Pittsburgh Film Industry Discussion

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_561751.html

Pittsburgh a 'Smart' choice for film's setting

By Michael Machosky
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 11, 2008


Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page

Pittsburgh is a good place for smart people, apparently.

The collegiate drama "Smart People" -- opening today -- was shot at Carnegie Mellon University and other locations around Pittsburgh. It's about depressed widower Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid), a literature professor, trying to put his life back together.

With all due respect to Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church, Pittsburgh might be the real star of the show.

"Pittsburgh is amazing," says location manager Kathy McCurdy, who scouted the locations for "Smart People." "It has the most amazing architecture and most incredible looks. And it's not easy to duplicate Pittsburgh in other parts of the country -- or world.

"It's great that Pittsburgh is getting all this attention lately. Obviously, it's somewhat about tax credits, but people are finally seeing what a great location it is. Of course, I already knew that."

McCurdy is based in Los Angeles but grew up in Penn Hills. She got the job in Los Angeles, at least partially by selling herself as an expert on Pittsburgh.

"In Pittsburgh, it's basically 'cold scouting,'" McCurdy says. "You meet with the director and production designer, and get a sense of what they're hoping to find. Of course, the script tells you what you need, and how the rooms relate to each other. From experience and good old-fashioned hunches, you go to the areas that are probably going to have those kinds of homes, and give you what you need on the inside."

Sarah Jessica Parker's character, a doctor who begins a tentative romance with the professor, works at Allegheny General Hospital. That was a fairly obvious choice. But to find the house used by Quaid, his daughter (Ellen Page) and adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church), McCurdy just started driving around the East End.

"We found this incredible house in Friendship," McCurdy says. "Those kinds of houses -- the 'Pittsburgh four-square' -- they don't have them in other parts of the country. It was this incredible house from the mid-1800s. (The owners) completely respected the home they bought and were restoring it. That kind of stuff is fantastic for films. You really can't duplicate that."

Part of the job is to persuade property owners to get on board, despite the obvious inconveniences.

"Most people are generally happy to have the circus come to town," McCurdy says. "It's a nice diversion, it's fun, it's different. But like in any situation in life, there are people who just don't care. They're like, 'I don't care who the star is. I don't care what they're doing. I don't want any lights in my windows. I don't want any noise. I don't want my parking taken.' And I completely understand."

Paul Bucciarelli of Squirrel Hill was the on-set dresser for "Smart People." It was his job to maintain continuity. Over a long shoot, things get moved around a lot on the set. He records the location of absolutely everything in each scene and makes sure nothing is out of place when the cameras are rolling.

"I might also have to hide some things," Bucciarelli says. "I carry a camo net in my kit. This one house that was across the street from the main house in 'Smart People' had a rather large sculpture in the front yard. Every shot we had looking outside the house, I just threw a camouflage net over it, and it went away."

Often, set dressing involves improvisation.

"Because it takes place at Christmastime, there's a tree in the living room," Bucciarelli says. "We did a scene later where we were looking into that living room, but we had long since gotten rid of the tree -- there was a miscommunication. The room was dark -- all you see was the tree lights.

"Another thing I keep in my kit is white twinkle Christmas lights, because they're good for a variety of lighting. I took a gripstand and turned it into a triangle shape and strung the lights around it. So in the dark, you couldn't tell that it wasn't actually a Christmas tree."

Casting director Donna Belajac was tasked with finding the extras and minor speaking roles.

"Dennis Quaid's character had all these colleagues," says Belajac, whose office is based Downtown. "When I saw the script, I thought they'd want all of those characters out of L.A. or New York. But, to my suprise, they cast them here, which was nice."

Often, the roles weren't much of a stretch. For one professor role, she cast Don Wadsworth, a Carnegie Mellon University professor. Another speaking part went to a Carnegie Mellon student, and two to students from Point Park University.

McCurdy, back in California working on the new "Star Trek," has a very different set of location challenges to deal with. But coming back to Pittsburgh for "Smart People" was a big deal for her and her family -- especially the time spent on the Carnegie Mellon campus.

"My cousin goes there now," McCurdy says. "She actually ended up working on the film as a (production assistant) for a few days when we needed an extra hand. She decided to go to CMU based on that experience.

"She was (planning) to go to Penn State because her whole family went there. Her father still jokes with me -- 'You owe me $120,000.' Because that's the difference between a Penn State and a CMU education."

Michael Machosky can be reached at [email protected] or 412-320-7901.

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_561752.html

'Smart' crew, homeowners found relationship mutually beneficial

By Pam Starr
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 11, 2008


Kim and Tom Mangan were in the process of renovating their home when they were approached about using it as a set for "Smart People."
Andrew Russell/Tribune-Review


Tom and Kim Mangan's home in Friendship was featured in the movie "Smart People."
Andrew Russell/Tribune-Review

Producers of the movie "Smart People," which was filmed in Pittsburgh, looked at 20 to 30 houses before deciding to shoot scenes at Tom and Kim Mangan's stately Victorian house in Friendship.

Kathy McCurdy, location designer for the movie, says they met the Mangans at just the right stage in their ownership. The Mangans had lived in their house, which was built in 1873, for only six months when they were approached. McCurdy also had looked in Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Oakland, Point Breeze, East Liberty and Highland Park -- anywhere that has older homes.

"They hadn't restored everything yet, and it was in the perfect state of having slightly worn, slightly weathered original features that show the beauty is still there," says McCurdy, a native Pittsburgher based in Los Angeles. She's a 1987 graduate of Penn Hills High School and a 1991 Pitt grad. "The house was lived in. It wasn't a museum. We wanted moviegoers to look at that house and see the potential."

Ironically, producers made the house "look terrible," according to Kim Mangan, 37, because Dennis Quaid's character hadn't lived in the home for nine years.

"They painted all the coves to look dirty and dingy," she says. "They took all the furniture out except for a couple of pieces. They took pictures of where everything was, and when we moved back, they were in the exact spots."

Tom and Kim, who moved here from San Diego in 2006, had to stay in the Westin Convention Center Hotel, Downtown, for six weeks during filming. Their German shepherd mix and Bernese mountain dog stayed in a kennel during that time. Tom Mangan, 41, is a Dale Carnegie trainer and North Huntingdon native, and Kim Mangan is a project planner with Mine Safety Appliances Co.

Shooting began in November 2006 and ended Dec. 22.

"They used all four floors of the house," says Tom Mangan, "plus the garage and the porch. They had books stacked everywhere, since Dennis Quaid's character is a Victorian literature professor at CMU."

