Next Three Days Wraps Up Local Shooting

Paul Haggis's thriller The Next Three Days has finished up local shooting. They shot all over the county and above the county (the memorable
helicopter blitz of downtown in early November). The Next Three Days stars Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks and Liam Neeson.

CBS' Three Rivers "On Hiatus"

Three Rivers is "on hiatus." It may not be cancelled yet (there are a few unaired episodes) but it's unlikely to be renewed.

I wanted to like this show, but came to the conclusion it would have made a much better made for TV movie than a series.

The Road Will Have a Midnight Show Next Tuesday

If you've been following the long and winding story of the production and distribution of The Road, you know that the release has been delayed a few times. What was supposed to be a "wide" release on November 25 has been restricted to 31 cities.

Luckily, Pittsburgh is one of those cities. And, Fandango has just announced that there will be a midnight show over at the AMC in Homestead on Tuesday night.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this. I'll probably have to wait until Wednesday to see it (I haveinsomnia, and driving the 30+ miles home at 2am doesn't appeal to me). But that'll be fine.

[[I did manage to see the movie, was generally impressed, and wrote this review. I liked the movie a little better when I saw it a second time a few weeks later.]]

Extra Call for "The Chief"

(E-mail forwarded from Fourth River Casting)

The Chief, a one-man show about Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney starring favorite Tom Atkins, is being retired after several hit seasons of presentation at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

A live performance of The Chief is being taped on November 12th at Shadyside Academy, and we're looking for audience members interested in being part of this historic event. Audiences will see a full production of the show and be provided with refreshments. Participants will be required to wear clothing appropriate for a night at the theater, be available to stay through the estimated 5 hours of taping, and will act as extras, filling various areas of the theater and recreating reaction shots.

THERE IS NO CHARGE. This may be one the last opportunities to see this tour de force, but all audience members must be confirmed to attend. Spaces are limited, and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Participants will not receive financial compensation, but will have the chance to see the production free of charge, and additionally will receive small refreshments (not a full meal) and a copy of the DVD when released. The shooting will take approximately 5 hours, beginning in late afternoon.

If interested in being a part of this historic taping, please send an e-mail to fourthrivercasting@yahoo.com for more information.

Don't miss your chance to see this incredible play, saluting one of the legends of Pittsburgh sports history and featuring one of the legends of Pittsburgh entertainment!

Great Post-Gazette Article on Love and Other Drugs

I'm a big fan of Ed Zwick, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and Hank Azaria and am glad it sounds like the filming is going well. I would have liked to have been an extra, but between getting a contract job and being away, I missed the extra call for the Civic Arena last week.

The Three Rivers Film Festival Announces Its Schedule

Every year, I intend to see something at the Three Rivers Film Festival. Last year, I got to see The Passion of St. Joan of Arc, but that's because I was in the choir singing the accompaniment.

This year, there are some small local films and many foreign films. It would have been nice to have seen one of the film shot here last year, like In Northwood, Shelter, or The Road, but none of them are in the schedule.

The festival does include Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with Heath Ledger and many others and Young Victoria with Emily Blunt and I might try to go see them. I hadn't heard of any of the other movies being shown except for Precious...et.c. which was the People's Choice winner up at the Toronto Film Festival.

Is Liam Neeson Coming to Town?

Russell Crowe has been seen about Pittsburgh, working on his thriller The Next Three Days with Elizabeth Banks. Liam Neeson has apparently signed on to join this movie.

Three Rivers

Back in March, I was one of a bunch of extras who worked on the pilot for Three Rivers. We spent a very long day at a piece of the Convention Center that overlooked the Allegheny River, walking back and forth as hospital employees. Well, I made a day's pay and walked for probably six of the fifteen hours I was on site. I met Beth and Jojo that day, and heard that Chad was there on another day.

Everyone kept saying they were sure that the pilot would get picked up and that it would be filmed in Pittsburgh.

*sigh* I wish I'd taken a bet with everyone who said that. I thought the show might get picked up, but I knew it was going to be filmed in Los Angeles.

So, since the filming of the Three Rivers pilot in Pittsburgh, the doctor in charge was recast, and the pilot was reshot at least twice in Los Angeles. The show itself is being shot in LA. While there are some very lovely aerial shots of Pittsburgh in the show, as far as I can tell no one from Pittsburgh had anything to do with the show as it was broadcast.

