Post-Apocaylptic Pittsburgh

snowy church

The good news: Viggo is coming. The bad news: he’s coming to film The Road.

The producers filming Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer prizewinning The Road decided that Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania looked like the end of the world had the best variety of locations and filming incentives. “Filming will take place in suburban areas,” the Post-Gazette reports today, “along with coal mines, forests and an unused freeway a couple of hours away.”

Unused…freeway?

The fact is, you don’t have to squint too hard to see Pittsburgh as post-apocalyptic. Deserted streets, unoccupied row houses, boarded-up churches, cavernous empty warehouses. And nearby: abandoned mines, steep hills. All under an ever-gray sky with a dusting of snow and, in the film, ash.

The filmed will star Viggo Mortenson as the father and a young Australian as the boy. Charlize Theron will be the wife (please, don’t make the flashbacks too important) and Guy Pearce will “factor into scenes near the end of the movie.” Which means he’s one of the people the father meets on the road — or more than one? Is he a good survivor or an evil survivor?

Shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh I was an extra in the filming of Mysteries of Pittsburgh (it’s showing at Sundance). At first I thought no way I’d do that for The Road — who wants to lie in a filthy basement with a bloody stump or two for $60 a day? But if Viggo will be in the scene, I might just have to reconsider.

The Road is scheduled to film for 8 weeks starting in late Feburary “to take advantage of the cold and snow.” Oh, poor Viggo.

About the author

I like sitting in Jack Webb's booth.