The Town That Dreaded Sundown Film Crew in Texarkana Week of June 17 [VIDEO]

The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department, in conjunction with Texarkana Arkansas City Hall would like to remind citizens of Texarkana about upcoming filming dates and traffic concerns associated with the making of ‘The Town That Dreaded Sundown.’

New filming dates are set for June 17-19 with the filming taking place in downtown Texarkana, from the Federal Courthouse/Post Office to Broad Street and possibly areas on Laurel Street. The streets will be decorated in Christmas decorations and some of the streets will be blocked off. On the days that filming will take place, if you work in the downtown area you may need to leave for work a little early to avoid any confusion with detours and street closures in the area.

Any traffic control concerns may be directed to either the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department at (903) 798-3130, or the city marketing director at (870) 779-4970.

'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' remake added three more names to add to the cast list. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Veronica Cartwright (Alien), Gary Cole (Office Space) and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project) will appear in the movie, along with actors Addison Timlin and Travis Tope already announced.

In this new remake of the cult classic which was originally directed by Charles B. Pierce in 1976, the new story will “center on a rural Texarkana town that was stalked by a serial killer in 1946. The maniac was never caught and in 2013, he comes back.” according to dailydead.com.

I was a junior in at Arkansas High when the original came out which featured many of my classmates including myself and local citizens from Texarkana. I was cast as an extra and still have my production movie card you had to have in order to be in the movie.

I remember vividly the night we filmed the prom scene at the old National Guard Armory on the Arkansas side. It was extremely hot that evening and the facility had no AC. I was all dressed up in a tuxedo and remember the hair and makeup crew kept coming over and wiping sweat off my face along with the others in the dance scene that was being filmed. If you ever watch the movie slow down the dance scenes and you can catch a glimpse of a young teenage Mario.

I also had a background scene at the beginning of the movie when the narration begins. Look for three boys running across the street in front of Union Station. One of them is me. Finally, I had a scene coming out of a prop movie theater that was set up in the abandoned McCartney hotel. I was to walk out with my date on my arm with a group of other teenage movie goers. The story called for a rainy night which I remember the local fire department made the rain by hooking up a fire hose and spraying it up in the air to simulate rain falling. The bad news is they cut the scene short just before I walked out but the experience that I had was something that has lasted a lifetime. And if you're wondering if extras got paid for their scenes, yes we did. I can't recall how much it was but it wasn't much, something like $2 or $3.

I just hope this new movie doesn't stray too far away from the original. No word yet as to when the movie will hit theaters. By the way the Blu-Ray version just came out recently.

Here's the original trailer from 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown.'