Midwest Movie Maker

Actress Johanna McGinley Johanna McGinley always knew she wanted to be an actress. I remember being little and watching I Love Lucy ,’ thinking,’ I want to be like her!’,” she says. “I used to impersonate her for my mother and make other people laugh!” McGinley, who makes her home in Columbus, Ohio, stars as Annalivia Farrell in WGN America’s new drama, Outsiders . Outsiders premieres Tuesday, January 26. “I was hooked,” she continues. “When I graduated high school, I moved straight to New York City to study at the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. I graduated the two-year film/TV acting program and came back home to test out the Midwest film industry. It was smaller and less intimidating.” McGinley’s film career started behind-the-camera, as she picked up production assistant and stand-in jobs to help pay the bills. “I realized this was the best way to network,” McGinely says, “I’ve created a network of contacts and people are starting to know me.”  McGinel ...

Ben Affleck as Batman in a photo tweeted by director Zack Snyder on the Detroit set of 'Batman v Superman' Summertime is fast becoming filmmaking season in the Midwest. In the last few years, films like The Avengers , Transformers , Captain America , Draft Day , The Fault in Our Stars and more have set up shop in the summer months to make their movies in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. This summer is no different. Travel through the Midwest Movie Belt (Detroit through Cleveland to Pittsburgh) and a half-dozen or more mid- to big-budget films are calling the region home. Expand that through the states and you double that number. Turn a corner and someone’s likely shooting a scene filled with zombies, criminals or battling DC superheroes. Here are the Top 5 summer productions you should be looking for: 1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice . By far, Warner Bros. sort of sequel to Man of Steel (though, from recent leaked reports of Warner Bros. DC superhero movie...

'Fault' fans can check out the celebs at Cleveland fan event. Cleveland fans of the young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars , get ready to celebrate. The film adaptation’s stars, as well as the novel’s author, are inviting you to join them for a Q&A event and film clip sneak peeks at Tower City Center this Wednesday, May 7, at 5 p.m. Actors Shailene Woodley ( Divergent , The Descendants ), Ansel Elgort ( Divergent ), Nat Wolff ( Admission ) and author John Green (TIME Most Influential People 2014) are all on hand to greet fans. Cleveland is one of four cities to take part in this special “ Demand Our Stars ” tour. Fans voted to win a stop on the tour, and Cleveland topped the list with more than 200,000 votes. Most of the film was shot in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , in 2013. The book and film tell the story to two teenagers who find love against the backdrop of a cancer support group. The movie opens nationwide June 6. Follow us on Twitt...

Hell hath no fury like a vampire scorned. The acting bug bit Pittsburgh hyphenate David Dietz early and often. (It’s Halloween, after all, so shouldn’t it be a swarm?) “I've always acted in plays, going to back to when I was in elementary school,” says Dietz, who grew up outside Pittsburgh and attended Robert Morris University. “Then, when I got older, and learned that people would actually pay me to do it, I was sold! Now, with the technology making it easier for Hollywood outsiders to bring their visions to the screen, not only have I been cast in more films, I can even make my own!” Since, Dietz has acted in a fistful of films made in and around Pittsburgh, including End Game and Death from Above , both starring Kurt Angle , Strange Girls and Fetish Dolls Die Laughing .  Dietz is making his own movies these days. His proudest achievement (so far)? Indemnity: Rage of a Jealous Vampire . The horror film tells the tale of what happens when a woman, scorned, happen...