I'm glad that the show was at least set in someplace other than New York or LA. But I think it'll be a lot like Grey's Anatomy in that you have one shot that screams SEATTLE and no evidence that the writers know much about the city.

I have mixed feelings about the show. On the one hand, the issue of organ transplantation is an important one and it's shocking how many people ignore it. So to have a TV show that discusses it every week is an interesting choice on CBS's part.

On the other hand, it's a tough issue to dramatize. Usually, one person dies (except in the case of kidney or partial liver transplants) and one person lives (unless they have major rejection or infection issues). So how can you dramatize this issue without coming off as being hopelessly manipulative? I hope they find a way.

The Road's Release Pushed Back from 10/16 to 11/25

Yes, you guessed - the "genius marketers" behind The Road are opening a movie about a starving family...on Thanksgiving. That's holiday fare for you!

It looks like a very good movie. It's gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews at the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals. It's not the kind of movie that will ever be a block-buster, but it could find its audience if it's not coming out over a holiday weekend. You just have to wonder "What were they thinking?"

The Road Premieres in Venice (and, Also, Apparently, at Telluride)

The interviews have begun, the reviews are starting to come out, and initial word on The Road is mostly positive.

I'm keeping a link list of reviews at: Reviews Page at The Road News and Rumors.

It'll hit Pittsburgh six weeks from tomorrow, on October 16.

Three Movies in Preproduction Locally

The new Tony Scott flick Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine is in pre-production in Pittsburgh. Sets are being built, trains are being painted. Extra casting has started for the scenes that will be filmed in Ohio; filming will also happen in Weirton.

Edward Zwick's flick Love and Other Drugs with Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Judy Greer has had some local casting calls recently. Register with Nancy Mosser Casting if you are interested in being an extra.

Paul Haggis's The Next Three Days with Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks will also be shooting in the area this fall. Banks last spent a few months shooting in Pittsburgh two years ago when she made Zack and Miri Make a Porno for Kevin Smith.

Good News for Movie Fans in the Western Suburbs

The new Cinemark at Settlers Ridge is opening on 10/6/09!! Just two more months to wait for a state-of-the art 16-theater multiplex in our area. I've been up to the Cinemark in Monaca a few times and was favorably impressed.

Visit http://www.cinemark.com for more information on Cinemarks.

Bridge to Nowhere Premiered in Pittsburgh on August 12

Quoted from The Pittsburgh Channel:

A red-carpet premiere opened Pittsburgh's latest movie Wednesday night with WTAE Channel 4's Sally Wiggin as one of the stars.

"The Bridge To Nowhere" is set on the North Side and was shot in and around the city last year. Wiggin has a small role as -- what else? -- a reporter.

For complete article, see:

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/20373613/detail.html

Quick Pittsburgh Flicks News - August 1, 2009

The Road is finally getting its very long-awaited premiere at the Venice Film Festival in early September, where it is playing in competition for awards.

Tony Scott's latest action-adventure flick Unstoppable will be shot in the Pittsburgh region this fall, and will star Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. They're making another variant on a runaway train.

Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days will also be shot in Pittsburgh and will star Russell Crowe. The flick is about a man whose wife is accused of murder.

The Bread, My Sweet

The Bread, My Sweet was shot in Pittsburgh, specifically mostly in The Strip somewhere around 2000. And why? Because it's about a bakery that looks suspiciously like Enrico Biscotti. Turns out the director's husband owns and operates Enrico's. A wonderful, undiscovered gem featuring Rosemary Prinz as the wise grandmotherly character.

While this movie didn't have much distribution, I saw it in 2001 at the Denis Theatre in Mt. Lebanon. The Denis has since been closed for a number of years, but there are people in the area trying to reopen it. To help raise awareness, a group in Mount Lebanon has started Last Saturday Cinema, and brings in interesting movies to show. This Saturday, July 25, The Bread, My Sweet will play again in Mt. Lebanon, but this time in a tent on Washington Road.

If I didn't have a prior commitment that night, I'd be there. This movie is absolutely worth the trip (unless you're only looking for mayhem flicks).

Remembering Local Boy Billy Mays

He wasn't in the movies...but he was on TV. Man, was he on TV. And, he was another local kid made good in the entertainment field. So raise your bottle of Oxiclean (or, whatever) and offer a toast to Billy Mays.

Rennerdale...East of Hollywood but West of Pittsburgh...

