Ready for Release?
Article posted on Variety.com on February 12, 2007 mentions Walker Payne almost ready to be released.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117959363.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1
From the Lancaster News - August 10, 2007
http://www.thelancasternews.com/articles/2007/08/10/news/news10_movie.txt
Movie shot in Great Falls to be released on video
By Nancy F. Parsons – Landmark News Service
GREAT FALLS – The rights to a movie in which scenes from Great Falls are included have been sold.
Judd Payne, executive producer of “Walker Payne,” said he has sold rights to the film.
“It should be on video shelves by the end of the year,” Payne said. “You should be able to get it at Blockbuster or Wal-Mart around November.”
The movie will also air on cable television. Payne is also hoping the film will be shown in a few theaters early this fall.
Jason Patric, whose screen credits include “Rush” and “Speed 2: Cruise Control,” portrays Walker in the film.
Set in 1957, Walker loses his job in the coal mines of a small, depressed town in southern Illinois and struggles to get his two young daughters back from his ex-wife.
Walker’s ex-wife, played by Drea de Matteo, perhaps best known for her roles as Adriana La Cerva on the HBO TV series “The Sopranos,” forces Walker to make some difficult decisions.
Bruce Dern, KaDee Strickland and Sam Shepard also star in “Walker Payne.”
Director Matt Williams, creator of television shows “Home Improvement” and “Roseanne,” chose Great Falls and Chester County as a location for the movie above Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Other locations for filming included Chester, Inman, Camden, Rock Hill and two areas in North Carolina.
Great Falls is the backdrop of the main town in the movie, Payne said.
Businesses around town were transformed to take viewers back to the late 1950s.
About 20 storefronts were redressed in the downtown and Flopeye districts.
The former Great Falls Pharmacy was transformed into Lobo Lounge.
Jack’s Produce became Harison Sinclair Service. The old Western Auto was back in business and the old Winn-Dixie became Piggly Wiggly.
The transformation also included a new drugstore, a bakery, a TV repair shop, ladies dress shop, barber shop and a heating and plumbing business.
Some townspeople liked the redressing so much that they wished the storefronts could have kept their new appearances.
Payne said up to 100 full-time crew members, more than 100 part-time crew members and more than 1,000 extras were used to complete the movie.