Lights, Camera, Action in Bucks

From Tuesday's column:

Lights, Camera, Action in Bucks

Filming for the latest Jamie Foxx movie turned heads in Pineville.

There are few places in Bucks County more serene than Pineville, where horses graze in expansive green pastures and streams sparkle in the sunlight.

But the bucolic peace was shattered during the weekend when a band of filmmakers came to town, complete with helicopters and police chases.

Filming for Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx's newest flick, "Law Abiding Citizen," took over a Pineville Road farm for three days, shooting scenes of the home of Gerard Butler's character, Clyde.

"The police were raiding the place; running, shooting," Anna Simons, who lives on a nearby farm on Holicong Road, said of the scene she witnessed.

"I saw a helicopter hovering over the field, with a cop hanging out with a gun + it was fascinating," she said. "You could see the other helicopter with the camera filming. They were so low you could talk to them."

The horses just kept "grazing away," said the soft-spoken Simons.

About 175 members of the production crew and extras made their home Friday in the clubhouse of Buckingham Springs, where they ate and strategized.

"They used our facilities," said Ann McClain, the community's administrative assistant. "They couldn't have been nicer. They were very well organized."

The Greater Philadelphia Film Office, which manages all filming done in the five-county region, promotes the city and its suburbs as a diverse area for moviemaking. Sharon Pinkenson, the office's executive director, said they were excited that Foxx's film is being shot in and around the city.

"We're really thrilled such big stars and such a big film are being shot in Bucks County," she said.

M. Night Shyamalan shot much of his 2002 film, "Signs," with Mel Gibson, in Central Bucks.

"Law Abiding Citizen," began filming in Philadelphia in January and is scheduled for release next spring.

The plot focuses on a man who, 10 years after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered, returns to find justice from the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case against their killers.

Foxx won the Academy Award for best actor in 2005 for his portrayal of Ray Charles in "Ray."

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/16/2009/march/24/lights-camera-action-in-bucks.html