Scott Thompson will be back in Traer and Clutier with a new movie production later this summer. Thompson said Tuesday he hopes to begin filming A Place for Heroes in mid-August and wrap up the filming in Tama County in 30 days or less.
Thompson wrote the screen play himself which focuses on military veterans and their sacrifices.
Thompson's company, My Town Pictures LLC, already has credits in both Traer and Clutier.
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Before the drecheo windstorm tore through Clutier last summer, he had filmed a movie there starring local people.
Thompson said that film was extra special for Clutier residents because it featured some of the structures which were swept away by the massive windstorm.
Following the Clutier filming, a movie was also made by Thompson in Traer.
This time, the ZCBJ Hall in Clutier will be the featured setting for his movie, Thompson said.
While Thompson has lined up something of a star-studded list of actors for the movie, local persons will also be featured.
Here is a news release which details the movie production effort:
My Town Pictures will produce a major independent film project in Tama County beginning in August called A Place for Heroes. The film is a moving, entertaining story set both in current times as well as 1943 and features a high respect for the kinds of sacrifices veterans make for their communities and their country. Actual veterans from the region and Iowa will appear in the film at points as well.
A number of high profile actors from Hollywood and New York will be coming to participate in the film, including: award-winning legendary actor Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas, Romeo and Juliet, Nixon, Law and Order), Oscar nominee for Best Actress Sally Kellerman (M*A *S*H), two-time Emmy Award winner and the original daytime TV superstar Eileen Fulton (As the World Turns), award-winning actress and Soap Opera Digest nominee for Best Actress Ellen Dolan (As the World Turns), well-known actor Daniel Roebuck (The Fugitive, Lost, Matlock Glee, CSI, The Mentalist), current TV star Robert Pralgo (Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries), actor Bill Sorvino, and actress and former star of Sesame Street Samantha Tuffarelli.
Forming the core of the cast will be outstanding Iowa actors Ben Easter (Holiday in the Sun, I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and various Disney projects), Rachel Storey (The Crazies, 16 to Life), Kim Grimaldi (Dead Awake, Sick of Larry), and Kiera Morrill (Sick of Larry, Fortnight, Molly's Giro.
Nearly 100 percent of the filming will take place in Clutier and Traer, over a three-four week period at the end of this summer. Sam Borowski, award-winning producer of features and short films, will produce with My Town Pictures. Borowski's short film Mandala Maker was given serious consideration for an Oscar nomination at the time of its release.
The film production is currently in its investment stage, with a large portion of the funding already pledged from Tama County and surrounding region. Opportunities for additional investors are still available.
Also needed will be a variety of in-kind donations such as clothing from the 1940's era, private homes for crew and lesser cast members to stay, assistance in providing lodging for the stars of the film, assistance in providing car rides for the actors from out of town and so on.
The American Legion in Iowa has been helpful in the planning of the film to this point and is hopeful of finding a way to participate in the project more substantially so that veterans in Iowa can benefit in important ways from the success of the film.