Details are coming to light regarding an apparent Hollywood motion picture that is currently being filmed in and around the Gainesville area.
In recent days, many Gainesville locals have reported an increase in street closures around the Brenau campus, with a few even apparently sighting WWE-wrestler-turned-blockbuster-movie-star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson at various locations around the city.
AccessWDUN has since learned that the campus is serving as a central "base camp" for the filming of a movie, one reportedly based on a popular arcade and video game series that debuted in 1986, and will feature Johnson in the lead role,
Gainesville officials, unable to release many details regarding, confirmed this week that filming was taking place around the city.
"Yes, there is a movie being filmed. I'm not sure what we can tell you," said Gainesville Communications & Tourism Director Catiel Felts. "My office has been working with them."
Russell Brown, host of WDUN's Afternoon News Wrap, traveled to one of the apparent filming locations on Prior Street, and spoke with residents who were watching filming-related activities from their front porch.
"A few weeks ago these streets started getting blocked off, and we found out there was a motion picture," explained one of the residents. "We found out from a neighbor 'The Rock' was here, and then we went and talked to a police officer, and he confirmed that, yes, he is here and that he saw him."
The residents said they were told the movie's title was "Rampage," a fact later confirmed to Brown by one of the security guards overseeing the film crew's parking area, currently staged in the parking lot of 1st Baptist Church on Green Street.
According to the online film database IMDb, "Rampage" is "based on the classic 1980's video game featuring apes and monsters destroying cities."
A plot synopsis posted to the film's IMDb page describes the movie as follows:
"Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry transforms this gentle ape into a raging monster. As these newly created monsters tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend."
City officials have not said how long filming is expected to last, or how much of an impact, economic or otherwise, it will have on local residents.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/5/540772/report-rock-starring-hollywood-movie-now-filming-in-gainesville