The Los Angeles-based company American Cinema International is increasing its production in Kentucky. The first project filmed mostly in Hart County was a Hallmark movie called “An Uncommon Grace,” which aired in February 2017.
The second project launches a three-part mini-series called “Runaway Romance.” It was filmed in Glasgow, Horse Cave, Cave City and Munfordville and will air on Jan.7 on UP-TV, a small network for family-oriented movies.
George Shamieh is CEO of American Cinema International. He said the assistance he’s been getting from the Southern Kentucky Film Commission and its founder, Hart County Judge Executive Terry Martin, keeps him coming back. Shamieh said one example of that assistance is a day when they were filming in a cave.
“It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the guy said if it rains the way we expect it to rain, it might be flooded and we can’t shoot. So at 4 o’clock I called Judge Terry Martin and I said, 'I have a problem. I don’t want to take that risk.' He said, 'Well, we have other caves'."
Shamieh said they were able to arrange the filming at a different cave and were on the set at 7 a.m. the next morning. He said you can’t do that in big city.
The second film in the “Runaway Romance” trilogy will use Fountain Square in Bowling Green.
“I love that square," said Shamieh. "I want to do the the aerial shot for it. We’re going to have something like an outing for them, they’re sitting at one of these restaurants, especially next to that, you have that old theater.”
That historic theater, now called The Capitol Arts Center, began as a vaudeville house in the 1890s. It’s now going to be seen by a national audience in part two of “Runaway Romance.” Filming on that movie will begin in the spring.
