Starstruck

So today was my first adventure out with both boys. As I headed through P-ville towards the mall, I came across a big roadblock on the main road heading into Valley Forge. A sign said the road would be closed during the day today, tomorrow, and Friday. I proceeded forward anyway and was surprised to see a whole crowd of people standing on either side of the road, gawking at a big film crew set up at a local garage and restaurant. Mostly moms with baby strollers and teenage girls.



So I called a friend that lives around the corner from the melee and she explained excitedly that Mark Wahlberg is in town shooting a movie. Exciting indeed, Mr. Hotstuff himself. Of COURSE, it's an M. Night Shyamalan movie, because he pretty much shoots all his movies here. "The Happening", another scary apocolypse flick, is set to come out June of next year. Since Wahlberg recently spent time here shooting the awesome Philadelphia Eagles movie "Invincible", hopefully he is getting to like the area. He's been spotted with his family at Sesame Place hanging out with Elmo.




In other news, I also learned that our wonderful, fabulous governor Ed Rendell is offering huge tax incentives to filmmakers who want to shoot in our great state, and he is working to lure a major motion picture company who is interested in opening a huge movie studio in our area. That could be interesting.

Edited: You ask for links, you get links.

A local blog about the filming.
A story about how the location was chosen.
One article about the proposed movie studio.