David Carr at the New York Times has put together a cool little article dedicated to Hollywood’s recent move to begin filming in Shreveport, Louisiana. Home to about 200,000 people, it has become what the “Times” refers to as a kind of Hollywood South.
Currently filming in Shreveport are Oliver Stone’s W (the reason I read the article), the crime thriller Microwave Park starring Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone and 50 Cent and the loathsome Disaster Movie or which I mentioned earlier and is the source of the picture above (larger version of that here).
What other films has this small town played host to? Try The Mist, Blonde Ambition, Factory Girl, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay and The Great Debaters as well as the upcoming Year One starring Jack Black and Soul Men starring Bernie Mac. On top of that Nu Image/Millennium Films has announced the construction of a 6.7-acre production campus with a planned expansion to a 20-acre full-service studio that will have three sound stages, production offices, a mill and a prop house.
So if you find yourself in the downtown bar, Freddy Mac’s, don’t be surprised if Oliver Stone and Josh Brolin come strolling in.
“I’m used to making movies around here,” Stone told the “Times”. “I made four movies in Dallas. And where we are right now,” he said, gesturing toward the town and the plains beyond, “is Bush country, so it feels right. You get something working with extras from here… these people are gamblers and roughnecks. They know all about boom and bust. This is a second-chance town. I just read that there may be a huge reserve of gas right under the city that was not discovered until very recently.”
Check out the complete article right here, it’s worth a minute of your time if you found any of this interesting or are looking to relocate.