Rennerdale is a tiny town just outside of Carnegie, PA, which is just outside of Pittsburgh. It's one of those "blink and you'll miss it" kind of places. I'd only gotten to know it at all when I moved out to the country a few years back and found it a handy detour around construction on the Parkway West.

If Pittsburgh has (slightly) become "Hollywood East" over the last two years, Rennerdale has become a common small-town location for filming in Western Pennsylvania.

A year ago last spring, some scenes for Shelter were shot on the Rennerdale section of the Panhandle Trail.

This spring, a wedding scene for the CBS pilot Three Rivers was shot at the Presbyterian Church.

Today, I took the back way to Pittsburgh and saw signs indicating Warrior was shooting in the area.

Report: Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit Hearing

Today, there was a hearing in Pittsburgh of the Pennsylvania House Tourism and Recreational Development on the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit. Since the film tax credit was passed in 2007, film production has exploded in Pennsylvania.

The meeting was chaired by Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland. The following members of the committee attended:



From left to right at the table:
Nick Kotik
Gary Haluska
Dan Moul
Frank Burns
Chris Sainato
Mark Longietti
Thaddeus Kirkland
Paul Costa
Dom Costa
Daniel Deasy
Susan Helm
Mario Scavello
Vanessa Lowery Brown
Don Walko (not at head table)

(The following House Tourism and Recreational Development members were not present: Stephen Barrar, Curtis Sonney, Brian Ellis, Keith Gillespie, John Pallone, Steve Samuelson, Scott Boyd, Rob Kauffman, John Payne, and Marguerite Quinn)

About 130 people attended, most of whom had connections to the film industry:



The Pittsburgh Film Office worked with some local organizations to produce a T-shirt, designed by Beth Pedone, for audience members to wear. I didn't get a clean shot of the T-shirt at the rally, but here's what it looks like:



Representative Thaddeus Kirkland briefly opened the meeting, but before turning it over to Mickey Rowley, Deputy Director of Tourism for Pennsylvania, he made a point of putting on a "Save the PA Film Tax Credit" T-shirt.

Sean Fox gave a brief talk for Dan Onorato, and Bruce Kraus gave a brief talk for Doug Shields, promoting the film tax credit.

Mickey Rowley went on to present the highlights of an independent study on the economic impact of the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit. The report will be uploaded to the Film in PA Web site shortly. But the independent study indicated that not only does the film tax credit help create jobs and economic activity it more than pays for itself. The tax credit produces a very slight tax gain of about 4%. So, in short, if the Republicans are able to shoot down the Film Tax Credit, the state will lose a little tax revenue overall, in addition to the job, hotel room and rental loss.

Jane Saul of the Pennsylvania Film Office pointed out that we have to be able to compete with the tax credits being given out by other states. Almost every state now has a film tax credit for bringing film production to their states. Here is the testimony Jane Saul gave at a film tax credit hearing in Pennsylvania in early May.

Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office acknowledged the attendance of Russ Steiner, who was the producer of the Night of the Living Dead movies, some of the first movies shot in Pittsburgh in the late 60s. Keezer also reminded the audience that one of the very first film studios in the country was founded by Warner Brothers in Pittsburgh in the early 20th century. Since the founding the the Pittsburgh Film Office in 1990, 90 feature films and TV shows have been shot in Western Pennsylvania, generating over $325 million in economic development.



Most of the people who presented testimony to the House Committee on tourism ran small businesses that film companies frequented. Local business who sent representatives to testify included Cherokee Helicopter Service, Haddad Rental, Peak Security, Cort Furniture Rental, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and the Sheraton Station Square. All of these business have benefited from Pennsylvania moviemaking, and all support the film tax credit.

Alex Orlovsky, a producer for Blue Valentine, said the tax credit made it possible to film the movie in Scranton rather than film it in another state.

Union representatives from the Stage Engineers, Teamsters and AFTRA pointed out that their membership had grown and their members were making more money over the last two years.

Mary Jones, a Dean at DuBois Business College, pointed out they had recently added a filmmaking associates degree program to their curriculum. Finally, Jordan Lippert, a local college student, was hired to do carpentry work for several films in 2008 and now hopes to stay in the Pittsburgh area to work on future movies.

