Carrier Mills man's screen play to show at theater opening.
John Scott III is a 1998 graduate of the Carrier Mills-Stonefort high school. A resident of Carrier Mills in his teenage years, Scott joined the Air Force and served five years working in the field of satellite navigation.
Scott then attended Southern Illinois University where he graduated in 2005 with a Bachelors Degree in Cinematography. Upon graduation, Scott was employed by Northrup Grumman in Boston where he works on the team of contractors who maintain NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory Satellite.
And this is where this story really begins. Shortly after arriving in Boston, Scott began writing a screenplay for a movie. The screenplay deals with a father and daughter in the Midwest. The daughter is infected by a disease that slowly turns the victims into cannibalistic zombies. The plot follows the two as the father desperately tries to find a cure, tries to protect and finally just tries to stay with his daughter as the disease engulfs her. After negotiations with several production companies, Scott's movie was filmed in 2013 by RoadSide Attractions and Grindstone Entertainment. The lead roles are played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Amy Breslin.
The film was shot in the fall of 2013, at a location near New Orleans and Scott was on site for the entire filming. There he got to meet Schwarzenegger whom he had been a fan of all his life. This role is quite different from Schwarzenegger's usual characters and he was very interested in playing the part once he had read the script. The movie debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and that is where Lionsgate purchased the right for distribution.
Michael Basham met John Scott in Carrier mills when the two men were teenagers. He spoke to the Daily Register about his friend.
"John was into high tech and fitness," Basham recalls. "He got into weight lifting in the Air Force."
Basham remembers that his friend enjoyed science fiction as a teen.
"He loved science fiction and was a big fan of Schwarzenegger," Basham stated. "John was thrilled that he, (Schwarzenegger) took the lead role in the film."
Carrier Mills-Stonefort Superintendent Richard Morgan Scott from his time at the school.
"He was a good student," Morgan stated. "John was really kind of a neat kid, and was Salutatorian of the Class of 98."
In celebration of the opening of the new Showplace Cinemas in Harrisburg the owners have decided to show Scott's movie "Maggie". The movie will show Jan. 8 & Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. as well as Jan. 10 through Jan. 14 at 6:50 p.m.
Scott will be present both Friday & Saturday with a booth set up for autographs and pictures, he will also be saying a few words before the 6:30 p.m. shows those evenings.
John Sternberg contributed to this report.