Viggo Mortensen and Guy Pearce in the same movie?!
*pre-orders DVD, film unseen and book unread*
Stars follow 'The Road' to Presque Isle
BY GERRY WEISS
gerry.weiss@timesnews.com [more details]
If you happen to see Viggo Mortensen on the streets of Erie this week, it's not a mirage.
The "Lord of the Rings" star and Academy Award-nominated actor will be at Presque Isle State Park on Thursday, shooting critical scenes for the major movie production of "The Road."
Mortensen, as well as actor Guy Pearce, who starred in "L.A. Confidential" and "Memento," will be here with a film crew of 75 to 100 members, said Andrew Ullman, location manager for "The Road."
The shoot at Presque Isle is scheduled to last about six days, not including weekends, wrapping up on May 1. The cast and crew will stay in hotels in the Erie area throughout filming before heading to Conneaut Lake Park for a two-day shoot on May 2 and 3.
"The Road," an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is scheduled to be in theaters nationwide in November.
Shooting locations at Presque Isle State Park include Beach 10 and surrounding areas; Old Lake Road, which is near the park's entrance; and West Fisher Road, Ullman said. The crew also will shoot briefly at the nearby Tom Ridge Environmental Center and at a boat ramp in Lawrence Park.
Ullman, who scouted shooting locations throughout the Erie region in February, said the movie's set is closed to anyone not in the film's cast and crew.
"We're not here for anyone else's entertainment. We're here to make a movie," said Ullman, a Philadelphia-area resident who has worked on dozens of popular films, including "The Sixth Sense," "Apollo 13," "Minority Report" and "The Truman Show."
"A snapshot from a spectator, a flashbulb going off, an extraneous noise," Ullman said, "all of those could ruin a take."
Presque Isle Operations Manager Harry Leslie said park officials have been working with the film's crew on "putting a logistics plan in place for security and traffic control" during the shoot. Leslie declined to elaborate further.
Ullman said the production crew will hire its own security company "to take care of cordoning off areas" of Presque Isle.
"Being that it's late April," he added, "the park won't have the type of pedestrian traffic that it would on an 80-degree day in the summer, when people are off of work and want to go to the beach."
"The Road," a bleak survival tale about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world, has been shooting in the Pittsburgh area for the past two months. Other filming locations include New Orleans and parts of California and Oregon.
But Presque Isle's beaches, shorelines and panoramic views of Lake Erie were "a perfect fit" for the final scenes of "The Road," Ullman said.
"It completely works for the story," he said. "We'll be shooting a critical juncture in the film there."
Arlene Ashton, acting director of the Pennsylvania Film Office, said state property such as Presque Isle State Park is available for movie filming free of charge "as long as they meet all the necessary requirements and parameters set up by the (Pennsylvania) Department of Conservation and Natural Resources."
A 15-person production crew from "The Road" arrived at Conneaut Lake Park on April 9 to construct sets and build camera stands.
General Manager George Deshner said eight scenes will be shot at the now-closed amusement park and resort, and some of the scenes will feature the park's Dreamland Ballroom complex, which a fire destroyed in February.
GERRY WEISS can be reached at 870-1884 or by e-mail.
ETA: Charlize Theron is in it too as Viggo's wife, plus Robert Duvall (rumoured, according to IMDB), and it's the same director who did Guy's film The Proposition - whoot! /ETA
In non-news, yet more snow and, I estimate, about four hours of +/- "good" sleep. Oh and I have an End of Course Assignment to deliver by Friday noon (UK time), in other words Friday morning before work, and haven't had been able to wrangle up the energy/concentration to work on it at all so far, except for looking at it. Will be an interesting three evenings...
Stars follow 'The Road' to Presque Isle
BY GERRY WEISS
gerry.weiss@timesnews.com [more details]
If you happen to see Viggo Mortensen on the streets of Erie this week, it's not a mirage.
The "Lord of the Rings" star and Academy Award-nominated actor will be at Presque Isle State Park on Thursday, shooting critical scenes for the major movie production of "The Road."
Mortensen, as well as actor Guy Pearce, who starred in "L.A. Confidential" and "Memento," will be here with a film crew of 75 to 100 members, said Andrew Ullman, location manager for "The Road."
The shoot at Presque Isle is scheduled to last about six days, not including weekends, wrapping up on May 1. The cast and crew will stay in hotels in the Erie area throughout filming before heading to Conneaut Lake Park for a two-day shoot on May 2 and 3.
"The Road," an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is scheduled to be in theaters nationwide in November.
Shooting locations at Presque Isle State Park include Beach 10 and surrounding areas; Old Lake Road, which is near the park's entrance; and West Fisher Road, Ullman said. The crew also will shoot briefly at the nearby Tom Ridge Environmental Center and at a boat ramp in Lawrence Park.
Ullman, who scouted shooting locations throughout the Erie region in February, said the movie's set is closed to anyone not in the film's cast and crew.
"We're not here for anyone else's entertainment. We're here to make a movie," said Ullman, a Philadelphia-area resident who has worked on dozens of popular films, including "The Sixth Sense," "Apollo 13," "Minority Report" and "The Truman Show."
"A snapshot from a spectator, a flashbulb going off, an extraneous noise," Ullman said, "all of those could ruin a take."
Presque Isle Operations Manager Harry Leslie said park officials have been working with the film's crew on "putting a logistics plan in place for security and traffic control" during the shoot. Leslie declined to elaborate further.
Ullman said the production crew will hire its own security company "to take care of cordoning off areas" of Presque Isle.
"Being that it's late April," he added, "the park won't have the type of pedestrian traffic that it would on an 80-degree day in the summer, when people are off of work and want to go to the beach."
"The Road," a bleak survival tale about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world, has been shooting in the Pittsburgh area for the past two months. Other filming locations include New Orleans and parts of California and Oregon.
But Presque Isle's beaches, shorelines and panoramic views of Lake Erie were "a perfect fit" for the final scenes of "The Road," Ullman said.
"It completely works for the story," he said. "We'll be shooting a critical juncture in the film there."
Arlene Ashton, acting director of the Pennsylvania Film Office, said state property such as Presque Isle State Park is available for movie filming free of charge "as long as they meet all the necessary requirements and parameters set up by the (Pennsylvania) Department of Conservation and Natural Resources."
A 15-person production crew from "The Road" arrived at Conneaut Lake Park on April 9 to construct sets and build camera stands.
General Manager George Deshner said eight scenes will be shot at the now-closed amusement park and resort, and some of the scenes will feature the park's Dreamland Ballroom complex, which a fire destroyed in February.
GERRY WEISS can be reached at 870-1884 or by e-mail.
ETA: Charlize Theron is in it too as Viggo's wife, plus Robert Duvall (rumoured, according to IMDB), and it's the same director who did Guy's film The Proposition - whoot! /ETA
In non-news, yet more snow and, I estimate, about four hours of +/- "good" sleep. Oh and I have an End of Course Assignment to deliver by Friday noon (UK time), in other words Friday morning before work, and haven't had been able to wrangle up the energy/concentration to work on it at all so far, except for looking at it. Will be an interesting three evenings...