Hilary Duff to Star With Toby Keith in "Provinces of Night"

The local film community was in a hushed buzz last week about a new feature film possibly coming to town. Now, it's confirmed.

Production offices for "Provinces of Night" were open Monday at EUE/Screen Gems studios. Wilmington campus.

"We're excited to have them," said Aaron Syrett, director of the North Carolina Film Office, which is based in Raleigh. "They've been working on this for a while."

The movie, directed by Shane Taylor and produced by Jay McPhaul, is based on a book of the same title by William Gay. The trade magazine "Production Weekly" earlier this month announced that Hilary Duff, Toby Keith, Pell James and Bruce McGill would star in the project.

Details of the movie's plot are unavailable, but the book is about a teenager in 1950s rural Tennessee who finds himself home alone after his father runs off to find and kill his wife's lover. About this same time, the teen's grandfather returns home after 20 years away to discover his remaining two sons are an alcoholic womanizer and a Bible quoter who has a habit of putting curses on his enemies.

Most, if not all, of the filming will take place on-location, said Bill Vassar, executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington.

Vassar said local crews will be working on the film for five weeks.

This is the first commercial feature to be shot in the Port City since "Nights In Rodanthe," which recently was released on DVD, filmed here in the spring of 2007.

Most industry activity lately has been for television productions, including The CW's "One Tree Hill," HBO's "Little Britain USA" and "Eastbound & Down," which debuted Feb. 15.
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