They also filled the dining room with plants, says Kim Mangan, and had mismatched furniture from Goodwill and Salvation Army. Quaid's office was "a real mess." His character's wife had died nine years earlier, leaving him to raise two children on his own.

"What was really nice is that we had gone through the process of tearing down walls, and they finished the work for us," she says. "They finished the hardwood floors. That was great -- it was a lot of work. They also painted the house and finished the staircase. That was the best part."

McCurdy says movie crews always return a house in the condition in which it was given to them, or better.

"Imagine throwing a party for 100 of your friends," she says. "Someone always spills red wine on the carpet or breaks a glass accidentally.

"It's the same with a movie crew -- except with lights, cameras and equipment on top of it all," she says. "It's a lot of traffic. We certainly can't leave a homeowner stuck with repairs. That's no way to say 'thank you.'"

The Mangans received a flat fee for the use of the house and a daily rate.

"Any damage was negotiated," Tom Mangan says. "There was nothing significant. Some of the walls were scratched, and the landscaping took a beating."

With the money the Mangans got from the movie, they turned a bedroom into a master bathroom, complete with porcelain tile, and got the house painted. Additionally, they're planning to renovate Tom's office upstairs.

When the Mangans were looking for houses in the Pittsburgh area, they searched more than 6,000 houses on the Internet. The one in Friendship just spoke to them, they say.

"This one had pocket doors, hardwood floors and was convenient to work," Tom Mangan says. "We're within walking distance to restaurants and parks."

Adds Kim Mangan: "Friendship is an appropriate name for the neighborhood. It's a nice, tight-knit community. Our house was on the house tour last year."

McCurdy says the Mangan house was a "perfect example of the kind of architecture that Pittsburgh offers."

"Their house was great -- it was so much fun working on that project with them," she says. "The neighborhood is wonderful. You can't find that in cities anywhere. I'm so glad that Pittsburgh is finally getting the attention it deserves."

The Mangans are looking forward to seeing the movie premiere and are hoping the film is a big hit. If it is, they'll probably be on the Friendship house tour again this year.

"We know the first time we see the movie, we'll be watching the house," Kim Mangan says with a laugh. "We have a signed script and haven't read through it to see how it ends."

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_561750.html

'Smart People'

By Michael Machosky
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 11, 2008

At first, "Smart People" looks like the perfect double feature for "Wonder Boys" (2000), the last movie about an aimless, brilliant professor filmed at Carnegie Mellon University.

Unfortunately, that film's sparkling wit and manic energy are exactly what's missing from "Smart People." As a comedy, it has some really funny moments. But as a romance, it gives off about as many sparks as a slush-soaked sock. As drama, it barely registers at all.

Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is smart. He's also barely sentient, unable to remember his students' names, only sparking to life when talking about literature. He keeps his late wife's clothes hanging in the closet -- marking the point when normal life stopped.

His son, James, and daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page), also are smart. James is kind of an underwritten enigma, but Vanessa is the kind of neurotic perfectionist who worries constantly about SAT scores and prepares Christmas dinner with a recipe from the court of Louis XIV, self-translated from the original French.

Wetherhold's lazy adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), isn't so smart. But he is relatively happy. Then an accident sends Lawrence to the hospital. When he learns that he can't drive for six months, the utterly unreliable Chuck becomes his driver.

Wetherhold awkwardly attempts a romance with his doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student. Chuck, determined to get Vanessa to loosen up a little, succeeds a little too well.

It's easy to see where this is headed, but the movie's turgid pacing takes forever to get there. It's not helped by the cheesy soft-rock ballads that undercut every semi-poignant moment, nor the fact that the least interesting character, Lawrence, is the lead, and the most fun, Chuck, is a bit player.

It's not clear why the filmmakers left Lawrence so opaque and lifeless. He'd be much more compelling if his oblivious pomposity was just played for laughs.

Michael Machosky can be reached at [email protected] or 412-320-7901.

[themaguffin]

NY Times:

April 11, 2008
A Disagreeable Academic, and a Tonic Named Sarah Jessica Parker



By A. O. SCOTT
Published: April 11, 2008

If you are in the mood for a movie about the rejuvenation of an aging, widowed college professor — and don’t pretend you aren’t — then this is a weekend of rare and unexpected abundance. By some miracle of film industry serendipity, two such movies are opening today in limited release. Even more bizarre: each is pretty good.



In “The Visitor”, Richard Jenkins plays an economist whose flagging joie de vivre is restored when he takes up drumming. “Smart People” is more or less the same deal, except that its protagonist, played by Dennis Quaid, is a specialist in Victorian literature, and his flagging joie de vivre is restored when he goes to bed with Sarah Jessica Parker. Whatever gets you through the semester, I guess.



Seriously, though, what these two films — one a restrained drama, the other a frisky comedy — share is less the situation of their main characters than the superior work of the men who portray them. There is something about impersonating thwarted intellectuals, their early promise and ambition fading into vanity and irrelevance, that inspires a certain kind of actor to tap into deep veins of pathos and wit. Jeff Daniels struck the modern template for this kind of performance in “The Squid and the Whale,” and in their different ways Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Quaid live up to his high standard.



Mr. Quaid, his handsomeness distorted and obscured by stooped shoulders, a sagging belly and wayward facial hair, plays Lawrence Wetherhold, an English professor at Carnegie Mellon whose general unpleasantness seems less like a personality trait than like a belief system. His narcissism is a seamless coat of many colors, a weave of grief for his dead wife, resentment at how much the world demands of him and the conviction that he is smarter than everybody else.



His son, James (Ashton Holmes), an aspiring poet and a student at the college, finds Lawrence’s imperiousness nearly intolerable, while his daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page), carefully tends the flame of her father’s ego and takes him as a role model in contrarianism. Secure in the sense of her own superiority and proud of her political conservatism, Vanessa is Diablo Cody’s Juno rewritten by Ayn Rand.



Actually, the excellent script for “Smart People” is the work of Mark Jude Poirier, a fiction writer who has clearly spent enough time around English departments to have studied the tribal ways of the literary professoriate with ethnographic rigor. The scenes of Lawrence in the classroom or in department meetings are among the most frighteningly, comically accurate such moments I have ever seen on film.



That may sound like a minor accomplishment, but the great virtue of “Smart People,” attributable to Noam Murro’s easygoing direction as well as to Mr. Poirier’s wandering screenplay, lies in its general preference for small insights over grand revelations. There is a fairly busy plot, and some of its developments — an unplanned pregnancy, a flicker of quasi-incestuous — interest, the acceptance of a poem by The New Yorker — clatter onto the screen like carelessly flung darts. But to a greater extent than in most comedies, the narrative seems more like background or scaffolding than like the engine that drives the characters, who are propelled instead by their own colliding, confusing, idiosyncratic energies.



