Is 'Pig Hill' for real?

Nov. 2—Though Halloween just concluded, "pig people" are ready to step out from the spooky shadows and onto the silver screen.

"Pig Hill," a movie based on Meadville's urban legend, is slated to begin filming next year in the Meadville area.

The horror flick is the brainchild of Ted Watts Jr. and R.A. Mihailoff, two actors from Crawford County.

"Pig Hill" is based on the book "Pig" by Nancy Williams of Meadville, an Allegheny College graduate. The book, her fifth, was published in 2019 by Hellbender Books, a subsidiary of Sunbury Press Inc.

The story is about Carrie, who has been enthralled by the local legend of the pig people of Pig Hill since she was a child. Pig people are mutants bent on breeding and spreading chaos throughout the region. Now that Carrie is an adult and an aspiring author, she can't seem to shake the notion that perhaps there is something more to these tales as a 10th local woman has gone missing.

"I grew up with the legend of the pig people," Williams said. "I wanted to write a good old-fashioned horror story. There goal is to come out of the woods, so to speak. They want to integrate into society."

As a child, Williams remembers hearing stories from her older siblings and others about pig people lurking up on Radio Tower Hill, a popular secluded spot near Meadville where couples would go to make out.

One tale was of a couple who heard noise outside their vehicle one night while parked on the hill.

"In true horror movie fashion, he gets out to investigate and she's left in the car waiting and waiting," Williams said of what she was told. "He doesn't come back and and she hears a scratching sound on top of the car. She gets out, there he is hanging upside down from a tree and he's been eviscerated. It's his nails that are scratching the roof of the car.

"As a child I said, 'That's all I need to know. Don't tell me any more,'" she said with a laugh.

Williams got together with entertainment industry veterans Watts and Mihailoff in 2021 as they actually were searching for projects to shoot in the Meadville-Crawford County area. The pair's hunt for an initial project, which was always intended to be a full-length feature horror movie, led them to Williams and "Pig."

After reading the book, Watts and Mihailoff met with the author on Aug. 13, 2021, a Friday the 13th, and got an exclusive option to create a screenplay based on the novel. Jarrod Burris, a screenwriter in Los Angeles and an Erie native, has since adapted the novel into a screenplay that's now ready to go into production next year.

"The way the script is, the locations are the locations — Meadville is Meadville," Watts said. "That's what's supercool about this. It's a Pennsylvania thing, it's our thing, it's a Meadville thing. That's the whole idea."

"The thought of making something that's so Meadville, Crawford County, northwestern Pennsylvania is extremely exciting," said Mihailoff, who grew up in Townville and has been in the movie business for decades, even playing the title character in "Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III."

"In my pitch letter to Nancy, I said we were interested in doing Pennsylvania-centric projects. I am very proud to be from Crawford County and northwestern Pennsylvania," he said.

Final pieces of private financing for the movie are nearing completion with filming to begin in the Meadville area in the spring, Watts and Mihailoff said.

"We want to privately finance so we can maintain more control as opposed to partnering with a production company," Mihailoff said. "Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. We're confident we'll be able to raise the money to finance the movie."

A casting director in Pittsburgh has been selected and with casting for major roles with seasoned actors starting to line up. Formal offers to actors are being drafted by lawyers, Watts and Mihailoff said. Casting for small parts and extras in the movie is expected to be done locally in February.

"We plan to shoot the movie in April 2023," Watts said. "Horror shoots quickly and intensely. It's a 22-day shoot schedule."

When Mihailoff read Burris' screenplay after the book, Mihailoff noticed there was an extra character in the movie script that wasn't in the novel — Red Davis, who is described as between a good guy and a bad guy.

"Ted conspired with Jerrod to create a character for me," Mihailoff said. "It fits seamlessly. I guess I'll be in it — if they can meet my (salary) quote," he said with a laugh.

Watts won't have a part in the movie, but will be behind the scenes as a producer with Empty Jug Productions, a film, television and commercial production company based in Meadville.

"I just want it to happen," Watts said. "Producing is getting the right people involved and letting them do their jobs."

"Bingo! That's it right there," Mihailoff said of having a successful movie.

A goal is to establish an active and profitable film community in northwestern Pennsylvania.

"If we can establish a new generation of filmmakers, we're expanding and solidifying Pennsylvania's legacy of horror," Mihailoff said. "I'll be the happiest guy in the world."

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.