Call me “star struck” but it’s always thrilling when the movie trailers pull into town. Out of all the places in the world, major motion picture studio Fox Searchlight chose Faye’s in our quaint little town of Montrose to film some scenes for an upcoming blockbuster movie. The news has been all over town but in case you missed it, “Hitchcock,” the movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel, is in production.

Last Thursday setting up of the Montrose shoot began. The trucks pulled in, Lot 3 was sectioned off, the signs were posted and the props began being loaded into Faye’s. All of this under the watchful eye of MSPA ambassador and film liaison Steve Pierce. Before our very eyes Faye’s was turned into a 1950s swimwear shop in preparation for scenes to be shot with Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren.

According to Faye’s co-owner Linda Hattick, daughter of Pat Grant, it took all day, starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, to get the store set up for the shoot. Set directors buzzed about all day redoing the windows and moving racks of swimwear here and there. Finally everything was in place just in time for a major storm that included heavy rain, thunder and lightening.

Helen Mirren arrived around 5:30 a.m. Friday with her famous husband Taylor Hackford. Taylor is the president of The Director’s Guild of America. He directed “An Officer and a Gentleman” starring Richard Gere, and “Devil’s Advocate” with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, among many other movies. Can you imagine them pulling into little old Montrose early in the morning in the midst of a storm no less? It must have been quite a sight.

Linda and Valerie were on hand with about 75 Fox folks to witness Helen perform her scenes. She got it done quickly and treated herself to a little Faye’s shopping trip. Linda said she was thrilled to find cotton slips as she has not been able to find them anywhere and had to sew her own. The Faye’s gals were impressed with how nice and down to earth she was.

So now let’s hope these scenes make it into the big movie. Wouldn’t that be great!? To see some fun pics of this event, check out our blog at www.shopmontrose.com.