Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - Western New York recently got the chance to be recognized in the movie industry, as the film "Nightmare Alley" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and also Best Picture. Parts of the film were shot in Buffalo, featuring some key Buffalo landmarks like City Hall, Niagara Square and Karpeles Museum.
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It is expected for the region to, once again, be in the spotlight this week, as crews will be making their way to Western New York for the filming of another motion picture movie.
"All I can really say is that we are expecting rather large movie shoots this week, and it is in the area of Niagara Falls, Niagara County," said Buffalo-Niagara Film Commissioner, Tim Clark. "It involves several locations, and that I am able to confirm."
While not much is known about the movie just yet, filming of "A Man Named Otto" has been taking place since February of 2022 in other locations like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Toledo, Ohio. According to the site IMDB, the film's storyline reads: "A cranky retired man strikes up an unlikely friendship with his boisterous new neighbors. A remake of the 2015 Swedish film."
IMBD also says the movie stars such talents like Tom Hanks, Rachel Keller and Cameron Britton. Hanks is also listed as a producer of the film.
The movie's release is set to be on Christmas Day of 2022.
"It's pretty exciting. I can tell you that obviously this isn't the first opportunity for Niagara Falls. The Buffalo-Niagara Film [Commission] always includes Niagara Falls and its conversations, and we appreciate that," said Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino on the film coming to the City. "We're happy that we have venues that make for good use, and I think our administration works well with the filming community to make sure that whatever we need to do from an administrative standpoint, we can provide that assistance."
While Restaino is not able to give too many details into the filming of the movie, he knows the crews will be utilizing a location in the Eastern part of the City of Niagara Falls, as one of the motels there will fit as an appropriate backdrop for the particular scene in the movie.
"Obviously, I'm not at liberty to provide extensive detail. It's one of the things that they ask of us when they come to town," Restaino said. "Certainly, I'm sure that you've also seen the individuals who will be coming. We're excited to have them come into our community. We certainly want to support the film industry as much as we can here, and every chance we get, we want to make sure that the City of Niagara Falls is viewed as a real viable partner for film production."
While the amount of time that is expected for filming to take place this time around will be shorter than in past cases, just having more-and-more directors, producers and other movie creators bringing their cast and crews to Western New York is a positive for not only the local filming community, but for the rest of the region as a whole.
"It's great, because they employ a lot of local people, and then with their traveling crew, they take up a lot of local hotel rooms. So it's really a win-win for the region for sure, and it is an important piece of the new sector economy of Buffalo," Clark said. "More-and-more, we're seeing Hollywood take notice of Western New York and all of its great architectural assets and all the cool things that we just basically take for granted all day long, but yet, they see it as something very unique."
As for the City of Niagara Falls, they are more than gracious for the attention from the filming community, and are welcome to more chances to host the cinematic world.
"We work, again, with the Buffalo-Niagara Film [Commission] to make sure that as they look for opportunities, as they look for options, we provide them with sort of a list of those locations that might be favorable and advantageous," Mayor Restaino said. "They are very good in their communication with us, and obviously what we have told Mr. Clark that we're comfortable being able to provide whatever it is that we have. Whether it is public safety issues that we may have to address, or whether it's staging something, assisting and staging something by using city crews, we're happy to provide whatever we can to make those productions happen."
The movie set will be closed off to the public once filming begins.