Members of the House Tourism committee were given the chance to comment. A number said how they enjoyed visiting Mogul Mind studio and the set of Warrior, currently being shot in Pittsburgh. They pointed out that Stephen Barrar, a member of the committee who was unable to come today, now favors the tax credit after reading the independent report mentioned earlier in the hearing. While the members of the committee at the hearing were overwhelmingly in favor of the tax credit, Dan Moul (Republican, Adams/Franklin) did not appear to be in favor, and Chris Sainato (Democrat, Beaver/Lawrence County) appeared to be somewhat on the fence. Mark Longietti (Democrat, Mercer County) asked "If the tax credit didn't work, why are so many other states pursuing it aggressively?" Vanessa Lowery Brown said that since our kids are consumers of entertainment products (movies/games), wouldn't it be nice if they could one day be producers of entertainment?

Committee members encouraged the audience to write to their state representatives and senators in support of retaining the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit.

The meeting was estimated to last about an hour, and ran about an hour and a half.



Ironically, the same hallway of the Convention Center that saw the Film Tax Credit hearing today, was used as a TV show location for the Three Rivers pilot, for its view of the Allegheny River.

• Post-Gazette on the hearing


• Tribune-Review sent a photographer and perhaps a reporter to the hearing but haven't posted an article about the hearing at their Website

New Kid: Zachary Quinto

Remember nearly three years ago, when Heroes first season was terrific television? Hiro and Claire were two of the breakout character that first year, but Sylar provided more chills than most of the rest of the cast combined. Sylar was a mystery at first, but it turned out he was a young, eerie young man with a penchant for brains...eating them. Sylar could absorb other people's special powers in that way, which made him especially frightening and threatening.

Turned out, Sylar was played by a kid from Greentree named Zachary Quinto. He graduated from Central Catholic High School (about 15 years after its other famous alumnus Dan Marino) and from Carnegie Mellon University. While he was completely unknown to me, he'd been on a bunch of TV shows, and spent most of a season playing Adam Kaufman on 24.

I particularly enjoyed Quinto that first year of Heroes because he played dangerous so well. I didn't like Sylar since he seemed to have reformed at one point. I think that helped to suck the life out of the show.

When he was cast as Spock in Star Trek the reboot, it seemed like a good choice. I thought he played Spock perfectly. He really caught both the smarts and the usually inner angst of Spock. Leonard Nimoy, who knows Spock better than anyone, observed that Quinto brought a real intelligence to the part, that you knew something was always going on behind his eyes.

Quinto is one of those savvy young actors who is going to have a huge career.

• Zachary's blog


• IMDB


• Facebook


• Training Spock

Adventureland

Adventureland is a very good 20-something comedy with mildly serious overtones.

I don't tend to go to teen/20-something flicks these days, because most of them are gorefests or grossfests. And, let's face it, I'm in my 50s, and these movies generally are aimed at, well, teenagers. But a good teen/20-something flick is one that an broader audience should want to see anyway. American Graffiti. Say Anything. Clueless (heck, even Emma as a really-retro "teen flick"). I planned to see Adventureland as it was shot locally and I knew a handful of the extras (hi Ryan and Jojo) in the movie.

But, I also wanted to see Adventureland was because I worked at Kennywood for a few weeks in 1979. I made T-shirts and enjoyed that, but then the woman who'd been the T-shirt maker the previous year wanted her job back so I was kicked over to Skee-Ball. I lasted one shift in Skee-Ball and quit on the spot. No job is worth working in the noisy hell that is Skee-Ball. *oh the horror*

Adventureland was mostly shot at Kennywood. It was set in the faraway past of 1987, and reminds you how, well, timeless, large sections of amusement parks can be. I was unfamiliar with most of the actors in the movie, and all of them favorably impressed me, particularly the leads (Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart) and their slightly older friend Joel (Martin Starr). Eisenberg is a frustrated college grad who wants to go to grad school and Stewart is a disaffected college student who wants to get as far away from her father and step-mother as she can. There's the usual sex, drugs (mostly pot, some booze) and rock 'n' roll of many early-20-something flicks. But the kids did more than swear at each other or behave in disgusting ways. They reflected on where they were and where they hoped to be going...if they knew. They were all in the same boat - trapped in a sort of limbo between childhood and adulthood. And most of them wanted out.

I enjoyed Adventureland much more than I expected to. Greg Mottola, who both wrote and directed the movie, fairly accurately recreated those limbo jobs, which, once in a very great while, could change your life.

