Once Upon A Time in Pittsburgh...

Pittsburghers, especially, love those stories that relate to their hometown and of course, have a happy ending. For example, the R.L. Stine film, "The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It," which will have its national broadcast premiere on the Cartoon Network on September 7, 2007, at 7:00 PM was shot in Pittsburgh last fall. That makes us happy. The film stars a cast from some of today's most popular shows and movies for teens, including Emily Osment ("Hannah Montana," "Spy Kids"), Cody Linley ("Hannah Montana," "Hoot"), and Brittany Curran ("Suite Life of Zach and Cody"). The movie, which was also released on DVD this week involves monsters, an eerie shop keeper (played by the quintessential movie villain Tobin Bell from the "Saw" franchise), and of course, kids who learn the value of friendship and bravery. But the story behind the story is just as interesting. Our story starts with Pittsburgh people, travels to Hollywood, and then back again.

Before the "Don't Think About" title comes on screen, viewers will see a credit that reads "Universal Family Studios and The Hatchery LLC in Association with the Steeltown Entertainment Project and Creata." How did Steeltown Entertainment Project, a local start-up non-profit which has operated for most of its four year history with a small volunteer staff come to receive such a credit? That story has its roots back to the organization's inception in 2003.

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time, a dozen of some of the Pittsburgh area's most illustrious alumni gathered at the nation's first community-supported public television station, WQED, in the same studio in which Fred Rogers filmed all of his "neighborhood" programs. They came together for the "Pittsburgh Entertainment Summit" to discuss how to help their hometown become more of a player in the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. At that Summit, Pittsburgh native and producer Bernie Goldmann ("300") met director Pittsburgher George Romero who had just written another in his world famous cult horror "Night of the Living Dead" film series. Within six months, Atmosphere Entertainment, the L.A. production company which Goldmann was president of at the time, found the funds to make George Romero's next screenplay, "Land of the Dead," which had been written in Pittsburgh and set in a town with three rivers. But sadly, despite serious efforts by George, Bernie, and a group of local civic and business leaders, the movie ended up filming in Canada, due to its aggressive tax incentives. (In a happy twist, Pennsylvania tax legislation passed this July has now corrected that situation and made the state very competitive. But that's a different story.)

Our story continued to develop when George and Bernie, still wanting to support their hometown, persuaded Universal Studios to do a Pittsburgh premiere of "Land of the Dead" to benefit the Steeltown Entertainment Project's filmmaking competition concept (which would eventually be called the Steeltown Film Factory). Much in the manner of "Project Greenlight" or the Sundance Institute's Filmmaking Workshops, the Film Factory would identify exciting ideas to be produced regionally, and at the same time involve filmmakers with a track record of success in the industry as mentors for locally emerging talent to make up to three 3 short films about Pittsburgh.

The 2005 "Land of the Dead" Premiere in Pittsburgh was a red-carpet Hollywood-style hit which sold out the Byham Theater and attracted an international crowd including famed filmmakers Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction") and Robert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids"). The proceeds garnered an initial $40,000 in funds towards creating the Film Factory. The premiere also brought back special effects wizard Greg Nicotero who had gotten his start in Pittsburgh working on George Romero films with the city's own special effects master Tom Savini ("Dawn of the Dead," "Friday the 13th"), and whose company KNB FX has worked on dozens of films including "Chronicles of Narnia" for which they won an Oscar, as well as "Kill Bill," and "Sin City."

A New Chapter

While in L.A. filming his documentary about Pittsburgh entitled "A Tale of Two Cities," "St. Elmo's Fire" screenwriter-turned-Pitt-professor and Steeltown Entertainment Project co-founder Carl Kurlander was invited to visit Greg's "creature shop" in the San Fernando Valley. There, Greg showed Carl a model for a monster he had been asked to make for an R.L. Stine project, the wildly successful author of the "Goosebumps" series. Greg had heard that the Stine film was being budgeted in Canada; however, excited by the Steeltown Entertainment idea of encouraging commercially-based projects in Pittsburgh, he arranged for Carl to meet with Margaret Loesch, CEO of the Hatchery, the company producing the project, and Dan Angel, the man who would ultimately co-write and produce the film. Margaret Loesch, who turned Fox Family into a leader of children's television, had also been President of Jim Henson's Television Group, and CEO of the Hallmark Channel. Just as Carl started touting the attributes of Pittsburgh and its potential for being a player in the entertainment industry, Margaret smiled, explaining that she did have some experience with the region as her father was from Meadville. Southwestern Pennsylvania connections are everywhere.

The Hatchery was focused on family entertainment which of course Pittsburgh had a rich tradition of creating due to "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" and family-oriented programs produced by WQED. With partial funding already in place from Universal Family Studios and Creata (which makes many of the toy tie-ins for films that come in 'happy meals'), the Hatchery was still looking for an equity investor which would allow them to "greenlight" the project. So Margaret and Dan came to Pittsburgh to explore the possibilities here. Thanks to the efforts of Steeltown's then executive director Ellen Kander and board members Anne Lewis, Stephanie Dangel, and others, funds were raised by people who believed this opportunity would be more than a good investment but also a means to create jobs and help build a sustainable industry in the region.

The Happy Ending

Working with Pittsburgh Film Office, Steeltown helped facilitate the project filming in Pittsburgh last year: creating 115 jobs and pouring an estimated $2,165,000 into the local economy as well. Greg Nicotero returned to his hometown to create the monster for "Don't Think About It" and direct the second unit for the movie. As noted at the outset, the movie premieres nationally this Friday, and the DVD will be promoted by Papa John's on over 10 million pizza boxes across this country to lead up to the Halloween season.

The Moral of Our Story?

Thanks to the Pittsburgh people who got involved, if "Don't Think About It" has even a modicum of the success of shows like "High School Musical" or "Hannah Montana," some of the profits from the DVD sales of this movie might have every chance of creating a return for the nonprofit itself. This would potentially make it a model for sustainability while seeding ongoing programming just like the Film Factory, which may finally launch this winter if the rest of the funding can be raised. Because of the network created by Steeltown's advisors, Steeltown's name comes up in the credits for this movie and for other accomplishments. But this really isn't a story about Steeltown. Rather it is a story about the people of Pittsburgh, particularly those that have left here but haven't forgotten their roots. In the end, the story is about each and every one of those advisors who is a current or former Pittsburgher (native, resident and/or student) and who wants to make a difference in their hometown region.

Character development, interesting plot turns, and a good ending can be found in "Don't Think About It," and so we can predict there is a possibility for a sequel to the movie, or even a series in the works. But with the energy and dedication of Pittsburgh's distinguished expatriates and people still here who believe that Pittsburgh can be a center for the creation and distribution of intellectual property (known in the entertainment business as "content"), can we then also surmise that Pittsburgh has a few more "sequels" of its own in the wings? Will this project be a turning point in the ongoing effort of Pittsburgh to become a player in the entertainment industry?

As they say on TV, I guess we'll just have to stay tuned to find out. Me, I'm stocking up on popcorn.

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Jodi Klebick, a co-founder of the Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival in Pittsburgh in 2006, is Managing Director for Steeltown Entertainment Project. The mission of the Steeltown Entertainment Project is to nurture promising talent and to incubate meaningful and commercially viable entertainment projects in Southwestern Pennsylvania by connecting former Pittsburghers who are working in the entertainment industry with the region's human, cultural, educational, and economic resources. For more information, please call 412.622.1325 or visit: www.steeltown.org.