TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo film scene is rapidly growing with new projects coming to town, both big and small.
FilmToledo and a group of enterprising young filmmakers are at the center of it all.
"The Ride to Nowhere" is a feature-length indie film directed by hometown filmmaker Anthony Wright officially has a premiere date of Oct. 18 at the Imagination Station.
"'The Ride to Nowhere' is a coming-of-age road trip movie about a young man who embarks on a journey to visit an old crush, and along the way, there's a ton of surprises," the film's director, Anthony Wright said.
While Wright and his crew are hard at work on the finishing touches before they take the movie through the U.S. Film Festival Circuit this summer, they were able to spare some time to share how it's been on set so far.
"A smaller set and film, you hold it dear to your heart because you get so close with the cast and crew and you put your heart and soul into it," actor Bobby Cullen said.
A labor of love, especially for Wright, who's wanted to work in the film world since he was a kid, sharing videos with WTOL 11 of him "directing" homemade movies as early as age 11.
But now his dreams are more legitimate than ever, shooting on a $10,000 budget and working with a crew of fellow dedicated part-timers.
While Wright has aspirations of Hollywood success, he's made it a priority to highlight the region along the way.
"There's just so many wonderful things around here to utilize. We were able to utilize Tiedtke's Coffee, it was great to shoot here, and we shot at Geekeasy bar and that was a really fun experience as well," Wright said. "It was such a great time showcasing these local businesses."
"My job was to find pre-recorded songs from local artists," the film's music supervisor, Tanner Wertz said.
And Wright might be on to something because Hollywood is starting to come to Toledo.
Michael DeSanto, the director of FilmToledo, the Glass City's film commission, has been a guiding hand in bringing in major Hollywood projects to this area such as "The Man Called Otto" back in 2022.
Now DeSanto said there's another big-budget feature film coming here in late June.
While he's mum on the details, DeSanto said with all this filmmaking momentum, we're entering a new golden age for Glass City movie-making.
"It's the best time ever so far, it's like a snowball effect. There are bigger films coming here, mid-tier productions, and then small filmmakers like Anthony Wright who are taking advantage of the resources and the talent we have here and we're trying to make that grow more," DeSanto said.
DeSanto said if you want to be in this top-secret Hollywood movie, you can sign up as an extra by contacting FilmToledo. Just make sure you have 7-9 days of availability in June.