Columbus isn’t exactly Hollywood, California, but this week it sort of seems like it, because they’re making a movie on the streets of Ohio’s capital city.
The film will be called I Am Wrath and it stars John Travolta. According to the IMDb website, it’s about a husband out for vengeance when his wife is killed and crooked police officers can’t, or won’t, catch the murderer. It sounds vaguely like Death Wish and a number of other vigilante and quasi-vigilante movies.
There have been a number of Travolta sightings around town, including some shooting along Parsons Avenue close by German Village. Today the film crew was supposed to work downtown, in the alley that runs between Gay Street and Broad Street. (Our receptionist said, somewhat breathlessly, that they were going to film a scene in a neighborhood eatery and had cast an actual waitress and cook as extras.) As a result, the parking spots on our side of Gay Street were unavailable so the movie trucks and trailers would have a place to park, and there were a number of random people — women, especially — wandering around hoping to catch a look at the star of Welcome Back, Kotter, Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy, Grease, and Pulp Fiction.
I didn’t get to see Mr. Travolta, but I’m glad that they are using Columbus as a backdrop for a movie. I’m not sure how much revenue a movie crew and actors pump into a city’s economy, but every little bit helps.