With traffic cones lining the lanes and police cars flashing their lights in the vicinity of the Kittanning Citizens Bridge last Friday afternoon, there were many rumors spreading across town. Are they repainting the lines on the bridge? Did some down-on-their-luck resident jump over its railings? Was there a major vehicle collision? The answer: none of the above. Locations Manager Shawn Boyachek and a crew were in town to analyze the Kittanning Citizens Bridge this past Friday for its possible appearance in the upcoming film “One for the Money” starring Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy, 27 Dresses, Knocked Up).
The movie is based on a popular book series, consisting of 16 books so far, written by Janet Evanovich.
Heigl is set to play the leading role as main character Stephanie Plum. In the book series, Plum is an unemployed lingerie buyer who, because she is almost completely out of money, convinces her cousin Vinny to give her a job as a bounty hunter for his bail bond business even though she has no experience whatsoever. Her first job offers a reward of $10,000. However, the target that she is required to track down is an old romantic acquaintance of hers named Joe Morelli. Morelli is suspected of murder and is on the run.
The scene that may be shot on Kittanning’s bridge occurs when Heigl, playing Plum, is in her car and stops to speak with someone. While checking out the bridge, Boyachek seemed very positive about the scene’s chances of being shot in Kittanning. “Everything looks pretty good,” he said. “I’m very confident that it will work well.”
Boyacheck has experience working in the downtown Kittanning environment since he worked on the pilot of an FX series called “Justified” Since he worked on the pilot for an FX series called “Justified” here last year Boyacheck has become familiar with the area.
In order to survey the bridge, the left-hand turning lane coming into downtown Kittanning was blocked-off, orange traffic cones were put up, and Kittanning Police were directing traffic at the intersection of Water Street and Market Street.
Boyacheck said that the production crew was working with PennDOT District 10 in order to make room for the project.
“They were looking at the film shots to see what they were going to use for the film,” said Acting Community Relations Coordinator for PennDOT District 10 Harold Swan. “Our role is somewhat limited, but it’s very much essential. Today, for example, they worked out an agreement with the local municipality in order to permit the work to be done there. So, they made-up a works and traffic control plan with the local municipality who ran it by us. They do a signed document, they run it through our traffic department here, and get it approved. So, that gave them the ability to do what they needed to do today.”
Swan and Boyacheck both said that shooting probably won’t occur until sometime in September.
“ More importantly though, for the September time frame, when they go to do the actual shoot, we do an agreement with them which basically says that we’re going to sit down with them ahead of time and talk about how we’re going to do the works and traffic control, how we’re going to manage a detour, if necessary, and how we’re going to manage all of the other details that are involved in closing that bridge down in order for them to do filming in a safe and efficient manner including how we’re going to alert motorists, and how we’re going to take care of advanced signing. So, all of the things that we would do with a typical construction project we would do with a type of project like that. We’re hand-in hand; they have all of the costs, but we are there to provide advice, guidance, and support to make sure it’s done according to our standards.”
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