It's getting to where a person can't shake a tree around here without a film crew falling out.
On Thursday, the Dem-Gaz's Brianna Kwasnik reported that John Cusack and Emile Hirsch are filming "Pursuit" with director Brian Skiba in downtown Little Rock.
Lifetime movie "A Sister's Grudge," directed by Nigel Thomas and starring Aubrey Reynolds, Jonathan Stoddard and Annika Foster, was set to wrap yesterday after about two weeks of filming in and around Little Rock.
Rick Benattar of Los Angeles is the movie's producer and has a lot of experience in these parts.
"This is my fourth film in Arkansas," he said late last week from the former Bravo Cucina Italiana Restaurant in west Little Rock, where scenes for "A Sister's Grudge" were being filmed.
His first project, "All for Her," was shot in Bentonville in 2020. When he realized that most of the crew for that movie was based in Little Rock he moved his next films, including "Paralyzed by Danger" for Lifetime and "Fatal Following" to Central Arkansas.
Along with the former restaurant, scenes for "A Sister's Grudge," which is about a spurned and unhinged love-child out for revenge, have been shot at a Little Rock cemetery, a home in Chenal Valley and a few other locations.
When the movie needed scenes at a farmers market, Me and McGee Market on U.S. 70 in North Little Rock was picture perfect.
"They came out early in the morning, and they had all kinds of equipment," says Logan Duvall, who owns the market with his mom, Neva Collier. "I bet there were 50-60 people out here, and they were here all day."
Location manager Tammy Glass helped find spots for the movie to film and, like most of the crew, is local.
"We use Tammy all the time. No matter what the movie needs, she finds it," Benattar says.
The producer isn't shy about his affection for making movies here.
"I love Little Rock," he says. "The people here that we have been working with, including the facilities that provide our equipment, are all world class. I would take this crew anywhere in the world to shoot a movie. It's not that they are the best crew in Little Rock, they are some of the best crews I've worked with anywhere.
"And I don't know if it's a Southern thing, but Arkansans are extremely nice people and really go out of their way to help you out. I'm a big, big fan of Arkansas."
email: sclancy@adgnewsroom.com