In Chicago, Roger Marsh is one of many indie directors looking to make his mark. But in a little nook of Southwestern Pennsylvania, he’s a celebrity.
Last summer, Roger filmed the sci-fi comedy feature, “Mars Attacks Mt. Pleasant,” in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, a town of about 5,000 in the Appalachian foothills, near neighboring Scottdale, my home town.
By wrap time, Marsh’s mug had graced newspapers all over the area amid buzzing headlines, a la “Mars Attacks Mt. Pleasant, Hollywood-Style.”
I first learned of Roger’s opus last spring when he wrote to me out of the blue. “I just premiered my first film, ?Haunted R&R Station.’ It is a docudrama shot in the small town of Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.”
He could have knocked me down with a feather.
I hadn’t been home in ten years. I wanted to know everything. Roger said he’d made one film there already, and was going back to make another?
Roger has done something pretty special for my home turf: He brought back the aliens.
Pennsylvania town embraces attack from Planet Mars
