Oxford firefighters and other emergency responders will be at the city park in Uptown Oxford next week when Sylvester Stallone films an explosion for his Alarum movie.
For more than two months, Oxford city officials have been working with the production company on logistics, public safety, parking and traffic details for the film, described as an action spy thriller.
"We believe there will be a special effects fireball on (Tuesday) the 27th, although they keep adjusting the dates and times," says Jessica Greene, assistant city manager, who has been assisting producers.
Filming could start in Oxford this Saturday, according to Greene, who broke the news to Oxford City Council members at their Tuesday meeting.
"I just wanted the public to know that Sylvester Stallone will be filming a movie in Oxford starting next week, and possibly even this Saturday," she told council Tuesday, according to the city's video of the meeting. "So if you see them around town — they'll be filming Uptown, and they'll have our fire and EMS team there because they might have a small explosion," she told council.
Filming is scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday next week, she says. Main Street, which bisects the Uptown park, will be closed for the movie, she says. The park is along High Street (U.S. 27) in the center of Oxford's business district.
"He's been doing a lot of filming at Hueston Woods, and they're talking with local businesses to film some indoor scenes," Greene told me. The film plot reportedly involves two rogue spies whose winter honeymoon in a remote cabin is interrupted by international espionage agents.
Two weeks ago, WXIX-TV reported that horse riders in Hueston Woods State Park found a crashed two-seater plane at the base of some trees 25 feet from a trail. Tammy Anders of Somerville told Fox 19 the nearby shovels and rakes, and lack of damage to any of the trees, "looked like it was kind of placed there." Anders also saw multiple white vans in the park on Feb 8. (Vans are often used to transport actors and producers to movie locations from the film's "base camp.")
Park officials declined to comment to WXIX-TV about the "crash." Anders told Fox 19 reporter Brenda Ordonez that "people were saying Sylvester Stallone is supposed to be up here filming a movie soon."
Greene has "been working daily with the production company on timing and parking and all this kind of stuff," she says.
Alarum was awarded $5,863,392 from the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit Program Feb. 13, according an Ohio Department of Development news release. Alarum is not listed in the Internet Movie Database, which gives details about a film's cast, director, writer, plot and producers.
WXIX-TV, citing a City of Oxford website post which since has been removed, says the plot was described this way by the city:
"After the CIA discovers the whereabouts of two rogue spies, who have not only gone off-grid but have become husband and wife, all hell is unleashed on their winter honeymoon cabin resort in the woods by a consortium of international spy organizations who are after a 'flight pill,' aka a hard drive, and all of whom suspect the two may have joined a network of rogue spies known as the Alarum."
Stallone, 77, who has three Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe award for Creed, filmed Tango & Cash with Kurt Russell in the old Cincinnati Workhouse jail in 1988, after achieving stardom from four Rocky films and three Rambo movies.