One of the funniest things I saw (and this probably only amused me, but what-the-hell) was that the Kennywood office hadn't changed at all since 1979. It still had a horrible rug and file cabinets that were always in the way. The movie ventured out of Kennywood, mostly to travel to dive bars, the kids' parents' houses, and provide a few nice shots of downtown Pittsburgh with the one of the bridges over the Allegheny framing the scene.

• Official Adventureland site


• IMDB

Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit Hearing in Pittsburgh, June 5

If you have any connection to or interest in local film making, come to this Friday's hearing, which will be at the David Lawrence Convention Center, room 325, beginning at 1pm.

The film tax credit has helped bring more film-related jobs to Pennsylvania, especially in the last two years. It helps generate higher revenues for hotels, restaurants and equipment rental companies. Come to help show your support for the Pennsylvania film tax credit. We encourage tax credit supporters to wear a T-shirt from a movie made in Pennsylvania.

Blast from the Past: Caitlin Clarke

So you might not remember the name Caitlin Clarke, but if you ever saw the movie Dragonslayer, you've seen Caitlin Clarke and the odds are you remember her.

Dragonslayer was a very underrated fantasy movie of the early '80s, about Galen, a wizard's apprentice. A traveler from a nearby country, Valerien, visited the wizards and begged them to fight a dragon that was holding the country hostage. The older wizard was murdered, but the young wizard agreed to go help fight the dragon.

It turned out that the traveler, Valarien, was female, disguised as a male by her family. The tradition of the other country demanded a female virgin be annually sacrificed to the dragon and her family sought to protect her. Catlin Clarke played Valarien very well, and I was surprised that her career in Hollywood never took off after that.

Dragonslayer wasn't a fun fantasy movie (though the reveal of Valerian's gender and how she later avoided being a dragon's lunch were both amusing), but it had wonderful effects, good performances and thoughtful reflection on what happens as magic disappears from a culture.

Clarke was born in Pittsburgh. She split her time in the '80s between Hollywood (appearing in shows like Moonlighting) and New York (appearing in Broadway's Titanic). Later, returned to Pittsburgh to teach. Sadly, she died in 2004, at 52, of ovarian cancer.

• IMDB entry


• IBDB entry


• Obituary at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Extra Casting: Fire in the Hole

Mosser Casting announces an extra call for a new pilot, Fire in the Hole. Register with Mosser Casting; upload two digital headshots that are at least 350 pixels wide when you register.

Blast from the Past: Dogma

Kevin Smith's satiric fantasy Dogma was filmed primarily in Pittsburgh in the spring of 1998. They filmed all over the region, including at the airport (where a cheese stand indicated they were in Wisconsin rather than Pittsburgh), Oakland and Banksville.

If you know Banksville, there's a Rite Aid pharmacy on the corner of Banksville and McMonagle. But, until about 1998, a Burger King sat on that site. The Burger King closed, but was taken over by the Dogma production for a few months. The site doubled as a generic burger joint and a bar (yes, that bar). Later that year, the old Burger King was ripped down and replaced by the pharmacy.

They also shot a scene over at Jose and Tony's Mexican restaurant.

Dogma was a mostly entertaining but occasionally-muddled movie about fallen angels, extra apostles, modern life and possibly the end of all existence. The script was witty and the performances (particularly Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hyek and Ben Affleck) were pretty good.

As this movie satirized religion, some people tried to protest this movie before it was out. The protests generally fizzled. The "foul demon" was, well, gross and there was too much blood in two scenes. But, for people who paid attention to the movie (rather than the "boycott without thinking" mentality), most of the "anti-religious" comments were about how people abuse religion. There are a surprising number of theological discussions in this movie, something rarely heard outside of costume epics like A Man for All Seasons.

• IBMD


• Official Site


• Kevin Smith protesting his own film

Off Topic Musings: Brad Pitt's Making The Sparrow?

From time to time, I will write about movies that have nothing to do with Pittsburgh.

Today, I found I'd completely missed that one of my favorite books, Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow had been optioned by Brad Pitt's production company. Three years ago! Apparently, a screenplay is in progress.

The book (and its sequel, Children of God) are amazing looks at all kinds of cultural clashes and miscommunications on an interplanetary scale. The Sparrow is completely brilliant, and Children of God is very good.

