Film looking for horse farm location

Th Hudson Valley Film Commission says a feature film looking to shoot this summer in the Hudson Valley region seeks a horse farm, “with a masculine/rustic looking home, a barn, stables/paddocks and smaller caretaker’s home. The house itself should have a rustic feel. It would also help if there was some type of water on the property, such a pond, brook or stream. Inside the house, there should be a very country feel–although they are willing to production design, the director wants a cinema verite look to the film. Ideally, a lot of wood trim, a darker color palette and a less modern look with more of a country feel to it.” Watershed Post says the films seems to be “Second Child,” by Chilean director Sebastian Silva, who won a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2009 for “The Maid.” From an interview with Silva on Ion Cinema: “The title is ‘Second Child’ and it’s a fiction movie about an eight year-old boy who is gay and falls in love with his uncle during a family vacation. His family wants him to like his little cousin but he is more interested in his uncle.” Please email photo suggestions of locations with contact info to filmcommission@me.com

Crandall Theater close to sold

Chatham resident Judy Grunberg, owner of the Blue Plate restaurant and the founder of the PS/21 arts center, is among a group of investors close to finalizing a deal to buy Chatham’s Crandall Theater, The Columbia Paper, and other papers, report today after the “For Sale” sign came down Thursday. When owner Tony Quirino died in January, he had been working to sell the theater to the Chatham Film Club, though the Club now is among two bidding groups that apparently lost to the Grunberg group. The Grunberg group is reportedly talking with the film club about extending the theater’s previous collaborations.

Coxsackie’s drive-in opens tonight

Nippertown! reports that The Hi-Way Drive-In on Route 9W in Coxsackie is opening its summer season tonight. The drive-in will be showing “Cop Out” with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan with “The Blind Side” starring Sandra Bullock. The Hi-Way Drive-In will be open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the screenings are scheduled to begin at about 7:30 p.m.

Columbia County’s Serpico

The New York Times profiled Frank Serpico, the New York City policeman who complained about corruption on the force, and got a movie made based on his life. The Times interviews him at a health-food store in Harlemville, near his Columbia County home where he raises chickens and guinea hens on 50 acres with no TV or internet. At the end of the story the writer, Corey Kilgannon, shows Serpico the Al Pacino-starring movie, he claims for the first time, at the Kinderhook library.

Chatham movie theater owner dies

Emilia Teasdale in The Columbia Paper reports that Crandell Theater owner,

“Anthony Quirino Jr., better known as Tony, died suddenly Sunday. He was 62. Mr. Quirino’s father, Anthony Sr., bought the Crandell in the 1960s, but Tony owned and operated the theater for the last 25 years. He did just about everything at the theater from selling tickets to running the projector to cleaning up. He and his wife, Sandy, who worked concessions, were there most every night. He had other jobs and worked at different businesses, including owning an auto repair shop in Ballston Spa. He was a Vietnam veteran who received a Bronze Star. But he grew-up in the Crandell, telling this reporter during an interview once how he used to fall asleep behind the screen while his parents ran the theater The Crandell opened on Main Street in 1926 and has only been run by two different families in the intervening 84 years. Mr. Quirino was actually on the verge of retiring when he died unexpectedly. The Chatham Film Club has been raising money, through the Crandell Legacy Campaign, to buy the theater and plans to maintain his tradition of low ticket prices and family-friendly films.”