Holland film to star Neeson, Connelly

HOLLAND, Mich (WOOD) - Holland's TicTock Studios will produce "Whats Wrong With Virginia," starring Jennifer Connelly and Liam Neeson.

The announcement was made Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

"Milk" scribe and Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black will write and direct the film. Gus Van Zant, director of "Good Will Hunting," will serve as executive producer and TicTock CEO Hopwood DePree will help.

They will scout for locations in a few weeks. Filming will begin late this summer.

DePree is in Los Angeles right now, but spoke with 24 Hour News 8 on the phone. He said the location sites will be confirmed in the next few weeks. DePree would not get specific, but said the Lakeshore just seems to make sense.

"It has a coastal feel, it needs a beach," he said. "And the the film's actually set in Virginia Beach right now, so we will be looking for a sort of boardwalk community."

Variety is reporting Connelly will play a psychologically disturbed mother whose secret relationship with a Neeson, who plays a sheriff running for state Senate, is threatened when her son begins dating his daughter.

The moviemakers have not applied for the state's incentives, according to the Michigan Film Office, but DePree said it is likely they will.

He and Scott Brooks of TicTock Studios will finance the picture. TicTock Studios is a Michigan-based production company founded in 2006 to attract film and TV production to the state by providing financing, development, job training, and production. It shot the film "Tug" last year in Holland.

You can find more information at the "Laff at the Movies" blog.