Hollywood has come to town, and south Charlotte’s Mountainbrook
neighborhood is front and center.
Film giant 20th Century Fox is shooting a pilot episode of a TV show,
“Homeland,” for Showtime and they’re filming much of it in Charlotte.
The show is about U.S. Marine Sgt. Scott Brody (played by British actor
Damian Lewis) who spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Baghdad and was
presumed dead. Recently rescued, Brody has returned to his wife and kids and
is lauded as a hero.
But CIA agent Carrie Anderson (played by Emmy award-winning actress
Claire Danes) suspects that he’s plotting an attack on America.
“The questions is, ‘Is he the hero he appears to be?’ ” said producer
Michael Click, who used to work with Fox’s hit action drama “24.” “It’s a
little bit of a whodunit.”
Click said he thinks viewers will tune in because of the modern issues it
delves into.
“It has a lot of timely aspects to it, in terms of fears of terrorism,
prisoners of war, internal threats to the government,” said Click. “There
are a lot of threats explored in a family-drama situation.”
When deciding where to film, Fox chose North Carolina because the state
offered tax breaks. They picked Charlotte and the South Park area, in
particular, because the homes’ architecture resembles that of suburban
Virginia, where the show is set.
Charlotte’s uptown area could resemble Washington, D.C.
“It was a good match,” said Click. “It’s a very nice downtown – modern, a
lot of good looks to it. It doesn’t have the broad boulevards that D.C. has
but it will make a good double. There are a number of governmental buildings
we could use in terms of walk-and-talk conversations. And if you need to go
to Washington, it’s a two-hour flight up the road.”
‘Oziegirl17’, a member at the Yahoo! Group, has learned that the pilot will also film in Washington, DC and Tel Aviv and if the if the pilot is picked up, Damian Lewis will return to Charlotte in June for 5 months. Read her post here.
the blizzard of the century, so they shut us down for two days. But we are
