Asheville stars
in Hollywood
Western
North Carolina’s emergence as a popular backdrop for location
shooting is hardly news to Tar Heel movie-goers. In recent years, box
office hits like “The Fugitive,” “Dirty Dancing” and “Patch
Adams” have included scenes from in and around Asheville. The
region’s attractiveness to filmmakers is set to become even more
irresistible with the opening of Blue Ridge Motion Pictures LLC, which
held its groundbreaking in August.
Situated on a 40-acre site just off Interstate 240 in East Asheville,
the complex will house one of the largest sound stages in the nation.
Also included there will be an animation studio, film editing
facilities, a recording studio, set design and wardrobe facilities,
and an extensive urban backlot where outdoor scenes can be created.
“We’re basically a rental facility,” explains Leanne Campbell,
who is heading the studio. She anticipates that major names in the
film industry such as Paramount Pictures will utilize Blue Ridge’s
facilities for major projects. But Campbell and her partners also
intend to pursue their own independent productions there.
The initiative began four years ago when Merwin Gross, a Marion, N.C.,
native who has written, produced and directed numerous film projects,
took a liking to the site, then home to a velour factory. The
cavernous 176,000-square-foot building had, in fact, been used during
the filming of “Last of the Mohicans” in 1992. Gross ultimately
convinced Girmes Industries, which owned the property, to sell. In
April 2001, he invited Campbell, a New Hampshire commercial real
estate executive, to join him and a third partner, Tom Barkstedt, on
the deal.
Local government officials and community leaders also were eager to
see Blue Ridge Motion Pictures get off the ground. “The energy
that’s been created around this has been incredible,” Campbell
says. Both the City of Asheville and Buncombe County are offering tax
incentives to assist in making the venture a success. “They’ve
been very eager to help in any way they can,” says Campbell.
Although the studio is expected to employ only about 30 full-time
staff, its economic impact is likely to be far larger. Campbell is
creating a database of people in the community who can be called in to
work on various film projects, ranging from local actors and writers
to set builders, caterers and seamstresses. “We’ve already
collected hundreds of unsolicited resumes from people interested in
film work,” she says.
“It will be a tremendous economic development asset for us,” says
Mary Nell Webb, who directs the Western North Carolina Film
Commission. “If you look at what Screen Gems Studio has done for
Wilmington, you can see the benefit the Blue Ridge will bring here.”
In 2000, her commission, which covers the 23 counties of Advantage
West, counted some 23 film projects, including the acclaimed thriller
“Hannibal.” All told, as many as 1,000 people in the region were
involved in the industry.
Webb points out that there is yet another way the new studio will rain
economic benefits over Asheville. “The publicity the city gets from
movies made here is huge for our tourism industry,” she says.
Visitors to the area, for example, continue to flock to Lake Lure to
catch a glimpse of where “Dirty Dancing” was filmed. Another site
near Dillsboro, where the memorable train wreck scene from “The
Fugitive” was shot, remains a popular destination for visiting movie
buffs.
“We’re already working with the Visitor’s Bureau on a plan for
making Blue Ridge Studios an attraction for tourists,” says
Campbell, who intends to make the studio available for tours in a way
that won’t interrupt what she hopes will be a busy filmmaking
schedule. — Lawrence Bivins
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