Kaplan goes Hollywood

KAPLAN — When the series “The Quarry” debuts on Cimemax early next year, local viewers may recognize some of the scenery.
Around 200 crew members for the show, which is being produced by HBO, are in Kaplan this week to film scenes at the Sunnyside Motel. The show centers around a Vietnam veteran returning home to Memphis, Tennessee in 1972.
Kaplan Mayor Kirk Champagne has worked closely with the show’s producers to bring the shoot to the city.
“This is a big deal for Kaplan,”
“The hotel itself is kind of dated,” Champagne said. “They (production company) went out on a search through hundreds of hotels and this one made the cut.”
To Kaplan’s benefit.
“This is a big deal for Kaplan,” Champagne said. “We’ve been working on this since January. The city itself doesn’t get any money. The people in that area are being paid. One local business and the residents in the area are being paid for the inconvenience. They are using Rene Rost Middle School to set up, so they are reimbursing the (Vermilion Parish) school board for the use of the school.”
The effect of the production in Kaplan has a positive impact throughout the parish.
“It helps us two-fold,” Vermilion Tourism Executive Director Alison Miller said. “First, the movie crew is staying in hotels here. We will get sales tax revenue from that. Secondly, there’s tourism. People want to come and see where films and TV shows were shot.”
Miller said her office receives calls of people for those requests.
“Just like there are people who come here to eat in our restaurants and festivals,” Miller said, “there are people who come to see where movies and series were filmed. It’s a different kind of tourism. Shreveport and New Orleans have film trails, where people can go from place to place to see where scenes took place.”
Calls have even come in for shows that were not filmed in Vermilion Parish.
“The HBO show ‘True Detective’ was supposed to be set in Erath,” Miller said. “We had a lot of people calling asking to see where it was filmed. I had to tell them that it was not technically filmed in Erath.
“These are things that get people interested and excited.”
That is certainly the case in Kaplan.
“People are flipping out over the excitement,” Champagne said. “I am getting a lot of calls.