CINCINNATI — The Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Film Commission is planning a red-carpet gala for the Queen City premiere of the movie “Carol,” starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
For $150 per person, people can attend the celebration at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Cincinnati Club. Portions of “Carol” were filmed inside the historic building located at 30 Garfield Place, according to Kristen Schlotman, executive director for the film commission. Tickets can be purchased by calling 513-784-1744 or by emailing heather@filmcincinnati.com.
The gala will take place after an already-at-capacity screening of the film at 4:15 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Esquire Theatre in Clifton.
“Carol” centers on a love affair set in 1950s New York between a wealthy socialite (Blanchett) and a young department store clerk (Mara). The film, directed by Todd Haynes, received Oscar-worthy reviews after its screening at the Cannes Film Festival in France earlier this year.
When it was first announced in 2013 that “Carol” would be filmed here, Schlotman noted that Cincinnati was selected to represent New York largely because of its architecture.
“We are ecstatic to host such an extraordinary project,” she said at the time. “This is the largest motion picture to shoot in our area.”
Primary filming for “Carol" began in March 2014, spawning multiple sightings of Mara and Blanchett filming in such locations as Eden Park and Downtown.
As filming for “Carol” finished a month later, the film commission announced Don Cheadle would be coming to Cincinnati to shoot his independently funded movie "Miles Ahead," a biopic about jazz legend Miles Davis.
Since the filming of "Miles Ahead," with the ongoing help of Ohio tax incentives, the film commission has brought five more major motion pictures and a made-for-television movie to the Tri-State.
One of those movies, a period piece called "A Kind of Murder" starring Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson, filmed in late 2014 under the working title "Blunderer."
This year, James Franco produced two films in the region back-to-back. The first was "Goat," a movie about a 19-year-old college freshman played by Nick Jonas. The second was "The Long Home," in which Franco stars as a Tennessee honky-tonk owner who hires a contractor played by Northern Kentucky native Josh Hutcherson. "The Long Home" has a release date of 2017. A release date for "Goat" has not been announced.
After Franco's movies wrapped, the film commission announced three more movie shoots in the Tri-State.
Filming of "Marauders," a bank heist movie starring Bruce Willis, Adrian Grenier and Chris Meloni, began in early September and ended in early October. In that film, directed by Steven C. Miller, Cincinnati is the setting for the plot's action.
Pop star Mariah Carey then made her directorial debut in the Queen City with “A Christmas Melody." Carey also has a part in the Hallmark Channel holiday film, which is set to premiere at 8 p.m. Dec. 19.
Finally, the boxing flick “Tiger” began filming in Hamilton last week. That shoot is expected to wrap up by Dec. 11.
