Kevin Smith brings Hollywood to Hazelwood

By Adam Brandolph
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Across the street from the fictitious Monroeville High School, in real-life Hazelwood, a crane sits on the side yard of a two-story house.

The crane, used to hold movie cameras in high places, is one of the remnants of the first Pittsburgh location shoot for “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”

Maverick director Kevin Smith will be shooting the film, about two friends who try to solve their cash-flow problems by making an X-rated movie, in the city over the next 40 or so days.

The crew took over about three blocks of the neighborhood last Friday and through the weekend. Shooting was halted early yesterday because of the frigid temperatures.

Smith’s publicist wouldn’t explain Hazlewood’s appeal as a stage set. “Just a location thing,” said Kevin Smith’s publicist, Amy, who didn’t give her last name.

Smith shot his 1995 flick “Dogma” in various city locations, including the abandoned St. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in East Liberty.

Mishell Williams, 33, lives down the street from the filming location on Hazelwood Avenue. She said she wasn’t sure why anyone would want to film a movie there.

“The people of Hazelwood are some of the nicest in the world,” she said, “but the neighborhood is ugly. The houses are old and falling apart or boarded up.”

Outside the “Monroeville High School” — actually the closed Gladstone Middle School on Hazelwood Avenue — boarded-up houses lie vacant and business is scarce.

Reports out of Tinseltown say the film’s budget is in the $15 million and $25 million range. How much of that will be spent in Pittsburgh is not known.

“Filming in Southwestern Pennsylvania helps our entire region,” said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. “It’s always good when new money is being brought into the economy.”

Film crews spent $20 million in the city last year, and $300 million since 1990, Keezer said.

Sophia Stewart, mother of the owner of RS Market on Second Avenue in Hazelwood, said the film was shooting all night long on Friday. Production and security crews from the movie came in to buy coffee at her son’s store, she said.

“I had to make a cup of coffee at midnight. I didn’t think they were going to leave, because it was so late,” Stewart said.

There were other reports that some locals were paid for the use of their property, although that couldn’t be confirmed by Smith’s publicist.

As a director, this will be Smith’s eighth movie.

This story, along with others, will also be archived for easy access at our new Zack & Miri Make a Porno Press Page.