Liberty to become Hollywood – News and sports in the Whitewater Valley

By John Estridge

Liberty will be renamed Hollywood, at least for a day, and officials might not mind if it becomes Hoosierwood in the future.

The movie “Bones and All” will film a couple of scenes in Union County with one being in Liberty on Union Street in front of the Liberty Restaurant Wednesday, July 14. Also, scenes will be shot at an undisclosed Union County residence.

A nearby out-of-county location is the old Abington store.

At least one of the Liberty scenes will involve the female lead walking across Union Street from south to north in front of the Liberty Restaurant.

Union County commissioners discussed the unusual opportunity for the county at their meeting Friday morning, July 9.

According to Deadline.com “Bones and All” is “a drama that stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as star-crossed young lovers surviving on the margins of society, who meet and join together for a 1,000-mile odyssey that takes them through the back roads, hidden passages and trap doors of Ronald Reagan’s America. Despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.”

Again, according to Deadline.com, the movie is being filmed in the Tri-State area. A bridge was closed in Cincinnati last week so scenes could be filmed there. According to Cincinnati media, movie crew members’ vehicles were broken into and items stolen while filming in Cincinnati in June. Those with the film asked Cincinnati City Council members and then received an additional $50,000 for security purposes.

County officials hope nothing like that happens in Union County. Instead, they hope this is the first of many movies to use Liberty as a backdrop due to positive outcomes.

“Once you get on the movie radar, they are going to enter it into a movie database: Union County courthouse, two old cannons, downtown looks like the 60s, local contact person was very friendly, local government officials were very responsive,” commissioner Tim Williams said. “You get a grade, basically. So when someone types in there ‘I’m looking for a courthouse” and you’re on a scale so it’s really important we’re nice to these people.”

Commissioner Howard Curry explained they want Liberty’s downtown to be Minnesota in the 1980s and not Indiana in 2021. To that end there will be temporary cosmetic changes. Before the film crew members leave, they will return everything to the way it was before they came, commissioners said. The Indiana state flag is coming down and a Minnesota flag is going up in its place. Also, he said they are going to take the lights off the gazebo.

Melissa Spillers, who attended the commissioners’ meeting, is a business owner and was the Bicentennial chairperson, said the film crew is going to remove vinyl siding off some of the downtown buildings, paint the buildings, then clean the vinyl siding and replace it before they leave.

“Everything will come off the walls in the Liberty Restaurant,” Curry said.

Union County Foundation is allowing the film company to park their vehicles on its downtown property.

“I understand there’s a lot of them (vehicles),” Williams said.

According to Curry, the film company rented the American Legion’s upstairs and is going have catered meals served there for crewmembers. Commissioners said the Indiana State Police will provide security for the filming. The town and county will each receive $1,000 for any costs associated with the filming.

While those in charge of the movie will want the shooting to go well, commissioners said the town and county should also be hopeful the area gives a positive impression.

“I’m excited that we put on a good show,” Williams said.

Spillers said this is something that can promote tourism to Union County. She went to a town, which was the setting for a portion of the movie “Superman,” and she visited it.

“Tourists came there just because of the movie,” Spillers said.

Recently, during the television show “Home Town,” it was discussed part of the movie “Big Fish” was filmed in Wetumpka, Alabama. And people visit that town to see different backdrops to that movie.

Williams said the people there with the film crews and because of the film crews will probably increase sales for local merchants.

Apparently, the male lead has a following, Williams said. And the fact he is in Liberty, could draw its own crowd.