Major Movie Shoot in the Montrose Shopping Park

The studios love the quaint setting of the Montrose Shopping Park and we love having them! Once again, we welcomed a major movie shoot spicing up our streets. “Murder of a Cat” has a slate of famous and talented producers, directors and actors and will debut in 2014. I was thrilled to have some of the filming happen right in front of my store. I got to meet many of those involved and sit in their midst while they did their creative thing. I hope in this article to convey the excitement I felt.

So pretend it’s you and imagine what it was like to see famous film producer Sam Raimi (“Spider Man,” “Oz the Great and Powerful” and many more) in his trademark jacket that he wears on set, working from the circle in front of Revelation Tops! Certainly not a sight you get to see everyday!

He was joined by his lovely wife, director Gillian Greene, daughter of “Bonanza”’s Lorne Greene. They arrived with cast and crew and would be filming all through the night … for several nights.

Now for those who don’t know, I am a big “Twilight” fan. I watched every movie, read the books and play the CDs in my store. Who would ever guess Nikki Reed (she played Rosalie) would be doing take after take right near our front door! We also got to watch Greg Kinnear (“As Good As It Gets,” “Little Miss Sunshine”), J.K. Simmons (“The Ladykillers”) and Fran Kranz (“The Cabin in the Woods”) all do fascinating scenes.

I can’t wait ’til this movie comes out so I can see the final result. From what I hear, the script made last year’s black list, which means it’s on its way to being a big success. The story line is clever, too. It’s about a 30-something man, Kranz, who lives with his mom and loves his cat. When the cat is found dead, his quest to find the killer leads him to the discovery that the cat was leading a double life. In the movie, the young man was a small business owner, which we can all relate to in good old Montrose.

In talking with location manager Michael Neale, I discovered he was involved in two other famous Montrose movie shoots: “The Wedding Singer” and “Old School.” Not only that, his family used to live in Glendale! Small world, huh? By the way, one of our Montrose Shopping Park Facebook fans posted that he just saw “Hitchcock” and you can really see Faye’s and Montrose in the movie.

Can’t wait to see “Murder of A Cat.” Oh boy!

  Mary Dawson