Movie Filming Will Bring More of Hollywood's A-List to Cherokee County

With the buzz from the upcoming Tom Cruise drug-crime thriller, Mena, filling the air, there is no better time than now to announce that this spring and summer will bring some of Hollywood’s biggest names Cherokee County.

The Cherokee Office of Economic Development has been actively working with scouts, producers and location managers of more than one major motion picture.

Projects starring the likes of Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin and Michael Keaton will be shooting in Cherokee County in the weeks and months to come, the agency said.

COED President Misti Martin credits Georgia’s Camera Ready program and hard work for the attention the county is receiving from Hollywood.

“We have worked diligently since becoming a Camera Ready community in 2011 to build relationships with scouts and to grow the Camera Ready Reel Scout database,” Martin said. “Few know there is a committee of community representatives established by COED to identify unique features of Cherokee that could attract film prospects.”

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The first project to be filmed over the next several weeks will be ,Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, an adaptation of the 2012 novel penned by Ben Fountain. The film follows the story of U.S. soldiers sent on a PR tour after returning from battle.

This production will be filming scenes at the Georgia National Cemetery and through coordination with the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office, will be shooting a rolling road block scene along Interstate 575.

Downtown Canton will also see some of the Hollywood excitement with “The Founder,” a story about Ray Kroc’s success in turning McDonald’s into a food empire. The John Lee Hancock film is set to use the former Canton Cotton Mill Office, better known as Cherokee County School Board’s central offices, at 221 West Main Street for filming this summer.

Academy Award nominee Michael Keaton will star as Kroc. The film is already garnering attention from the entertainment community, one publication calling the film “a project every studio in Hollywood apparently wanted to be part of.”

Having found Ball Ground through the Camera Ready Reel Scout database, Mena will be gracing the streets of the north Cherokee city sometime this summer.

From the initial contact with COED on Feb. 23 to the confirmation late last week that the city of Ball Ground was chosen as the title city in the film, many moving parts had to come together to make this come to fruition.

“Hours were spent speaking with film scouts and searching out locations that could accommodate the project’s needs,” Martin added. “Both COED and representatives at the city worked tirelessly to find sites that would make “Mena” come to life the way the producers and scouts envisioned it. This is a huge win for our county.”

Marshall Day, chairman of the Cherokee Office of Economic Development’s board of directors, added this is an “exciting time for Cherokee” County.

“It is through our partnership with the State’s Camera Ready program, the cities and the county that attracting major film projects such as these is made possible,” Day said. “We have great momentum. I can’t wait to see what is next.”

Photo: Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots recently filmed scenes for the television series in downtown Canton. Credit: Cherokee Office of Economic Development