Lawrence, sour patriarch and weary pedagogue, may dominate the landscape, but the people surrounding him are much more than mere foils or supporting players. Ms. Page is both sharp and brittle, but as she did with Juno, she allows Vanessa’s callowness and uncertainty to show through her veneer of sarcastic poise. Ms. Parker, as Janet Hartigan, a former student of Lawrence’s whose undergraduate crush on him is revived when they meet in a hospital emergency room (she as doctor, he as patient), cuts her natural charm with a very real sense of anxiety and disappointment. And above all there is Thomas Haden Church, suavely stealing scenes from Mr. Quaid in the slightly implausible but nonetheless charming role of Lawrence’s ne’er-do-well adoptive brother, Chuck.



Chuck, whose refusal to act his age seems as defiant and deliberate as his brother’s decision to act much older than his, crashes in Lawrence’s guest room and strikes up an occasionally awkward friendship with Vanessa. Lawrence, meanwhile, pursues an equally awkward affair with Janet, whose consequent rivalry with Vanessa is both unstated and unmistakable.



Over the course of the movie everyone changes, but the filmmakers don’t force them into preordained postures of redemption. They are defiantly fixed in their personalities even as they show — and eventually acknowledge — some room for improvement. But none undergo the kind of hokey, wholesale transformations that too often turn brisk comedies into damp melodramas. They, and the filmmakers, are too proud — and too smart — for that kind of nonsense. The ordinary nonsense of human imperfection will do just fine.



“Smart People” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has swearing, drug use and two lingering glances at Mr. Church’s naked buttocks.



SMART PEOPLE



Opens on Friday nationwide.

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I'm thinking the local critics just don't get "it"

btw, Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) is scouting locations in the Burgh for a project called "Black Pearl"

[Tombstoner]

Well, I just saw Smart People here in Atlanta, and it was good, but Pittsburgh didn't figure into it to the extent that I personally would have wished. As a former academic (in CMU's English department, no less) I think they nailed the academic environment, but didn't really milk Pittsburgh for the sense of place that they could have. The storyline was also a bit underdeveloped in places and I didn't "get" the Sarah Jessica Parker character. Church wasn't as much fun as he could have been, and Quaid went a little overboard on the misanthropy. Still, it was fun to see a few good shots of CMU. I just wish we got more of Pittsburgh. (and now you see why I don't review movies for a living).

[themaguffin]

Still, it was fun to see a few good shots of CMU. I just wish we got more of Pittsburgh

That's how I feel about Wonderboys (which is a good movie). In that movie, yes there's Pittsburgh character, but you don't get the wide open shots of any iconic places.

I didn't get a chance to see Smart People yet, hopefully this weekend....

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I rented "Wonderboys" a few years back and just fast-forwarded through it for scenes of Pittsburgh... I was quite disappointed lol

god, i'm such a —

[themaguffin]

You should watch the movie, it's very good. That is to say it's a good character film. Don't expect a fast moving plot oriented movie.

Also again, for not showing off Pittsburgh, what you do see is Pittsburgh's character. By the way, the directer loved his time in the city and contributed to an interesting DVD extra where you can click on a map and he explains some local history and notes about the film and the region.

There's also a good segment on all of the great music in the movie.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08113/875330-57.stm

Actor/comedian plays for laughs in 'League'

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Jillian Sorkin
T.J. Miller is making a movie at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The number of flights may be declining at Pittsburgh International Airport, but at least one of the shuttered concourses has been put to good use: For the past two weeks, the film "She's out of My League" had taken over the closed portion of the B concourse to film scenes for this DreamWorks comedy, due in theaters next year.

Comedian/actor T.J. Miller appears in the film as the best friend to the lead character (Jay Baruchel, "Knocked Up," TV's "Undeclared"), who falls for a woman (Alice Eve) who is, as the title suggests, out of his league.

"We're his ragtag group of loser friends, and we're constantly hammering it into him that it will never work out," Miller said last week. "He's a 5 and she's a 10."

Miller, best known for playing wayward son Marmaduke on the soon-to-be-canceled ABC comedy "Carpoolers" and the video-camera-toting Hud in the movie "Cloverfield," and Baruchel play airport security personnel, which is why "League" was filming at the airport.

"There's nothing more awkward than to go through security in a TSA uniform," Miller said. "To have a real TSA agent with a wand checking you knowing you're playing a TSA agent in a movie is really funny and awkward."

"League" used the alternate security checkpoint for filming some scenes and then moved "to the wing US Airways made you guys build before they ditched you, which is a really sweet investment."

If Miller sounds like he's taking umbrage at the treatment Pittsburgh has received, it may be because he's enjoying his time here. He performed his stand-up act at The Improv at the Waterfront Saturday, and he'll be a guest bartender tomorrow, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Mullaney's Harp and Fiddle, 2329 Penn Ave., for a Neighbors in the Strip fund-raiser. (TV viewers can catch him on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" at 10 p.m. July 11.)

"I love that it's a big sports town," said Miller, a Denver native with his own Web site, TJMillerDoesNotHaveAWebSite.com. "Pittsburgh has an East Coast, Midwestern feel to it that's refreshing after being in Los Angeles for a while."

Sports play a role in "League," which is also set in Pittsburgh and includes characters who are huge Penguins fans. The movie shot scenes at Mellon Arena during a Pens game last month and again later when no game was in progress.

"I learned a lot about the use of curse words and harsh language from Pittsburgh locals [at the game]," Miller joked. "I'm using them whenever I get lost on a bridge or in a tunnel, which is pretty much every day."

Pittsburgh native Jimmy Miller (no relation to T.J.), brother of comedian Dennis Miller, is a producer of "League," which T.J. describes as an R-rated comedy.

"Judging by Penguins fans, I think Pittsburgh is an R-rated town. And I say that in a positive way," he said. "My character is very aggressive. Let's just say I'm representing the tough side of Pittsburgh."

His character's name is "Stainer," but Miller couldn't explain how that nickname came about -- although one can imagine a few R-rated scenarios.

"It's one of the great secrets of this movie," he said. "I'm really excited to be called Stainer by people on the street."

Again, he's kidding, just as he is when he labels Dave & Buster's "a distinctly Pittsburgh experience unless you go to one in another city because they have them in every city."

Of course, "League" is just one of three movies in production locally.

