Midwest Movie Maker

Emily Kinney, perhaps best known for her role as Beth Greene on AMC’s The Walking Dead, is joining Anhedonia, the new indie feature from Cleveland’s Eric Swinderman and Carmen DeFranco.

Kinney got her start on stage, with roles in Spring Awakening and August: Osage County, before transitioning to guest roles on television and a star turn as Emily on Showtime’s The Big C.

Her breakout role would come as Beth Greene, Maggie Greene’s little sister, on The Walking Dead. Kinney became a fan favorite during a series of dramatic episodes in the series’ fourth season when Kinney’s Greene bonded with fellow survivor Daryl Dixon, played by Norman Reedus.

Anhedonia co-stars Breckin Meyer and Giselle Eisenberg.

"To have the opportunity to work with such an amazing actress like Emily is beyond exciting,” says Swinderman. “It's also very exciting for the city and people of northeast Ohio to have three huge TV stars coming to town to work on such a wonderful project.”

Anhedonia tells the tal…

There’s a bill before the Ohio General Assembly poised to more than double the Motion Picture Tax Credit, lifting the benefit from $40 million per fiscal year to $100 million. The goal is to expand the state’s budding film industry by attracting more film, television and theater production.

The tax credit played a pivotal role in the state landing bigger budget films, like The Avengers, Alex Cross, and Captain America: Winter Soldier. In recent years, however, states with larger tax incentives have lured those productions away.

Georgia, for example, offers a 20 percent tax credit for companies that spend $500,000 or more on production and post-production, throwing in another 10 percent if the film includes the state’s logo in its end credits. Broderick Johnson, producer of The Blind Side, referred to the credit as “one of the best, if not the best, in the country,” in an interview with Variety. There appears to be no cap, which is why the state has become the Hollywood of the East.
C…

Abby Elliott and Breckin Meyer are coming to Cleveland. They are set to star in Anhedonia, the new feature from 1031 Films’ Eric Swinderman and Carmen DeFranco. Filming begins May 1 at locations around Northeast Ohio.

Elliott, an alum of Saturday Night Live, is best known for her roles on How I Met Your Mother, Odd Mom Out, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It may not be Elliott’s first time in Cleveland, either. She played Lara in Fun Size, which shot in Cleveland in 2012.

Meyer starred as Jared Franklin on Franklin & Bash and is well known for roles in Road Trip, Clueless and Garfield.

Also joining the cast is Giselle Eisenberg, who stars as Sophia in Life in Pieces, and Cleveland’s own Debra Herzog, who had a supporting part on Outsiders and serves as a producer on Anhedonia.

Other local stars include Bryant Carroll, Allen O’Reilly, Jonathan Chiarle, and Katherine DeBoer. More roles will soon be cast.

Dark subjects, big questionsAnhedonia tells the tale of Casey (Meyer), who mee…

If you’re wondering who to root for during Sunday’s Oscars telecast, I have two names for you: Lee Unkrich and Dave Mullins. Both are Chagrin Falls, Ohio, natives. Both work for animation powerhouse Pixar. And both are nominated for Academy Awards in animation.

Unkrich directed Coco, the Pixar Animation Studios 2017 hit up for Best Animated Feature Film. The film tells the tale of Miguel Rivera, a 12-year-old boy who is transported to the land of the dead. There, he seeks the help of his ancestors to get back to the land of the living. The story is Unkrich’s too, although he didn’t write the screenplay.

Mullins wrote and directed the Pixar short Lou, which played alongside Pixar’s summer hit, Cars 3. Lou, the main character in the short, is made from the assorted unclaimed items of a kindergarten class. Lou’s gifts allow him to reshape the life of a class bully. Lou is up for Best Animated Short Film.

Clevelanders conquer Pixar Unkrich was an actor in his youth, performing at Clevelan…

Tina Fey is taking a serious turn, producing 67 Shots, a film about the 1970 Kent State shootings. The movie applied for the Ohio Film Tax Incentive earlier this year and plans to film in and around KSU sometime in 2018.

67 Shots focuses on events that led up to the shooting deaths of four students by Ohio National Guardsmen. The title comes from the numbers of shots those guardsmen fired into the unarmed crowd of protestors.
Fey is producing alongside Jeff Richmond, her husband and a Kent State alum. Jay Roach, best known for the Austin Powers and Meet the Fockers franchises, will helm the project. Roach is making more socially and politically aware films at this stage in his career, including Trumbo and Game Change.
The film is based on the book 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence and is adapted by award-winning playwright Stephen Belber. Fey and Richmond’s production company, Little Stranger, will join Shivani Rawat’s ShivHans Pictures and Michelle Graham’s Everyman…

For many Americans, A Christmas Story is a modern classic holiday movie. While certainly on the same list as similar modern classics - Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation - A Christmas Story may well be on its way to the same lofty heights as A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
The movie is especially popular in Cleveland, where many of the film’s exterior shots were filmed, as well as the film’s iconic visit to Santa. “Those scenes are a historical reminder of what Cleveland was like back then,” says Ivan Schwarz, director of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. “The movie is giving us a chance to look back at our own history.”
Still, it’s a movie for everyone from anywhere in the world. It celebrates childhood. It explores growing up. It reminds us what life was like when our worries were no bigger than Scut Farkas.
If you’d like to share that feeling with friends and relatives, we have some gift ideas for you.
1. Give them a copy of t…