Republic photo An advance team for a planned movie to be filmed at the Bartholomew County Public Library later this month meets in front of the library doors on the plaza Thursday.
The third movie production in eight years in Columbus will begin filming beginning Oct. 21 at the Bartholomew County Public Library and return for more filming there Oct. 29-30.
Most of the movie’s other filming will be done in Cincinnati, according to sources.
The library will serve as an art museum for an “art heist” film which has been mentioned on various film websites within the past two weeks as beginning to start production in Ohio and elsewhere beginning next week.
Though library director Jason Hatton wasn’t at liberty to provide details, the only film publicized online ready to begin shooting with an art heist plot is director Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” starring Josh O’Connor. Many will know him from his role as a young King Charles in “The Crown” Netflix series.
Street closures for the filming are expected to be discussed at an upcoming city Board of Public Works meeting.
The film will feature a crew and budget much larger than the critically acclaimed feature “Columbus,” which shot here for 20 days in August 2016. “Columbus” also included filming indoors and outdoors at the Bartholomew County Library.
The director known as Kogonada had said in an interview in The Republic that the “Columbus” movie’s bottom line was about $700,000, which is considered very low budget.
Also, the short film “The Ice Cream Man” World War II-era film was filmed partly at Zaharakos restaurant and elsewhere in the city in March 2023 and April of this year. That crew also filmed in Michigan City and in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Hatton, who said he had only general details, was contacted by a film crew location specialist about a month ago. He said the production crew mentioned that the film was set in the early 1970s and film scouts loved the library’s period look, styling and the fact that sculptor Henry Moore’s artsy Large Arch was located in the plaza.
Hatton met Thursday afternoon, partly on the plaza, with about 50 leaders of the production. He said that the library would be closed Oct. 21 and also would close at 2 p.m. Oct. 28 and would be closed for the full days of Oct. 29 and 30. The production company is paying the library what Hatton termed “a fair location fee” to be closed those three days.
“You do have to take a little bit of a leap of faith with something like this,” Hatton said, sounding like community leaders did when they met with “Columbus” crew members, hoping that film would show the city in a positive light. “But I really believe that all this time will be well worth it.
“These are clearly professionals,” he said.
The Columbus Area Visitors Center staff still reports people coming here and mentioning the “Columbus” film and its lavishly photographed architectural locations, from the former North Christian Church to the library. Erin Hawkins, the visitors center’s director of strategic partnerships and communications, and also the key liaison for the “Columbus” film crew for the city in 2016, said the brief filming is cause for some excitement.
“I wish I knew more details about the project, but of course, we are very excited to see Columbus appear on the big screen again,” Hawkins said. “The ‘Columbus’ movie triggered lots of visits from fans, and I hope this film has a similar impact.
“I am certainly biased, but I can see why filmmakers are attracted to our community. Not can we provide an attractive backdrop, but our citizens are incredible warm, welcoming and helpful,” she said.
