Local Officials Meet with Guillermo del Toro

BUFFALO (WBEN) - It appears that Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro wants to shoot scenes of "Nightmare Alley," starring Bradley Cooper, in Buffalo. The acclaimed director met with County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Mayor Byron Brown on Tuesday.

You never know who you will meet on the streets of Buffalo. Yesterday @MayorByronBrown and I ran into Oscar winning director @RealGDT as he and his team were scouting locations for his next movie. Welcome to Buffalo Mr. del Toro and thanks @BfloFilmOffice for your work efforts. pic.twitter.com/PmEpsp6YXb

"The famous film director shared...that he loves Buffalo and Erie County, and that he's looking at doing a project here in our community, that he's visited Buffalo and Erie County a number of times," said Brown. "We wanted to welcome him to our community and let him know that, as we always do with any kind of film project that comes into our community, we'll make sure it's a good experience for the film maker and the community."

By following del Toro's Twitter account, it appears he very much appreciates Western New York. Poloncarz noted that del Toro was filming a movie mainly in Toronto, but he hopes that a good portion of the film is shot in Buffalo.

Leaving Buffalo today! Will be back! Any culinary suggestions, antique stores, bookstore and indie comic shop suggestions-? And yeah, let's screen some horror or noir when I come back!

"What we continue to see is the investment of jobs that are permanent jobs here, but also the investment into our economy of millions of dollars to our hotels and to our restaurants that we would not otherwise have..." said Poloncarz. "They come to Buffalo because they know they have the capability from the staff and personnel here, but truthfully, we're less expensive than New York City or Toronto to film because when they get hotel rooms, they don't have to pay $600 a night - maybe they're only paying $200 a night - but that's still money coming into our community."