‘Hillbilly Elegy’ filming continues in Middletown: What we saw on Day 2

The second day of filming “Hillbilly Elegy” had a mix of indoor and outdoor scenes in the century-old Park Place neighborhood off Central Avenue.

One scene had an ambulance rolling in as crew members went about their coordinated movements getting lights, cameras and props to the right place at the right time to keep the production rolling along.

The Middletown location shooting is expected to run through Thursday, according to publicist Andy Lipschultz. He said there were a lot more interior scenes being filmed on Tuesday. A check of other sites in the city slated for filming were in various states of preparation. At one site,there were pieces of furniture and boxes of props and other items staged by the crews.

This news organization learned that J.D. Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” is in Middletown with his family and had dinner at “Gracie’s” on Monday night. He will be in Middletown for a few days as he and Julie Oh are listed as an executive producers of the movie, according to the International Movie DataBase website.

Vance, who grew up in Middletown and is a 2003 Middletown High School graduate, is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War who went on to graduate from The Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

PHOTOS: Crews, stars filming ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ movie in Middletown

Ron Howard is directing and producing the movie that was acquired by his production company, Imagine Entertainment. Variety reported that Netflix is paying $45 million to finance the film.

Lipschultz said no release date has been set for the movie but that it would be sometime in 2020.

The film features a cast including Glenn Close, Amy Adams, Gabriel Basso, Bo Hopkins, Haley Bennett, Amy Parrish, Helen Abel, Ethan Suess, Frieda Pinto, Sunny Mabrey, and Jesse C. Boyd.


Here are a few numbers about the “Hillbilly Elegy” movie:

$45 million: The amount Netflix paid to produce the movie.

2020: Anticipated release of the movie.

2016: Year when Vance's best selling memoir was published about his life growing up in Jackson, Ky. and Middletown.

150: The approximate number of people working on location in Middletown.

52: Number of shifts assigned for security by officers from Middletown, Franklin, Monroe, Springboro and Butler County Sheriff's Officers.

13: The number of combined Oscar nominations that have been received by actresses Glenn Close and Amy Adams, both who have yet to win an Academy Award.

4: The number of days of filming in Middletown of the 43 total days to film the movie.

2: Number of Academy Awards won by Ron Howard for Best Picture and Best Director in 2002 for "A Beautiful Mind."

0: Amount of money left in the Ohio Film Tax Credits fund when Netflix applied for funding earlier this year.

SOURCES: Previous news reports; IMDB website.

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