Movie Brings Celebs, Big Bucks to Tennessee Valley

The rumors have been flying but we have it on good authority that filming for the movie Water for Elephants will be done at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, the Tennessee Valley Rail Road Museum, and a home in Chickamauga, Georgia.But those aren't the only rumors going around.

We also heard that some of the crew, not the cast, is actually staying here at the Chattanogoa Choo-Choo. But regardless, they've all got to be staying somewhere. And the economic impact of several days of filming here in the Scenic City is huge

"When a film comes in town, they leverage a lot of economic impact. The bigger the film the better! And there's a multiplier affect of about two and a half dollars leveraged in the community for every dollar they spend in production," said Missy Crutchfield, with the City of Chattanooga Arts Education and Culture Department.

And those dollars spent could add up to more than $1 million, according to Crutchfield. She says long before the cast and crew arrived in town, they hired local carpenters, painters, and greensmen to develop sets and get ready for filming.

"We've got the historic train here, which has really been a draw for many years to get movies to come here. So that's a great asset that we can build on to draw more productions here," said Dave Porfiri, with Film Chattanooga.

Today we caught up with part of the production crew as they unloaded materials for the movie at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, one of the rumored film sites.  Porfiri says this is just one of the attractive qualities Chattanooga has to offer.

"Chattanooga is a wonderful place to shoot because, look around you, the scenery is amazing. And we have great crews here," said Porfiri.

We are hearing that the crews will be in the Tennessee Valley over the weekend, and leave in 'the first few days of August'.  The movie is due out sometime next year.