MORROW — Residents on Mural Drive couldn’t wait to get a glimpse of some of Hollywood’s most notable actors, seeing how their neighborhood was being used to film scenes for a major motion picture, since the beginning of this week.
#A-list superstars Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth and Mireille Enos are set to appear in an Atom Egoyan movie called, “Devil’s Knot” that is due out in theaters next year.
#Neighbors Crystal Hobby and Lori Hopkins sat crouched in a yard across from the home where the movie was being filmed, hoping to just get one snapshot of Witherspoon. “I just love Reese Witherspoon. She is my favorite actress of all time,” said Hopkins.
#A black Suburban with pitch black-tinted windows drove past, and Hopkins sprung into action, with her camera in hand ready to snap a photo. A blonde, petite woman emerged from the SUV but it was not the famous actress. It was her body double.
#“My God, she looks just like her,” said a disappointed Hopkins.
#Though many of the residents seemed to be thrilled that Hollywood came to their neck of the woods, that was not the case for Darrell Melton, who has lived in his Morrow house since 1962.
#“I don’t want nothing to do with them — nothing!” said Melton, whose home is smack dead in the middle of all the action. Both of his neighbors’ houses — on each side of him — are being used for filming. “They asked me if they could rent my driveway and I said, ‘How do you rent a driveway?’ ” he asked. “I said, ‘No. I don’t want you over here in my yard — just stay off!’”
#However, according to Melton, they came in his yard anyway. “You know what time I went to bed?” he asked the Clayton News Daily. “Two-thirty in the morning!”
#Neighbors Gilda Hutcherson and Jane White said they had already been surveying the scene before the actual filming started. “I saw them moving furniture from the home were [they are filming] and then I started seeing them moving furniture in and out. I thought, ‘Well, maybe this is really happening,’ ” said White.
#Word traveled fast, as scores of residents started pouring out of their homes to look on, as crew members prepped for each scene. “This is the most excitement this neighborhood has seen,” said Hutcherson, who’s been living in her home for more than 50 years.
#Chris Reed said she was especially overjoyed when she was asked by the production company if they could rent her back yard for staging. “They ran a cable through my yard to power the lights for filming,” said Reed. “I had to sign a contract.”
#Crew members were especially tight-lipped about the details of the production, even advising Grant Wainscott with the Clayton Film office to keep the press from shooting any pictures of the set and not to give any details about the movie. One crew member, who asked for his identity not to revealed, said the actors requested for the press to be banned, to keep paparazzi from shooting photos of a very pregnant Witherspoon.
READ MORE: http://www.henryherald.com/news/2012/jun/29/hollywood-comes-morrow/
