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Reel News Tim Ryan |
Atkins of ‘ER’
will co-star in
‘Pearl City’ pilotSharif Atkins of NBC's "ER" will co-star in the network's drama pilot "Pearl City." The ensemble drama is set in the title town and follows a diverse team of detectives at the local police department as they solve crimes. Atkins will play a new member of the HPD who moves to the islands from Chicago. He's set to leave "ER" later this season after three seasons, where he played Michael Gallant, a medical student working his way through school on the U.S. Army's ticket.
Frank Conway, unit production manager and co-producer on several Hawaii TV shows (including "ER," "Baywatch Hawaii," "Baywatch Reunion" and "The Break" pilot) is co-producing "Pearl City." It's a six-week pre-production, then three weeks of filming set to begin March 1. NBC will set up production at the Hawaii Film Studio. Irish Barber is production coordinator About 80 percent of the crew will be local hires...
NBC
Sharif Atkins, who plays Dr. Gallant on NBC's "ER" will leave the show after three seasons to co-star in the network's pilot "Pearl City," set for filming in Hawaii.
Fox Television will begin filming its hourlong drama pilot Feb. 23 for 12 days on Oahu. No title yet. The story will be based at a hotel and centers on the ensemble 20-something staff working for the "new and contentious hotel manager" at a luxury resort. Lead actors' casting is going on in Los Angeles. Randy Spangler is location manager; Pam Gossage, production coordinator; and Rene Confair is production supervisor.
Hollywood publicist Blaise Noto, who relocated to Maui about 18 months ago, is back in Hollywood for three months to head the publicity campaign for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," the graphic depiction of the crucifixion with dialogue only in Latin and Aramaic.
It's a major task for Noto, since "Passion" will open on only 2,000 U.S. screens on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday. Noto hopes that distributor Newmarket Films will let him bring a print to Hawaii early for local film reviewers. (A rough cut of the movie has already been shown locally, on Dec. 18, to an audience of ministers, priests and church members at Chaminade University's Mamiya Theatre, as part of a larger effort to drum up support for the controversial film.) ...
A film with Hawaii ties got a distribution deal at the Sundance Film Festival from Sony Pictures Classics. Stacy Peralta's surfing documentary "Riding Giants," which opened the festival, got picked up for a reported $2 million. Big wave surfer and former Hawaii resident Laird Hamilton was an executive producer. ...
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