhall serving as a liaison with the production -- and engaging in some silliness that could land him on the DVD.

On weekends, the park has been doing dynamic double duty, shifting from movie set to home of Phantom Fright Nights. "There's a lot of re-dressing that has to be done every Saturday night after Fright Night is over, for Monday morning for them, and then when they're done, back to Fright Nights for us," Rosemeyer said.

Even if it's not always a "Funtastic time" (as fake park signs and T-shirts proclaim), it's a win-win for both sides.

Producer Ted Hope hadn't been to Pittsburgh for two decades -- "I came here once to have a woman break up with me -- but said it was remarkable how perfect Kennywood was. He and fellow producer Anne Carey also cited the state's new $75 million tax credit program, the homegrown crew base and the city's proximity to New York as luring the movie here.

"We're New York-based, the director is New York-based, a lot of the talent is New York-based," Carey said, which meant the hour-long flight here was a bonus, although Hope chimed in "when they run on time." The idea of going to Texas or New Mexico was less appealing, she said, particularly for people with families.

Line producer Declan Baldwin knew the late summer-early fall schedule would mean some adjustments, no matter how unseasonably warm it was. And, boy, was it.

With a wave of his arm he asked, "Do you notice something right now? Every one of those trees is fake -- one, two, three, four, five, six. ... We had always known that we were going to have a crew of people putting fake leaves on [real] trees, which they've been doing every day."

Baldwin was no stranger to Western Pennsylvania.

"I lived here and worked here for two years, for George A. Romero when I was a youngster. That was in 1990 and 1991." He was line producer on Tom Savini's remake of "Night of the Living Dead" and producer on "The Dark Half."

Baldwin, regrettably he said, hasn't stayed in close touch with Romero but he saw him about a year ago.

"I noticed that he was the featured celebrity at a convention that was, maybe, an hour or so from my home in New York, and I drove there with my two boys -- I had no children when I worked with him -- and I gave him a big, big hug for a long, long time because he was a beautiful man who treated me with so much respect and he taught me so many things."

In fact, "Adventureland" has reunited Baldwin with more than a dozen other former Romero crew members. "The Dark Half," with its 100-day shooting schedule that involved live birds, animatronic birds, motion-controlled cameras and other practical visual effects, was a complicated film, but this one has its challenges, too.

"We did not have enough prep time because we were rushing to capture the season," Baldwin says, but the silk leaves are not going anywhere and a man with a leaf blower is dispensing with the real ones.

Although opening dates are often subject to change, it could be late summer once again when "Adventureland" hits theaters. Producers are looking at the third week in August, which is when "Superbad" opened with $31.2 million, on its way to $121 million and counting.

First published on October 29, 2007 at 12:00 am
Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632.

[Evergrey]

I only watched the first episode... anybody else watch this series? It's too bad the successful 'Kill Point' won't be back as Spike follows the disturbing and totally lame "reality television" trend

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07318/833538-42.stm

'Kill Point' sequel is dead

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200711/x20071114ho_killpoint_500.jpg
Annie O'Neill/Post-Gazette

Donnie Wahlberg plays the polce negotiator in Spike TV's "The Kill Point," which was filmed in Market Square.After hanging in limbo since the first-season finale aired in August, Spike TV's "The Kill Point" has been canceled and will not return to Pittsburgh to film a second season.

The show's future looked rosy when it was airing because it had healthy ratings for a Spike scripted drama and it was a hit with the network's target demo of young men. But not long after it aired, Spike announced a raft of new unscripted reality shows that marked a shift in direction for the cable channel.

A Spike TV spokeswoman confirmed the cancellation, saying, "We are out of the serialized one-hour business. We need programming that we can repeat." Serialized shows tend not to repeat well, although a repeat of the "Kill Point" pilot a few days after the premiere attracted 1.2 million viewers, increasing the channel's Wednesday night time slot ratings by 69 percent from a year earlier.

Last week, writer/producer Todd Harthan said network executives were excited about the concept for the show's second season after seeing an outline. But he also noted that communication with Spike TV ceased as talk of a writers' strike heated up.

TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Ask TV questions at post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A.

[Evergrey]

sue away! This movie was totally lame

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07318/833612-85.stm

Stagehand sues over Goldblum's 'Pittsburgh'

Claims she's become subject of sex jokes after appearance in mockumentary

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A 30-year veteran stagehand at the Benedum Center has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $4 million in damages against the makers of a mock documentary on Pittsburgh theater because she said her likeness was used in the film against her will.

Debbie Sue Croyle, of Zelienople, filed the lawsuit against 10 different defendants, including ROAR LLC and Starz Entertainment, claiming the film, "Pittsburgh," features a scene where she is the subject of sexual innuendo.

