Bonnie + Clyde still a go
After three delays due to weather, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde is back on again. Owner of Cypress Moon, Tonya Holly, says the film will be back underway shortly.
The tornado outbreak in Missouri destroyed several of the film's locations.
CARTHAGE, Mo.
A movie producer who was planning to shoot parts of a movie about Bonnie and Clyde said the movie is still a go and she will be in Joplin in the next few weeks.
Tonya Holly, owner of Cyprus Moon Production, said bad weather in three states has pushed production back on her movie, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, which will star Hillary Duff and Kevin Zegers, but she plans to push forward with the movie.
Holly said shes still making plans and no firm date has been set, but she plans to be in Joplin in about three weeks to talk to local people about speaking roles in the movie.
Holly, in a telephone conversation with The Carthage Press on Friday, said the tornados that swept through the south in April damaged some locations where she was planning to shoot, and then the tornado on May 22 devastated Joplin.
That tornado spared the garage apartment on Oak Ridge Drive in Joplin.
It wasnt just the damage to the locations, but several of my production crew members had homes damaged in the tornados in April, Holly said. There was just no way to even think about continuing with production.
Holly was in Joplin in March to hold a casting call that attracted more than 1,000 hopefuls seeking some kind of part in the movie.
She said a tornado on April 30 devastated the town of Smithfield, Miss., one of the cities where she was planning to shoot part of the movie.
Smithville is just gone from the map, Holly said. I was going to be in Joplin on May 23. I was driving from Louisiana to Joplin and was driving through Smithfield and its just gone. It was hit by an EF5 tornado. I was really upset when I saw Smithville, then I heard on the radio about a tornado hitting Joplin and I drove home as quick as I could. I saw on the television that Joplin had been blown away.
Other locations were affected by tornados or the flooding on the Mississippi River that has hammered the South over the past few months.
Holly said she and her husband spent 16 hours in their tornado shelter as tornados ravaged communities around their Muscle Shoals, Ala., recording studio on April 27 and 28.
In addition to ducking tornados herself, helping crew members recover from their own disasters and dealing with planned shooting locations being damaged by weather, Holly has also had to deal with rumors about the cast of her movie.
She said the cast of leading characters is intact and they will be in Joplin sometime in the near future once shooting on the movie begins.
Holly said she had received emails from people in Joplin asking if she still planned to shoot the movie here and asking her not to give up on Joplin.
http://www.carthagepress.com/news/x1722638114/Bonnie-and-Clyde-movie-s till-a-go