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Movie to be filmed in North Versailles theater
Loews North Versailles will be back in the movie business again after use in October as a haunted house.
The 20-screen complex opened in 1999 and closed in 2001, crushed by competition from two newer neighbors, Destinta North Versailles, just down the road on Route 30, and Loews Waterfront, West Homestead.
The site's developer, Jim Aiello, founder and president of JRA Development Co., is among the executive producers of "The Screening." He's allowing producer Christopher Lombardo and director G. Cameron Romero to film most of "The Screening" there -- an ideally eerie setting.
The picture will be made entirely in the Pittsburgh area, with principal photography to run from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.
"Cameron and I wanted to do it in the tradition his father did," said Lombardo of Romero, whose father, George A. Romero, made several movies here, including "Night of the Living Dead," "Creepshow" and "Monkey Shines."
Cameron Romero and Lombardo run a visual and graphic design studio called CAMOP out of their office in a converted Lawrenceville school that doubles as a production office for "The Screening."
Romero is a Mars resident. Lombardo is a New Castle native who lives in McCandless. They're both graduates of North Allegheny High School. Romero then graduated from the Valencia School of Film in Florida and Lombardo from the University of Pittsburgh.
"The Screening," scripted by Mike Watt of Waynesburg, concerns the gathering of several prospective murder victims.
Lombardo says the film "involves a never-before-seen series of movies and a group of people who are there and privileged to see the movies, and what happens that night. There are characters from different backgrounds, witty banter, special effects, a little blood and gore and neat stunt work."
The picture is budgeted at less than $100,000, which doesn't include marketing costs.
Most of it will be shot in and around the former multiplex, but the filmmakers are looking for woods and an old barn they can use. Release is scheduled for spring of 2006. The Web site for the movie is expected to be up in December at www.screeningthemovie.com.
Lombardo says he's still working on contracts with some of the actors but that the cast would include Nikki McIntyre, Amy Lynn Best, Eric James, Daniel Conville, Patrick Jordan and Jeff Monahan. Sam Nicotero is cast as the principal villain.
Besides Aiello, the executive producers are Jeff Battin and Melissa Quadra.
The effects will be by Erik "Benzi" Bencivenga of Benzi Dream F/X Studios, with assistance from students at Tom Savini's school of makeup and effects and from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
The biggest kick may be just seeing how they use that huge, partitioned shell of a building that used to be a moviehouse as a ... moviehouse.
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