Moviemaking roundabout Ashvegas

Jason Sandford July 4, 2005

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

There’s lots of moviemaking happening around Ashvegas, though it’s smaller-budget films that you might not have heard of. It follows in a strong mountain moviemaking tradition that goes back decades. More on that in a minute.

The thriller “Cold Storage” is being filmed around these parts, including Brevard, Saluda and Rutherfordton, and will be screened next year at the Toronto Film Festival, according to a recent Hooterville newspaper report.

There’s more. The thriller “Darkest Hour” will be shot around these parts later this summer, as well as the comedy “A Tale About Bootlegging, which is shooting down in Polk and Henderson counties, the newspaper says.

It’s the bigger budget flicks that people remember, such as “Hannibal,” “Last of the Mohicans,” and “Dirty Dancing” which yours truly had to pass up, but many of my friends at the time were “dirty dancers.”

There was “The Fugitive,” and you can still find the train wreckage from that blockbuster scene if you know where you’re hiking.

“Hannibal” used that little hot dog stand across from Barley’s for one scene. The Biltmore Estate has been used alot, including for “Richie Rich” and the great “Being There” starring Peter Sellers back in the day.

Also, “The Journey of August King” and “Nell.”