"We're trying to mark our territory. 'She's out of My League' staked out Downtown. I've got a beef with Julianne Moore [who's filming 'Shelter' here] and her whole posse. If they come onto our set, it's a rumble. I'm serious," he said, not at all seriously.
TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1112. Ask TV questions at post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08115/876084-42.stm

Filming wraps up on post-apocalyptic 'The Road'

Thursday, April 24, 2008
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The bunker was bathed in warm orange light, the Man and the Boy enjoying the long-gone comforts of civilization: bunk beds with pillows and sheets, a slice of frosted cake and a fork, even the fixings for a hand-rolled cigarette and gulp of alcohol.

Yesterday, actors Viggo Mortensen and young Kodi Smit-McPhee were in the old Benkovitz warehouse in the Strip District shooting their final Pittsburgh scenes for the movie "The Road."

Crew members were dismantling sets and moving out gear even as they played freeze tag -- stopping in their tracks or cursing their squeaky shoes -- once director John Hillcoat started shooting into the bunker that is a rare, welcome haven in a post-apocalyptic world.

The exterior was in New Galilee but the interior had been built on a makeshift stage and outfitted with collapsible canvas chairs, a table and what novelist Cormac McCarthy called "the richness of a vanished world."

That meant blankets, jars, cans and boxes of food, candles and an out-of-sight flare of fire lending a gorgeous glow, courtesy of cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.

"This is rare," Mr. Mortensen said after a morning and early afternoon of scenes shot from this angle and that. He climbed out of the upper bunk, coughed (in character) enough to make the chests of onlookers sting and shared a meal with his boy.

"It's a very nice moment but very rare in the story. ... Usually our scenes involve physical hardship and are emotionally challenging, mentally difficult a lot of times," he said.

"We were lucky with the weather, all the exteriors we were shooting early on, we had that bad weather -- we had the snow, we had the rain, we've had mud, we've had a lot of cold, so the look is right," he added.

As the trees sprouted blossoms, the movie shifted inside.

After filming on closed roads near Breezewood, in Saxonburg, New Galilee, Raccoon Creek State Park, Braddock, McKeesport, the Strip and in coal country, the production pulls up stakes today. It heads to Lake Erie, New Orleans, Mount St. Helens and Oregon, where flashbacks with Charlize Theron will be shot.

As for Mr. Mortensen's look, the beard that was in the early stages on the Oscar red carpet is in full flower. It distracts from his gaunt cheeks, an authentic part of his character who is starving in a world where a few raisins or can of fruit is a rare treat and where desperation has turned some survivors into cannibals.

His mismatched clothes and hole-pocked socks are those of a homeless man, his belt cinched around a shrinking waist. When he and the Boy -- as the characters are called -- find the bunker, both are able to clean up but the Man never lets down his guard or his —.

Mr. Mortensen and Kodi, an Australian honored for his turn in "Romulus, My Father," bonded over a Bucs-Reds game, the resonant themes of "Bodies ... the Exhibition" at the Carnegie Science Center and their many shared scenes.

The "Eastern Promises" and "Lord of the Rings" star praised his young co-star's technical skills, natural presence, intelligence and versatility.

"It's a luxury for me as an actor to have a partner -- most of the time it's just the two of us -- who's so good at playing, who has such a good game," said Mr. Mortensen.

"The Road" is very much the story of parents and children and lessons passed from one to the other. Mr. Hillcoat has a 6-year-old boy, Kodi reminded Mr. Mortensen of his now-grown son, and when Mr. Mortensen called Mr. McCarthy to chat, talk turned to their sons.

In separate interviews, Mr. Mortensen, Mr. Hillcoat and unit production manager Buddy Enright volunteered praise for local crews and residents, the city and state -- its tax incentive is working -- and the Pittsburgh Film Office.

They singled out visits to Fallingwater, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, family-owned restaurants, the Strip District and other thriving touchstones to Pittsburgh's past as highlights of their stays.

As for the movie that brought them, it's faithful to the spirit of the book, Mr. Hillcoat said.

"In our world that we're creating, we're not saying everything is just literally covered in ash. There's more variation in the devastation on a visual level," with ash, snow, water, fallen trees, lightning, fires and earthquake tremors factoring into "a world in severe trauma."

Like the novel, the screenplay by Joe Penhall doesn't specify the trigger to this trauma.

"That's what makes it more realistic, then it immediately becomes about survival and how you get through each day as opposed to what actually happened," Mr. Hillcoat said.

Flashbacks and the bunker interlude highlight "all the little things we take for granted, certainly in the comfortable, more affluent parts of the world," the director said. But the father and son are the movie's heart.

"The book had a huge impact on me, it affected me more deeply and more profoundly than almost anything I've ever read," Mr. Hillcoat said. "That's partly because I'm a father of a gorgeous 6-year-old boy" and mindful of what's happening in the world.

Growing up in Canada in the 1970s, the native Australian worried nuclear war was inevitable.

"Quite seriously, I never even thought I'd get to the age of 40 as a kid, as a teenager at least," he said.

But he did and he's making a movie that explores humanity and hope in a seemingly hopeless world and a father who teaches his son to "carry the fire," as Mr. McCarthy so eloquently phrases it.

Read more about "The Road" in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1632.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08116/876348-42.stm

Film Notes: 'Road' doesn't travel usual local paths

Friday, April 25, 2008
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Patrice Ward
Michael Keaton, center, is presented with a Penguins jersey (courtesy of Tinsy Lipchak of visitpittsburgh.com) at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival. He's with (left) Marc Lhormer, executive director of the festival, and Carl Kurlander.

Don't look for the Pittsburgh money shots in "The Road." You know, the sort that pop up on "Monday Night Football" or as the backdrop for political reporters positioned atop Mount Washington.

"We don't really get to see bright shiny beautiful Pittsburgh," Buddy Enright, unit production manager for "The Road," said this week before packing up and heading to Lake Erie. "It's all rural," with a couple of exceptions.

"The Road," an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel about a father and son searching for food, shelter and safety in an unsafe world, required gray skies, wintry bare trees and a topography that helps to tell the story. No chirping birds or blue skies required or wanted.

"It's a cold, gray world, and we really expected that, and we got it here and frankly, we're getting out of town in the nick of time with the trees budding and blooming," he said.

"The story starts in the mountains and ends up at the sea and we realized we could tell the story kind of geographically through the Pennsylvania landscape here in Western Pennsylvania using the mountains, using the farmland, using river bottoms," he said.

Eight miles of closed roadways and tunnels, plus access to areas distressed by coal mining and other problems, the city's filmmaking history, its unions and affordability all factored into the movie's coming here.

"I think it's pretty important for the people of Pittsburgh to know we're here because of all the work that the [Pittsburgh] film office and the state legislature's done to bring filmmakers here."