The film centers around the July 2004 production of "The Music Man" by the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and starring actor Jeff Goldblum.

It was released on DVD earlier this year, and has been shown at a number of different film festivals around the country.

During the filming, the movie's producers sought permission from actors and stagehands to be used in what they called a "documentary."

According to Ms. Croyle's lawsuit, she told the defendants the only way she would sign a release was if the film's makers would donate money in her brother's honor to Achieva, a local nonprofit that works with mentally challenged people.

The defendants never contacted Ms. Croyle to tell her they wanted to use her in the film, and no donation was ever made.

However, after the release of "Pittsburgh," Ms. Croyle learned that there was a scene in which Mr. Goldblum made a suggestive comment to her.

She was rubbing alcohol on his neck to ensure that the tape for his microphone stuck, when Mr. Goldblum complained that it burned, the lawsuit said. In response, Ms. Croyle blew on his neck.

"Goldblum, clearly no longer in any discomfort, changes his facial expression and in a sexually suggestive manner and voice states, 'Blow some more,' " the suit states.

Ms. Croyle alleges that she has become the subject of sex jokes and that she's been humiliated.

She is suing for invasion of privacy, that the defendants appropriated her likeness and have presented her in a false light.

The lawsuit, which notes that Ms. Croyle's name was not included in the credits, seeks $1 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages.

U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone has scheduled a hearing this morning seeking a temporary restraining order against the defendants from further broadcasting or distributing the film.

Paula Reed Ward can be reached at pward@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620.

[JackStraw]

sue away! This movie was totally lame

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07318/833612-85.stm

Stagehand sues over Goldblum's 'Pittsburgh'

Claims she's become subject of sex jokes after appearance in mockumentary

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A 30-year veteran stagehand at the Benedum Center has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $4 million in damages against the makers of a mock documentary on Pittsburgh theater because she said her likeness was used in the film against her will.

Debbie Sue Croyle, of Zelienople, filed the lawsuit against 10 different defendants, including ROAR LLC and Starz Entertainment, claiming the film, "Pittsburgh," features a scene where she is the subject of sexual innuendo.

The film centers around the July 2004 production of "The Music Man" by the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and starring actor Jeff Goldblum.

It was released on DVD earlier this year, and has been shown at a number of different film festivals around the country.

During the filming, the movie's producers sought permission from actors and stagehands to be used in what they called a "documentary."

According to Ms. Croyle's lawsuit, she told the defendants the only way she would sign a release was if the film's makers would donate money in her brother's honor to Achieva, a local nonprofit that works with mentally challenged people.

The defendants never contacted Ms. Croyle to tell her they wanted to use her in the film, and no donation was ever made.

However, after the release of "Pittsburgh," Ms. Croyle learned that there was a scene in which Mr. Goldblum made a suggestive comment to her.

She was rubbing alcohol on his neck to ensure that the tape for his microphone stuck, when Mr. Goldblum complained that it burned, the lawsuit said. In response, Ms. Croyle blew on his neck.

"Goldblum, clearly no longer in any discomfort, changes his facial expression and in a sexually suggestive manner and voice states, 'Blow some more,' " the suit states.

Ms. Croyle alleges that she has become the subject of sex jokes and that she's been humiliated.

She is suing for invasion of privacy, that the defendants appropriated her likeness and have presented her in a false light.

The lawsuit, which notes that Ms. Croyle's name was not included in the credits, seeks $1 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages.

U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone has scheduled a hearing this morning seeking a temporary restraining order against the defendants from further broadcasting or distributing the film.

Paula Reed Ward can be reached at pward@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620.



I read where they called it a "mockumentery" in which they made fun of Pittsburgh and it's theater. Also how lame was it. Jeff Goldblum is lame anyways. The dude has never played in any good movie. All his acting roles are are lame.

[themaguffin]

I am not sure if I would call it a mock. I did laugh watching it, but not for the reasons stated. I don't even remember that. The funniest moments involved side stories.

[Evergrey]

I read where they called it a "mockumentery" in which they made fun of Pittsburgh and it's theater. Also how lame was it. Jeff Goldblum is lame anyways. The dude has never played in any good movie. All his acting roles are are lame.

Actually, I'm a huge Jeff Goldblum fan... but the mockumentary just ran out the same old tired jokes about Pittsburgh for some cheap laughs. "I'm in Pittsburgh. Kill me."

[themaguffin]

That's annoying, but i didn't take it as bash on Pittsburgh, but as _insert city that isn't NYC here_ type of thing, but yeah it's old.

In other news, Spike has cancelled the Kill Point despite ok/decent ratings because - guess what - they want to spend less doing cheaper non scripted shows (reality shows).

The writer's strike probably didn't help though.