|
Reel News Tim Ryan |
‘Pearl City’ cast
has NBC actorsIvan Sergei will play an arrogant and unorthodox detective in the NBC pilot "Pearl City." He currently co-stars on the network's drama "Crossing Jordan." Sergei joins Sharif Atkins, formerly of "ER." Jon Avnet was hired this week to direct and Jeff Eastin will executive produce for NBC Studios... Warner Bros. TV and director John Stockwell ("Blue Crush") are hinting about teaming up for a North Shore-based series about a local family, though no green light as yet for the pilot...
The Hollywood Reporter did an "On Location" story in Hawaii, focusing on why recent films from Warner Bros. ("The Big Bounce") and Sony ("50 First Dates") filmed here instead of the originally planned locations. Executive producer Zane Weiner explained that "Bounce" was moved from Michigan because "the director and producers all decided that it would be nice to have a sexy location, where the background could almost be another female lead for the movie. And realistically, a lot of locations in the U.S. are overshot, and you kinda get sick of seeing them."
"Dates" star Adam Sandler is such a Hawaii fan (part of his "Punch-Drunk Love" was shot here) that he changed the film's original Seattle setting...
There could be changes in the state's rebate rate for film and TV productions. Hawaii Film Office manager Donne Dawson is expected to ask the Legislature to increase the rebate to as much as 15 percent, to compete better with other states. She also wants filmmakers to get 100 percent of the credit even if they don't shoot Hawaii as Hawaii...
The producers of a Coca-Cola commercial spent about $750,00 for a three-day shoot on the North Shore this month. Hawaii location manager Stephanie Spangler is ecstatic about the "can do" attitude and cooperation from state and county government agencies during the shoot, which included about 90 local crew...
Wondering what happened to the romantic comedy "Madam, The Grass is High" that was publicized (not in this column) to begin filming on Oahu and Maui this month? Producers have been unable to raise the money...
And on a different note, Jimmy Buffett's concert tonight at the Waikiki Shell sold out Monday, even without announcing that Henry Kapono will show up for a song or two and Martin Denny may play the piano...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Reel News unspools every Wednesday.
Contact Tim Ryan at tryan@starbulletin.com.