Film will be shot in Tuscaloosa By Mark Hughes Cobb
Staff Writer
August 17, 2001
TUSCALOOSA | There won’t be any smokestacks exploding as Burt Reynolds peels out in his supercharged stunt car, but moviemaking is returning to Tuscaloosa.
"Roper and Goodie," a low-budget, independent romantic comedy starring country singer and part-time actor Mark Collie, will begin filming in Tuscaloosa in mid-October.
Sen. Charles Steele, D-Tuscaloosa, and Mayor Al DuPont joined with actor Tonea Stewart, the Alabama Film Office and the filmmakers in making the announcement Thursday morning.
"To be in Tuscaloosa is like standing on holy ground," said Stewart, a film, television and theatrical actor and director of theater arts at Alabama State University.
The effort Steele and the Alabama Film Office made in courting this film, Stewart said, "made us feel like this is something you’ve been wanting a long time."
Stewart’s connection to producer/casting director Shari Rhodes helped land the deal. The film originally was going to be shot in Texas, but Stewart and Steele convinced Rhodes and her partners to make the move to Alabama.
"I can’t tell you how excited we are to find the city of Tuscaloosa," Rhodes said.
"We’re going to do our part to hire as many talented people locally as we can, and help build up a base of crew for future film products."
Rhodes has produced or cast projects as varied as "Man in the Moon," "Mississippi Burning," "Sarah, Plain and Tall," "Jaws," "Tender Mercies," "The Long Walk Home," "Raggedy Man" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
An early script for "Roper and Goodie" by Jenny Wingfield, who also wrote the highly praised "Man in the Moon" (1991), languished for more than two decades after an initial production try sputtered.
That’s not a record, by any means, the writer said.
"Some people carry scripts with them to their graves," Wingfield said.
Director Rich Jones tried to land a job as production assistant on that earlier attempt. After years of work on television, documentary, industrial and short films, Jones got the green light for his first feature with "Roper and Goodie."
"They wouldn’t hire me as a PA, but they’d hire me as a director," Jones said, laughing.
"I’m blessed to know [the producers] believe in me, and blessed to be in your town."
Everyone in Tuscaloosa has been so nice, "I feel like I’m in Pleasantville," Jones said, referring to the 1998 film about a picture-perfect sitcom world.
The filmmakers expect to return in mid-September to begin setting up production offices, scouting locations and hiring local cast and crew.
There will be a few small roles, in addition to extra work, for those with thespian ambitions.
But Rhodes also hopes to hire some people from the area for the technical crew, such as an art director, props manager and wardrobe personnel.
"We want to leave a lot of trained talent in our wake," she said.
That will help dispel the image that Alabama doesn’t have adequate crew for feature film production, said Brian Kurlander of the Alabama Film Office.
"It feels like we’re ripe and ready to grow," Kurlander said.
Turning for one more word to the film crew, DuPont proved that even highly paid civil servants can become starstruck.
"If you need somebody to play the part of a mayor ..." he said.