Enright hopes to return with other projects but made a pitch for the Commonwealth to look at passing longterm tax incentives, as other states are beginning to do, so producers can plan and spend for the future. They need space -- for set building and decoration, for storage and for soundstages impervious to ambient sound.

"It's a great place, I think everybody agrees; it's a great place to be," he said.
Gang was all there

Once a Pittsburgher, always a Pittsburgher.

Carl Kurlander proved that theorem during the Sonoma Valley Film Festival, which attracted a 93-year-old woman from Mountain View, Calif., who left Pittsburgh in 1954 but still considers the place home.

She saw Kurlander's "My Tale of Two Cities" during the festival, which also honored actor-turned-director Michael Keaton, earlier this month.

Pittsburghers past and present jammed a party, co-hosted by Pittsburgh 250 and Steeltown Entertainment Project, after the "My Tale" debut.

"It was remarkable how many Pittsburghers -- or those with Pittsburgh roots -- showed up to watch the movie and have Iron City beer and chipped chopped ham in wine country," Kurlander said.

His movie tells two stories: one about his return to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles and the other about the city trying to reinvent itself. Plans are under way to show the movie Nov. 28 at the Byham Theater here, possibly with David Newell -- Mr. McFeely from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" -- leading the crowd in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
Travis film at church

A movie starring Randy Travis as a successful actor whose faith is put to the test will be shown three times this weekend at First United Methodist Church, 3916 Old William Penn Highway, Murrysville. Admission is free.

The movie, called "The Wager," is being screened at roughly 1,000 churches across the country and will be shown today at 6:30 p.m. (as part of a family night with food and activities for younger children), tomorrow at approximately 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.

"The Wager" asks if it's possible to live the Sermon on the Mount today. Travis plays an Oscar-nominated actor whose life starts to fall apart as he faces allegations of adultery and child molestation amid a media firestorm.

Nancy Stafford, Jude Ciccolella, Candace Cameron Bure and Doug Jones are part of the cast of the film based on the book by Bill Myers. Go to www.murrysvilleumc.org for more information and directions.
East Liberty encore

"East of Liberty: The Fear of Us" will be shown Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Union Project at the corner of Negley and Stanton Heights avenues.

Admission is $5 and a question-and-answer session will follow with filmmaker Chris Ivey; Hilary Brown, outreach director of the Union Project; Maelene Myers, executive director, East Liberty Development Inc.; Nathan Wildfire, community outreach, East Liberty Development Inc.; and others.

Ivey will film the follow-up discussion for possible inclusion in future segments of the documentary series about urban redevelopment in the East Liberty area.

"The Fear of Us" follows "A Story of Good Intentions," Ivey's debut documentary about East Liberty's path to revitalization and the upheaval of subsidized housing residents as their high-rises were demolished. In the second part, residents are relocating to new housing.

Ivey says the film "echoes not only nationwide sentiments in regard to gentrification fears, race and class relations but also internationally," with the series getting overseas exposure. Go to www.eastofliberty.com for more information.
Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1632.

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saw "Smart People"... it was decent... not much Pittsburgh in it though

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08134/881250-42.stm

Super scary 'Shelter' wrapping up here today

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Leave it to the Swedes.

Bjorn Stein and Mans Marlind have found a civilized, common-sense way to make a movie: by co-directing it. They flip a coin to see who gets the first day and take turns from there.

They do all the pre-production and post-production together, but each directs every other day and serves as "best buddy" on the off days. That is how they've been making "Shelter," with Julianne Moore as a psychiatrist and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a patient, in Pittsburgh.

The movie, also starring Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Conroy, Nate Corddry and 9-year-old Brooklynn Proulx, is scheduled to finish shooting today outside Pittsburgh.

NALA Films, which financed and produced "In the Valley of Elah," starring Oscar nominee Tommy Lee Jones, is making the movie, budgeted at $20 million to $25 million. It's too soon to say when "Shelter" could land in theaters because it doesn't have a distributor, but producers are hoping for early next year.

"It's just such a perfect city to shoot our film in," said Darlene Caamano Loquet, president of production/producer of NALA Films. "It was set here, and we're getting everything we need, and the crew's amazing. We're having a great time, and the film looks great."

Now that production is almost over and co-director Stein has a handle on how it's turning out, he calls it a "very intense, super-scary thriller" or a "drama that happens to be a horror movie."

Details of the movie, written by Michael Cooney ("Identity"), are being kept under wraps, but this much is known: Moore plays psychiatrist Dr. Cara Jessup, who has made a career out of defying the notion of multiple personality disorders and providing such convincing courtroom testimony that many defendants have been sentenced to death.

Jessup is devoted to science but never lost faith in God, even after her husband was murdered. Her young daughter (Proulx) is a non-believer.

After a particularly troubling court case, Jessup's psychiatrist father (DeMunn) introduces her to his new patient (Rhys Meyers). As Jessup explores his past, she starts to question her beliefs in science and God and finds her family in danger.

"Shelter" is wrapping at a propitious time as another Moore movie, Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness," is about to open the Cannes Film Festival and Rhys Meyers is making Showtime subscribers swoon over his King Henry VIII on "The Tudors."

Stein, whose knowledge of Pittsburgh before coming here had been limited to such movies as "Flashdance," "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Deer Hunter," got to know the region while scouting and shooting.

"For me, as a Swede, it's how America looks for me. It's very beautiful, and from what I gather so far, of all the cities I've been in, it has more texture to it than most other cities, I think, which is very, very beautiful.

"We fall in love with everything here, from old ads painted on walls and stuff like that, we find that immensely beautiful," alongside photogenic bridges, mountains and forests.

Stein is 38 and Marlind 39, and they've been friends for 28 years. Both natives of Sweden, they met as boys during summer vacation when their parents hatched a scheme they would imitate.

"I went to this little tennis school; he was there also. Our parents just looked at each other and said, 'Can you drive our kid every second day so we don't have to drive him every day?' So we got to sit in the same car, and then we became friends."

They soaked up the same movies at a little cinema, and Stein recalled, in accented English, "That's where the interest was born. We've been at it ever since."

Veterans of Swedish television, commercials and an award-winning film called "Storm," they are making their American debut with "Shelter."

As for the co-directing arrangement, Stein says, "It's a very strange setup everyone seems to think, but it works fantastically. ...

"If I win [the coin toss] and I start to direct, Mans is my 'best buddy' as we call him. He sits next to me, he doesn't have any responsibility, he doesn't have to run the show at all like I do, but he runs me, kind of. He helps me a lot."

The "best buddy" might spot something amiss in the background, suggest it's time to move on -- you've got the shot -- or to try another take.

