Production crews for the movie “By Way of Helena” have begun settling in Greenwood, four weeks ahead of filming for the Western.
With more cast and crew members streaming into town over the coming weeks, a production assistant on the movie says she’s searching for suitable furnished housing to accommodate everyone working on the film.
“People are starting to come in, and we’d love to put a roof over their heads,” said Leesa Kahn. “We’re open to looking at anything that might come available in Greenwood.”
“By Way of Helena” stars Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson. Much of it is to be filmed on the site of the former Florewood State Park. Once a living history museum of an 1850s Delta cotton plantation, the park will be transformed into a late-19th-century frontier town by film crews.
Kahn said four more weeks of pre-production work would be followed by five weeks of filming, beginning in September and stretching into October.
The production company has rented the park from the Leflore County Board of Supervisors through Nov. 4. The county took out a 25-year lease on the property in 2007, three years after the state decided to shutter the park and auction off many of its exhibits.
In the film, according to several online industry reports, Hemsworth will play an 1880s Texas Ranger who is dispatched to a mysterious, isolated town to investigate multiple dead bodies that wash up out of the river. Harrelson reportedly will play Abraham Brant, a town preacher who appears to hold a cultish sway over its residents.
Hemsworth, a 24-year-old Australian actor, and Harrelson, the 53-year-old former “Cheers” star fresh off a leading role in the HBO series “True Detective,” also co-star in “The Hunger Games” series of movies.
The production will demand a substantial makeover at Florewood, where many of the buildings have begun to crumble in the decade since the park was last opened to the public. A steady stream of production crew members have been arriving in Greenwood since the production was announced in late July.
Kahn said the crews’ experience in Greenwood has been overwhelmingly positive, and “so far, the people in town have been fabulous.”
Anyone with potential housing for the cast and crew of the film is encouraged to contact the production office at 451-1627.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