The rumor is that Brad Pitt may play the lead, Emilio Sandoz, but this had not been announced. I can't see Pitt as Sandoz. 13 years ago, when the book first came out, Antonio Banderas was associated with an earlier version of this adaptation. He would have been perfect. Sandoz needs to be fairly young, intense, but, at times, very joyful. He might be a bit too old now, but when I think of Sandoz, I still think of Banderas.

Some people have suggested that Alfred Molina may play the lead. Molina is a great actor, but way, way too old to be Sandoz (at least as he is in the book). He could play one of the Jesuits who...um...talk to Sandoz about his visit to the planet and what happened to the rest of his crewmembers.

Freddy Rodriguez might be able to pull Sandoz off. Jake Gyllenhall is an interesting idea. Maybe change Sandoz slightly so he was raised in the States (I'm not sure how he is with accents).

13 years ago, I could see Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman as Anne and George. Now...well, I do like the idea of Meryl Streep and Tom Wilkinson (who does a great American accent). Or maybe age Brad and let him play George.

Sonia is tricky, and, frankly, Angelina Jolie could pull her off if she has the right director. Angelina is kind of an erratic actress, but she can be brilliant with the right material and director.

The basic problem with The Sparrow that it's a very adult science fiction movie. It's not mere action adventure. It would be easy to break and tricky to market.

The movie needs an awful lot of CGI, for aliens and for Sandoz's hands after his imprisonment.

Nick Weschler, onboard as a producer, has some experience with grown-up SF - he's one of the producers of The Road, which looks extremely promising. But, he also was a producer on The Time Traveler's Wife, which was rumored to have been badly adapted and cast and still hasn't been released. I loved the book, so this was disappointing to hear.

Nick Seitzman has no experience writing a science fiction screenplay, but he did write North Country, which I haven't seen but heard it was pretty good.

So it'll be interesting to see if The Sparrow is ever made or if it remains in development hell.

Now Filming: Warrior

The big shoot in Pittsburgh in April, May and June has been Warrior, a Lionsgate movie about fathers, sons and mixed-martial arts.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a great article on the movie a few weeks back.

Nolte has now made three movies here in Pittsburgh - Warrior, Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Lorenzo's Oil. He likes the area, and has said that, when he's done with Warrior, he will have spent an entire year in Pennsylvania over the last 18 years making movies.

This movie also features one of the most visible young actresses in Hollywood - Jennifer Morrison, who plays Nolte's daughter-in-law. She's appeared in House for the last five years, and made a brief but memorable appearance as James T. Kirk's mother at the beginning of the recent Star Trek remake.

They're still looking for extras for the audience of the mixed martial arts competitions, particularly for Saturday, May 30.

Some additional recent articles on Warrior:

• Behind the Scenes of Pittsburgh's Warrior


• Nick Nolte Feature to Shoot in Pittsburgh

Welcome to Pittsburgh Flicks

This is a site for movie fans interested in movies that have been shot in Western Pennsylvania.

For the last few years, we've had an unprecedented number of movies shot in our region. Not just local film students making yet another zombie movie with handheld cameras, but major flicks that have been seen around the world - Adventureland, Friday the 13th 3-D, and, of course Zach and Miri Make a Porno. This fall, movies like The Road will be out.

Not only is Pittsburgh home to movie production, but our region has produced people who've gone one to be major players. Three years ago, who'd heard of Zachary Quinto? Now, we know he's been a mass murderer in Heroes and Spock in the reboot of Star Trek.

There are several reasons why Pittsburgh has become "Hollywood East" including experienced crews, interesting locations, a pro-active film office. However, recent passage of a movie-making tax credit has helped make Pennsylvania a more attractive site for movie-making. You'll find more information about the tax credit and its importance posted here shortly; for now, be aware that there will be a public hearing about the tax credit on Friday, June 5, 1pm at the David Lawrence Convention Center. If you support local movie-making, plan to attend this important event.

This site will let you know what's up with local movie making and with local (or formerly local) movie people.

If you've never been around movie-making, and you're curious, Warrior is still looking for extras, particularly for Saturday, May 30. Anyone over 18 can be an extra.

Not only is Pittsburgh the location for movie production, we're seeing some TV production here as well. This week the CBS pilot Three Rivers, which is both set in Pittsburgh and was shot here and in Brownsville, was picked up for the fall. It's not clear yet if the series will be filmed here. CBS has a Web site up for Three Rivers, which includes video from the pilot.