It's a bonus to have another person on the set with the exact same agenda. "It's very demanding to shoot a movie. You get tired, and by doing this every second day, you get to recharge more than usual. That's a blessing in disguise."

Caamano Loquet says "Shelter" had a pretty streamlined schedule, so the best buddy system worked well, especially with Swedish director of photography Linus Sandgren added to the mix.

"They've worked together, so the guys have a brilliant shorthand. They think as one, and they are such a great team. ... It's exciting to see them work, these three guys totally in sync."

On one recent day, Stein was best buddy, which allowed him to chat in the catering tent as a generous buffet was being readied for cast and crew, while Marlind was inside a makeshift soundstage with Moore, Rhys Meyers and DeMunn.

They were filming an intense, key scene at the beginning of the movie, which takes place inside what everyone cagily calls an "institution."

The actors were working on a set that included a staidly decorated office and an attached observation room. DeMunn's character was attempting to videotape the changeover in his patient from one personality to another.

Moore, who was at the top of the directors' wish list, was targeted "because she's the best female actress on the planet. She's also a mother like the character, and she comes across as very smart ... both as a person and usually the role she's playing," Stein said.

The directors were drawn to Rhys Meyers' talent as well as his interesting face, including "those eyes that pierce right through you" and his ability to handle dialects. This movie will allow audiences to see him in yet another way, Stein says.

The Pittsburgh backdrop for "Shelter" made it the first place the producers considered, although they thought about going to Canada. The state's tax incentive for filmmakers "made the decision a no-brainer," Caamano Loquet said.

When location manager Peter Martorano, working with the Pittsburgh Film Office, did a preliminary scout, he introduced the filmmakers to "the most fabulous locations you could possibly imagine," he said. Among them were McConnell's Mills State Park, Avella in Washington County, Collier and the Panhandle Trail.

He ultimately assembled a long list of locations that also included Downtown and its bridges, the Fort Pitt Tunnel, East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Jones Hall at Community College of Allegheny County, Ritter's Diner near Shadyside, Spin Bartini & Ultra Lounge in Shadyside, various locations in Braddock including the Carnegie Library and home of Mayor John Fetterman, a residence in the city's Schenley Farms neighborhood and the Collier maintenance yard.

"Being from Los Angeles and spending most of my career -- I've been doing this 18 years -- doing a fair amount of projects in the Rust Belt, Pittsburghers and people in Pennsylvania and everywhere we went made it so wonderful for us. Just made things really easy," said Martorano, who considers Cleveland his base.

"They talk about when 'Wonder Boys' shot here, what a fantastic job and you knew it was Pittsburgh. You're going to see it, and people are going to be really, really excited and proud to see their city. It's such a great little movie."

With, they promise, a big secret.
Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1632.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08141/883159-42.stm

Young Hollywood actors make Pittsburgh home for film projects

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


John Heller/Post-Gazette
Nate Torrence (center, in blue) and Jay Baruchel (behind Torrence) filming "She's Out of My League" at The Warhol on the North Side.

Over the past year, a raft of who's who among young Hollywood has been coming to town for assorted film projects, including Ryan Reynolds ("Van Wilder"), Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig (both "Saturday Night Live"), and Martin Starr ("Knocked Up") in "Adventureland"; Seth Rogen ("Knocked Up"), Elizabeth Banks ("Scrubs") and Craig Robinson ("The Office") in "Zack & Miri Make a —"; and Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("The Tudors") and Nate Cordrry ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") in "Shelter." Just last week production began locally on "My — Valentine 3-D," starring Jensen Ackles ("Supernatural").

In addition, the romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" continues production through Saturday. The film stars Jay Baruchel ("Knocked Up"), T.J. Miller ("Cloverfield"), Nate Torrence ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") and Geoff Stults ("7th Heaven"). Late last week the production shot a party scene at The Andy Warhol Museum on the North Shore.

Baruchel stars as Kirk, a security screener at Pittsburgh International Airport who's also a huge Penguins fan. He falls for a woman, Molly (Alice Eve, "Starter for 10"), who may or may not be out of his league.

Thursday night, Baruchel and Torrence filmed Scene 12, walking along Sandusky Street in front of The Warhol with the Seventh Street Bridge in the background. Before the cameras roll, the tall, skinny Baruchel pounds his hands against his thighs, psyching himself up for the scene.

It's early in the film as Baruchel's Kirk attempts to return an iPhone Molly left at airport security. Torrence's Devon offers goofy encouragement, comparing Molly to Princess Jasmine and Kirk to Aladdin from the animated Disney film.

"Let's go on a magic carpet ride," Devon says before they enter the Warhol, where Molly, an event planner, is throwing a party.

"This is a classic kind of underdog story," Baruchel explained between takes, "a good old-fashioned Hollywood romantic comedy with the potential for a lot of funny situations."

Maybe not that old-fashioned. Executive producer George Gatins said "League," with Kirk and his buddies talking about dating and relationships, feels more natural and realistic if it aims for an R rating.

"It's a group of guys talking about what guys talk about," Gatins said. "The comedies that are coming out and performing [at the box office] are reality-based comedies that have their broad moments. This is an everyman story everyone can relate to."

Or, as Entertainment Weekly put it last week in an article titled "Movie Guys: The New Girls?": "GUY-CENTRIC + GIRL-FRIENDLY = $$$."

Even though writer/director/producer Judd Apatow ("Superbad," "Knocked Up," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall") isn't involved in "League," the movie may bring to mind his films due to the style of comedy and the presence of Apatow repertory player Baruchel.

"When all is said and done, they'll be studying Judd Apatow's work in film school," Gatins said.

The "League" script was originally written to be set in Phoenix, with the production needing to film scenes at a hockey arena and at an airport. After scouting locations -- it eventually came down to North Carolina or Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh won out thanks to its locations, tax incentives and possibly the participation of producer Jimmy Miller, a Pittsburgh native. The script was rewritten to change the setting to Pittsburgh.

"League" filmed for about two weeks at Pittsburgh International in the shuttered part of Concourse B and at the alternative security checkpoint. Scenes were also shot at Mellon Arena during a Penguins game, on Mount Washington, in front of the Alcoa Building (the Downtown structure plays the exterior of Alice's apartment building), in the bowling alley of the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in Oakland, in Market Square (the stage area was set up as an outdoor restaurant), at Century III Mall (the food court stands in as an airport food court) and on makeshift soundstages in the area.

Baruchel, an Ottawa native and hockey fan, said he kept his support of the Senators to himself when they were playing the Penguins in the playoffs.

"It was very easy for me to play a hockey fan," he said. "No acting was required. I just had to switch jerseys. That's pretty much it."

