Hollywood moved its cameras east this week to none other than Fulton County, where filming of a major motion picture starring Oscar winners and a 2008 nominee for an Academy Award took place over a period of four days.
Principal photography of “The Road,” a 2929 Production based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-prize winning 2006 novel and Oprah Book Club selection, “The Road,” began Feb. 27 in Pittsburgh where it will remain until April 30, according to the film’s publicist, Emma Cooper.
An adaptation of another novel written by McCarthy, “No Country For Old Men,” won this year’s Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Picture.
On Sunday, tractor-trailers full of electrical equipment, props, special effects, cameras, dressing rooms, grip rigging, wardrobe, and more set up at the old, abandoned Pennslyvania Turnpike tunnels, Ray’s Hill and Sideling Hill, to film portions of the story about a father and his young son on a jour
ney that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where civilization and most life have been destroyed, and the few surviving humans have turned to cannabalism.
The movie stars Viggo Mortensen, 2008 Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor for his performance in “Eastern Promises.” Oscar-winner Charlize Theron leads the suupporting cast, along with another Oscar winner, Robert Duvall.
Neither Theron or Duvall will film here, according to one of the movie’s four executive producers, Rudd Simmons, of New York City, who was on the location shoot Tuesday morning as Mortensen and the young Australian actor playing his son, Kodi McPhee, were filming undercover from the rain in front of R
ay’s Hill Tunnel.
Theron will shoot for three days in Seattle, Wash., and Duvall in Pittsburgh for three days, the producer said.
Simmons told “News” publisher Jamie Greathead that that the tunnels had been found in an online search for abandoned roads. He said a decision was made not to use computer-generated effects for “The Road” and called the old turnpike and tunnels perfect for the story.
“They were just what we were looking for,” Simmons said.
Permission to use the tunnels and old turnpike was given by the The Southern Alleghenies Conservancy, the owner since 2001 when the tunnels and 11 miles of turnpike, abandoned in 1968, were purchased from the Turnpike Commission. Since then, the Conservancy has been working to open the road and tunnels as a bike trail. At this time, the trail is not open to public use.
The tunnels and road, according to the Web site of Pike2Bike, which promotes the trail, have been used for background in videos and other movies.
Also on location Tuesday with all the movie-making equipment, production people, talent, extras, support people, etc., was the McConnellsburg Volunteer Fire Co. and its tanker, which had been recruited by the production company to move water.
Described by The Innernet Movie Database (IMDb) as a drama/thriller, the film version of “The Road” follows the father and son’s quest for survival as they make their way toward the sea in the hopes of finding safety and other surviving “good people.”
Publicist Cooper said in an e-mailed synopsis of the movie: “The story explores hope in the face of hopelessness, the ephemeral nature of our existence and the vanishing worlds we all carry within us. As we watch these two travelers, a father and a son who carry our humanity, we can’t help fut feel the world hangs in the balance of their quest.”
Filming of “The Road” moves to Spring Hill Bridge, W.Va., when work is finished here on Thursday, weather permitting.
