THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 85 lines
Lights! Cameras! . . . Colonna's?
Norfolk's Colonna's Shipyard Inc. went Hollywood on Wednesday.
The missile range instrumentation ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg arrived for a makeover that will turn the aging rustbucket into a movie star.
The ship will be a key player in a movie to be filmed in Hampton Roads. Sea Star Productions Inc. plans to make ``Virus,'' a science fiction thriller, in Hampton Roads for Universal Pictures.
Officials at Sea Star could not be reached for comment.
Most local officials involved have no idea who will be starring. Dockside scuttlebutt has it starring Anthony Hopkins and Jamie Lee Curtis, but that may change because the production schedule has been delayed by difficulties in getting access to the Vandenberg.
One thing is certain, a lot of money is about to be spent around the region.
``It's a very big budget, and a good part of it is going to be spent in Hampton Roads,'' said Doug Forrest, Colonna's vice president.
Anywhere from 25 percent to 35 percent of a film's production budget is spent on location, according to the Virginia Film Board.
``Virus'' could bring at least $7 million to the local economy, said M.B. Mausteller, chairman of the Virginia Port Authority.
Even the Eastern Shore is getting a piece of the action, one source said. The film's producers plan to use Cape Charles as a base while filming scenes aboard the ship, which will be anchored 10 miles out in the Chesapeake Bay.
The plot supposedly revolves around an alien computer virus that infects Russia's Mir space station then transmits itself down to a satellite tracking ship, played by the Vandenberg, in the North Sea. Its intentions are unclear, but the killer virus must be stopped.
In addition to the filming in the Bay, the Vandenberg will be berthed in Newport News for additional movie-making. Interior shots will likely be taken aboard the U.S. Maritime Administration crane ships Flickertail State and Cornhusker State, said Nuns Jain, regional director for the Maritime Administration, or MARAD.
The region hasn't seen a major movie production since the filming of ``Navy Seals'' in 1990.
Production had been scheduled to begin in the fall, but the ship won't be coming out of Colonna's until the end of October. The weather could make filming difficult at that time.
It took the movie's producers longer than anticipated to get permission to use the Vandenberg.
Built in 1944 as a troop transport, the Vandenberg was converted in 1965 for tracking and testing nuclear missiles. The ship was decommissioned in 1983 and transferred to the Maritime Administration for storage in the National Defense Reserve Fleet on the James River.
MARAD slated the Vandenberg for scrapping two years ago, but Hollywood had other ideas.
The producers contacted MARAD earlier this year, but the agency didn't have the legislative authority to make mothballed vessels available for movie production, Jain said.
The Navy did. MARAD transferred the ship's title back to the Navy, which recently finished negotiating an agreement with the film's producers for its use.
Colonna's Shipyard will do more than $1 million of work on the ship, painting it and making cosmetic structural changes to make it look like a ``state-of-the-art satellite tracking ship,'' Forrest said.
The shipyard is also making cosmetic changes to two tug boats to make them look like North Sea tugs.
Other companies in the region will also get a piece of the action.
The movie's producers are hiring tug companies, diving firms and suppliers. Once production starts, some local hotels and restaurants will see added business as the movie's 300-person crew comes to town, Mausteller said.
``It's a great economic boon for the region because these people don't have kids in school, they don't use the highways for long,'' Forrest said. ``They come, they shoot the movie and they leave their money.''
MEMO: Staff Writer Wendy Grossman contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Motoya Nakamura/The Virginian-Pilot
The missile range instrumentation ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg,
above, will star in Sea Star Productions' ``Virus,'' to be filmed in
Hampton Roads. Rumored to star in the movie: Anthony Hopkins and
Jamie Lee Curtis.
Color photos
Hopkins?
Curtis? by CNB