Baruchel will be seen later this summer in "Tropic Thunder" with Ben Stiller. He expects to re-team with his "Undeclared" and "Knocked Up" co-star, Rogen, for a project that will be announced soon. Once "League" wraps, he'll be going home to promote two Canadian films and perhaps star in a new Canadian movie.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say I feel some sort of cultural responsibility to do my part to perpetuate Canadian cinema," he said. "We only make eight films a year in English up there."

Recent films haven't just brought Hollywood stars to town. Pittsburgh natives are also trying to ride the tide of film production back home.

Mary Alex Hamilton, assistant location manager on "League," has lived in Los Angeles for about 20 years, but she's been back in Pittsburgh working on several recent films. The 1979 graduate of Penn Hills High School stays with her mom in Penn Hills while working in Pittsburgh.

"It's great to come home and work and take care of family," she said, adding that she's contemplating moving back permanently. "Everybody in the business who's from Pittsburgh wants to come home to work. It's a Pittsburgh thing. It never leaves you."

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http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/06/02/daily33.html?t=printable

Six new movies slated for Pittsburgh as part of Hollywood alliance

Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley

After a full spring of five film projects, which have mostly finished and left town, Pittsburgh is now set for a unprecedented run of a half-dozen film projects to be shot here in succession as part of a new alliance between Green Tree-based Smithfield Productions and Studio and Beverly Hills-based Proud Mary Entertainment.

The two companies made a formal announcement of their plan this week as shooting began on their first project here, an ensemble comedy called "Hollywood and Whine" about a Hollywood chef and his actress girlfriend who become involved in a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong.

The project represents a reunion of sorts for the family and friends of the late comedian Chris Farley, a star of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s who died in 1997 of a drug overdose.

Farley's brother Kevin will co-direct the film with Kevin Berman. Berman and Farley wrote the script with other Farley siblings John and Jennifer.

The film stars include former Chris Farley sidekick David Spade, Chazz Palminteri, Vivica A. Fox and Pamela Anderson. The cast also includes other SNL stars Chris Kattan, Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell. Free Fall Films and Trivision Pictures are also partners in the co-production, which is scheduled to take two weeks.

The alliance looks to be a big win for Smithfield Street Productions and its new studio facilities in McKees Rocks, with "Hollywood and Whine" set in Hollywood even though it will be shot here.

Proud Mary founder Mary Aloe told the Business Times in March that she expected the slate of productions will have budgets of between $2.5 million and $20 million and expects to tap Pennsylvania's $75 million tax credit program. After shooting a slate of films in Vancouver, she hopes to bring more production here in light of Pennsylvania's tax credit and the weaker American dollar.

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said she is helping Proud Mary to scout locations for two other projects in town this week. Because Proud Mary and Smithfield are independent houses, Keezer said their ability to shoot won't be delayed by a potential Screen Actors Guild strike that is slowing down production throughout the industry.

She said it was the first time a Hollywood firm worked jointly with a local company to shoot multiple projects.

"We've never had someone work with a local production company like this before," she said. "It's nice to see this coming to fruition."

[email protected] | (412) 208-3826

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

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'SNL' stars descend on 'Burgh

Saturday, June 14, 2008
By Monica Haynes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Live from Pittsburgh, it's Saturday Night!"

Not really, but it may seem that way.

Smithfield Street Productions has begun filming "Hollywood and Wine," a movie starring a number of former and current "Saturday Night Live" cast members, including Chris Kattan, Norm MacDonald, Horatio Sanz and David Spade.

Other stars include Chazz Palminteri, who arrived in Pittsburgh Tuesday; Jeremy London and Nicky Whelan, who are also here; and Vivica Fox and Pamela Anderson.

Shooting began June 2 in Green Tree, where Smithfield Street Productions is based, and at the Island Studios in McKees Rocks.

"Hollywood and Wine," the first project in a six-picture deal between Smithfield Street Productions and Beverly Hills-based Proud Mary Entertainment, was written by Kevin Farley, brother of late "SNL" great Chris Farley. Kevin Farley, who is co-directing the movie with Matt Berman, is also acting in the flick with another Farley brother, John.

The $5 million comedy is about a Hollywood chef and his girlfriend who get involved in a get-rich quick scheme.

"We're very excited about the opportunity to continue to do films here in Pittsburgh, " said Mike Dolan, executive producer of the film and a principal of Smithfield Street Productions. He's also part owner of Island Studios.

"We were very fortunate to have the Farley brothers and some of their old friends coming in to do this project at rates that are probably less than what the market would bear," Mr. Dolan said.

He's vetting the other five film projects, which will have lower and medium-size budgets. The determining factors for what projects they'll undertake, he said, are "what will work best for Pittsburgh and showing the beauty of the city as well as what will make financial sense."
Monica Haynes can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1660.

Chris Kattan


Norm MacDonald


Horatio Sanz


Pamela Anderson & David Spade


Chris Parnell


Chazz Palminteri


Jeremy London


Nicky Whelan


Vivica A. Fox

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Chazz Palminteri! I loved him in that movie with Deniro. Was that called 'Bronx is Burning'? I think so.

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wow... what a cast! Steve Guttenberg!!!!!!

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_574254.html

Work begins on another film in Pittsburgh

By Michael Machosky
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 24, 2008


Actress Daryl Hannah talks with "Shannon's Rainbow" co-writer KDKA host Larry Richert at Ohio Valley General Hospital in McKees Rocks between filming Monday. Richert has a small part in the film. "Guess what -- I'm a weatherman for the big race," he says. "They told me it's typecasting."
Philip G. Pavely/Tribune-Review

If you find yourself seeing stars in Ohio Valley General Hospital this week, it doesn't necessarily mean you've hit your head.

Julianne Michelle and Daryl Hannah started shooting scenes for the movie "Shannon's Rainbow" at the hospital Monday. The cast includes Michael Madsen, Claire Forlani, Charles Durning, Stephen Colletti, Eric Roberts, Krista Allen, Jason Gedrick, George Lopez, Steve Guttenberg, Scott Reeves and others.

Pittsburgh's movie production boom -- 12 movies in 12 months, according to Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office -- shows no sign of slowing down this summer. But "Shannon's Rainbow" has more of a local connection than most.

Actor John Mowod and KDKA host Larry Richert wrote the story, about a 17-year-old girl and a horse named Rainbow, 10 years ago based on an experience John's brother, Joe Mowod, had with a special horse.

"My brother Joe was a trainer of horses up at The Meadows racetrack," Mowod said. "I was an actor in L.A. I was hearing this story about my brother who had a horse who was injured. A lot of people were recommending that he be put down. (Joe) went against the code of that business -- he cared too much about that animal.

