Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, 50 Cent and Ashley Tisdale to shoot movies in Grand Rapids soon

By John Serba The Grand Rapids Press
October 01, 2009, 11:44PM


GRAND RAPIDS -- Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, 50 Cent and Ashley Tisdale will be shooting films in Grand Rapids soon.

They will star in three different productions being shot consecutively starting in November, said movie producer Randall Emmett, who brought "Caught in the Crossfire," an action film starring 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson), to Grand Rapids in May.

"Curtis and I fell in love with (Grand Rapids)," Emmett said while in town Thursday to scout locations. "There's no traffic, the locations are convenient and everybody bent over backwards for us."

He added, with a laugh: "It's like I work for the Grand Rapids tourism board when I'm in Los Angeles,."

"The Gun," an action movie starring 50 Cent, is scheduled to shoot in November.

Tisdale, of "High School Musical" fame, and Ryan ("Sleepless in Seattle," "When Harry Met Sally") will film "Sleepless Beauty" in December.

Whitaker and 50 Cent will co-star in a remake of "Jekyll and Hyde," to roll in January with director Abel Ferrara ("Bad Lieutenant").

Whitaker, who won an Oscar in 2007 for portraying dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," visited Grand Rapids last year, speaking at Grand Rapids Community College while campaigning for President Barack Obama.

Emmett, who has produced more than 50 movies, including "88 Minutes" and "Righteous Kill," said he has another two or three productions on his slate he'd like to shoot locally, one of them potentially with action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

On Thursday, Rick Hert, director of the West Michigan Film Office, took Emmett and three other producers to the former Lear Corp. seating plant, 2150 Alpine Ave. NW, which will likely be used as a soundstage for the films.

"They were just gushing about the 200,000-square-foot facility. Then they saw the building with 300,000 square feet and 45-foot ceilings, and their jaws hit the floor," Hert said. "The spot just resonated with" Emmett.

"We were speechless," Emmett said.

"It's as big as a Warner Bros. backlot. It's a phenomenal space."

"Caught in the Crossfire," a crime-drama/action film in which 50 Cent played an informant and Adam Rodriguez ("CSI: Miami") and Chris Klein ("American Pie") played detectives, shot for three weeks in May.

The movie, written and directed by East Grand Rapids native Brian Miller, had a production budget of less than $1 million, and is currently in post-production.

Emmett said the plan is to submit it to the Sundance Film Festival, and eventually put together a local benefit premiere screening.

Currently shooting in the Holland area is "What's Wrong With Virginia?," starring Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly, and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black ("Milk").

"The Genesis Code," which features Ernest Borgnine, Louise Fletcher and Fred Thompson," shot in the Grand Rapids area in August.

"Tribes of October," with Robert Duvall, James Caan and Ray Stevenson, was scheduled to film in DeVos Place this fall, but the production has been delayed until 2010.

The film will be directed by Philippe Martinez, who shot "The Steam Experiment," starring Val Kilmer, locally last year.

Emmett's plan to bring so many films to Grand Rapids prompted Hert to quip: "The dam just broke.

"'Crossfire' was a good test for them," he said. Emmett "went back to L.A. and said that this is the place to be."

Hert added there's no doubt all of this action is a result of Michigan's 42 percent tax incentive for film productions.

However, with state legislators currently struggling to balance the budget, they're considering trimming the incentives to a lower percentage.

"Obviously, I hope they leave it alone," he said.

"These movies will have a positive impact on Grand Rapids. It's all about jobs and the economy."

E-mail John Serba: jserba@grpress.com

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