New movie starring Firth, Blunt to film in area

Academy Award winner Colin Firth and Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt will star in “Arthur Newman, Golf Pro,” which has opened offices at EUE/Screen Gems Studios. Associated Press file photos

By Judy Royal

Published: Friday, September 2, 2011 at 1:18 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, September 2, 2011 at 1:18 p.m.

An award-winning actor and actress will be in town next month as filming for a new movie begins here.

Academy Award winner Colin Firth and Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt will star in “Arthur Newman, Golf Pro,” which has opened offices at EUE/Screen Gems Studios and will shoot in the area from mid-October to mid-November.

Those familiar with the production say it’s a lower-budget, independent dark comedy.

According to IMDb.com, the movie follows a man played by Firth who missed his one shot at living the dream. He decides to fake his own death in an attempt to reinvent himself and meets a woman (played by Blunt) who’s also in the process of trying to escape her old life. Eventually, they begin to break into empty houses to steal the identities of the absent owners. Soon they find a kinship amid all the deception.

Dante Ariola will direct the film from an original script by Becky Johnston, who most recently wrote “1906,” about the San Francisco earthquake, for director Brad Bird. Her credits include co-writing “The Prince of Tides,” which earned her Academy Award and Writer’s Guild Award nominations, “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Under the Cherry Moon.”

“We’re honored to have a film of this quality here at EUE/Screen Gems, and we have a good sense about being able to help them make this film,” said Bill Vassar, executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios. “And there’s something in the quality of the script that is attracting people to want to work on it. It’s a very exciting film to be associated with."

“Arthur Newman, Golf Pro” will join “A Smile as Big as the Moon,” a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie that begins shooting here Sept. 28, and locally filmed TV shows “Eastbound & Down” and “One Tree Hill,” which all share space at Screen Gems.

Vassar said he hopes to have more good news to share about the film industry soon.

“Inquiries are running above what they have been in the last couple of years, and there are some interesting, fairly good-sized projects that are looking to be at the studio in 2012,” he said.