"He put so much time and effort into rehabilitating that horse, and all he really wanted to do was to have the horse live a normal life, walking in a field. Long story short, the horse was rehabilitated to the point that Joe ended up taking him down to Kentucky and winning a big race in a place called the Red Mile. With that as the nucleus, I was able to put a story together that became 'Shannon's Rainbow.' "

A small cluster of nondescript trailers in a hospital parking lot means that, after 10 years, Mowod's story is finally becoming a movie.

Daryl Hannah, who plays a therapist in the movie, wandered over to a gathering of reporters yesterday after eating lunch.

"I like stories about horses," said Hannah, explaining her attraction to the part.

Hannah runs a farm sanctuary for horses at her home in the Rocky Mountains, so this story was particularly close to her heart.

The film's young star, Julianne Michelle, who plays Shannon, soon joined the gathering, her face a sickly pallor from the makeup for her hospital scenes.

Hannah told Michelle how to get the horse to remember you: Blow lightly near the horse's nose, so the horse will learn your scent.

The project got much of its momentum five years ago, when Richert and John Mowod met director Frank E. Johnson, co-founder of Summit Works Films. Johnson believed in the story and pushed hard to get the movie made. Richert and Mowod pushed hard to have it filmed in Pittsburgh.

"Larry and I fought tooth and nail to have it made here," Mowod said. "We wrote Western Pennsylvania into the script. The money people, they wanted to make it in New York, New Mexico, Utah, Illinois. We fought really hard to get it made in Pittsburgh."

It wasn't easy. But when Pennsylvania passed the $75 million tax credit for film productions, that sealed the deal.

"There's such a high caliber movie work force already in Pittsburgh," said Charles Morrison, producer and co-founder of Summit Works LLC, of Park City, Utah. "The right work force, the right incentives -- so it's the right time."

"The $75 million tax credit program has been a wonderful thing for film in Southwestern Pa.," Keezer said. "Our union membership has doubled in the past year ... and our crews have been working nonstop."

It wasn't planned this way, but "Shannon's Rainbow" has become a family affair. Richert's brother, a camera operator on TV shows such as "House" and "Bones," got the job for "Shannon's Rainbow."

The horse-racing scenes will be shot at The Meadows. Other scenes will be shot at nearby homes and farms and at Pittsburgh International Airport.

"It really is a feel-good story," Mowod said. "A family-oriented story that should leave everybody feeling really good. Our intention was to make a family-friendly film that everybody can watch, and not be embarrassed with what they're seeing onscreen."

Dean Cundey ("Jurassic Park," "Apollo 13") is cinematographer for "Shannon's Rainbow."

The budget is probably $5 million to $6 million, Mowod estimated, though official figures haven't been released.

Mowod and Richert have small parts in the film. Mowod plays a horse trainer.

"Guess what -- I'm a weatherman for the big race," Richert said. "They told me it's typecasting."

Michael Machosky can be reached at [email protected] or 412-320-7901.

Reel good for region
Films shot in the Pittsburgh area in 2008:

• "Homecoming," a horror film starring Mischa Barton finished shooting in January.

• "Zack and Miri Make a —," a comedy from director Kevin Smith, starring Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson.

• "The Road," a dark drama based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, starring Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall.

• "Shelter," a horror film starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

• "She's Out of My League," a comedy starring Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve.

• "My — Valentine 3-D," a horror film shot in 3-D starring Jensen Ackles and Jaime King.

• "Hollywood & Whine," a comedy starring David Spade, Chazz Palminteri, Vivica A. Fox and Pamela Anderson.

• "Shannon's Rainbow," a family-friendly drama starring Julianne Michelle, Claire Forlani, Daryl Hannah, Charles Durning.

• "Fleas" starts shooting mid-July.

Source: Pittsburgh Film Office

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Julianne Michelle


Michael Madsen


Claire Forlani


Charles Dunning


Stephen Colletti


Eric Roberts


Krista Allen


Jason Gedrick


George Lopez


Steve Guttenberg


Scott Reeves

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http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/07/07/story8.html?b=1215403200^1664115

New soundstage showcases Pittsburgh's film boom

Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley

Michael Dolan and his partners in Green Tree-based Smithfield Street Productions have recast a red industrial shed of a structure as Pittsburgh's newest sound stage.

Dolan and company invested $1 million to buy a former sign company building in McKees Rocks, customized it to the needs of film crews, actors and producers and have started booking it up.

DreamWorks, the Hollywood company started by Steven Spielberg, was the first to use Smithfield's facility for the romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" a few months ago.

"It has really made a significant difference," Dolan said. "Other production companies are looking to bring slates of movies here."

Smithfield recently landed an unprecedented alliance to shoot as many as six productions with Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Proud Mary Entertainment.

With the renewal of Pennsylvania's $75 million film tax credit program included in the state's budget agreement, other multi-picture deals could follow.
Film industry growth

The renewal of the tax credit also should help Pittsburgh become a regional hub for film production, according to Pittsburgh Film Office Director Dawn Keezer.

According to Keezer, the tax credits have generated $150 million in film production investment in the Pittsburgh region and $300 million statewide in the past year. Pittsburgh has had 12 film projects shot in the area in 12 months, the most ever, she said, with four in production currently.

"This is the most money that's ever been spent in the film industry in southwestern Pennsylvania since the film industry started keeping track," Keezer said.

Smithfield Street Productions isn't the only new business venture to stem from the growth in film production in the state, Keezer said.

Entrepreneur John Yost plans to build a Pittsburgh-area studio, and Shooters, a company that operates a studio in Philadelphia, invested $2.5 million in a new post-production facility called Dive.

LOCAL EXPECTATIONS

Dolan said he expects his new studio, which he described as 80 percent finished, to recoup its investment in the next three years, if the production pipeline stoked by his partnership with Proud Mary and others continues to be filled.

Todd Eckert, a North Side-based film producer who is perhaps best known for the British biopic "Control" about punk rock musician Ian Curtis, said Pittsburgh and the rest of Pennsylvania are positioned to generate strong film production from Europe as well as Hollywood.

Eckert said he has heard from film contacts in Germany, whom he would not identify, who have expressed interest in bringing film projects to Pennsylvania. European countries rarely offer film incentives, Eckert said, and the U.S. dollar's weakness creates even greater encouragement.

"It's still a nascent chunk of the industry," Eckert said of European film production in the United States.

"Some of the more forward-thinking people are courting that business probably at the Cannes (film festival) and Toronto."

[email protected] | (412) 208-3826