USC Native to Film Scenes for Movie at Dormont's Hollywood Theater

Upper St. Clair native Stephen Chbosky will be renting the Hollywood Theater in Dormont to film scenes from the movie he is directing based on his book, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."

The Friends of the Hollywood Theater board said they could not turn down Chbosky's request and rearranged their schedule for him.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the theater and get ,” the Friends board president John Maggio said. “We are thrilled that when the movie opens, our theater will be seen in movie theaters around the world.”

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" movie adaptation will include a scene involving "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" movie and a shadow cast — audience members who dress in character and “perform” the movie as it is playing. Friends of the Hollywood Theater said Chbosky saw "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the Dormont theater when he was younger and that is was serendipity that it was preparing to reopen just as Chbosky began scouting for locations.

The movie, which stars Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Mae Whitman and Nina Dobrev, tells the story of an introvert high school freshman who lives in Pittsburgh during the early 1990s. 

The Hollywood Theater will re-open one week early on May 7-8 with free movies. The theater will close from May 23-June 8 for the filming. When the theater reopens, it will do so on a full-time basis.

The schedule before the movie shoot is as follows: 
Saturday, May 7
2 p.m. 17 Cartoons
7 p.m. The Outlaw (1943) starring Jane Russell
9:30 p.m. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Sunday, May 8
2 p.m. Silent Film Fest featuring Our Gang, Krazy Kat, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin
7 p.m. Double Feature: Africa Screams with Abbott and Costello and At War with the Army starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

Saturday, May 14
2 p.m. Despicable Me 
7 and 9:30 p.m. The Big Lebowski 

Sunday, May 15
2 and 7 p.m. Casablanca  

Saturday, May 21
2 p.m. Despicable Me 
7 p.m. Goldfinger
9:30 p.m. Pink Floyd The Wall 
11:55 p.m. The Rocky Horror Picture Show 

Sunday, May 22 
2 and 7 p.m. Taxi Driver 

Shows after May 7-8 are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and children under 12. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Avenue.

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