Hollywood comes to city for movie shoot

Elyria will be featured in a film that brings the novel “All the Bright Places,” written by Liz Hannah and Jennifer Niven, to life.

Production crews rehearsed and set up a scene Oct. 4 that’s set on Elyria’s Washington Avenue bridge and will begin shooting in the area Oct. 5, according to crew members of the movie’s set decorations department.

According to the city of Elyria, the bridge and roadway between Depot and Harrison streets were closed to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Oct. 4, and will again be closed from 8 a.m. to midnight, Oct. 5.

Film director Brett Haley will have crews filming on the streets of Washington Avenue and Leo Bullock Parkway, but will take the audience to the fictional town of Bartlett, Ind.

Mayor Holly Brinda said she is happy the film director and crew chose Elyria to be featured in its second movie.

Elyria was first featured in the 2015 film The Bronze.

Brinda said Elyria was chosen as a setting for All the Bright Places because crews were looking for a picturesque city with good infrastructure.

She said she and others have been trying to get Elyria on the big screen by publicizing archives of the city’s most interesting places to The Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

“We’re fortunate our downtown is still beautiful with features like Ely Square, the Western Reserve and our water features,” she said. “There’s a lot of good reasons to film here.”

Due to the construction throughout the city, it has added some challenges to motorists and residents, in which Brinda apologized for.

“We thought people would get a big kick seeing their city on the big screen,” she said. “We’re hoping to bring notoriety.”

The film will star Elle Fanning, of Maleficent, as Violet Markey, and Justice Smith, of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as Theodore Finch.

Finch, whom is fascinated by death, but every day, he searches for something to keep him alive and awake.

He meets Markey, who lives for the future, but is seeking to escape her smalltown Indiana home after graduation and the grievance of her sister’s recent death, according to Greater Cleveland Film Commission’s website.

Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school and soon become close.

But as Violet’s world grows near graduation, Finch’s begins to shrink, the website said.

The film is not yet rated and has no premiere date set.

Drivers and pedestrians seeking a destination in the area will need to detour from southbound Washington Avenue using Harrison Street, east to East River Street, south to Ridge Street, east to East Bridge Street, south to Broad Street and west to Washington Avenue, according to a news advisory from the city.

To detour from Washington Avenue and Broad Street, drivers and pedestrians should use Broad Street, east to East Bridge Street, north to Ridge Street, west to East River Street, north to Harrison Street and west to Washington Avenue.