TAMAQUA, Pa. — Robert Morgalo shows off posters of his original movies, some of them filmed right here in Pennsylvania.
Morgalo and Ozz Gomez have spent years in front of and behind the camera on different movie sets in New York City. But their current project is going to be in Tamaqua.
"There's this town in Pennsylvania that is a set town that looks beautiful. The people are super nice. It's not very noisy. It's not super crowded, and on top of that, we're building a studio that will provide opportunities for filmmakers here," said Ozz Gomez, Outhouse Production Films co-founder and president.
The studio is planned for a reclaimed mine site.
Renderings show what Outhouse Production Films studio will look like, with plans to build the nation's largest green screen facility.
"Your actors don't need to reset and get themselves back in character after a train goes by or a siren going by. If you can keep your actors on cue and your location running smoothly, that can save you lots of time, and time is money in a lot of productions," Gomez added.
"It's roughly the size of a football field, so you could shoot an epic in there. You could do multiple sets in there. You could create a New York City in there," said Morgalo, co-founder and CEO.
"There's a huge list of productions that are ready to start, but there is a lack of how many studios they can do that in, so you'll find so many productions just stuck being on a waiting list," Gomez mentioned.
They hope to put Schuylkill County and all of Pennsylvania on the map as a dream film location.
"People who want to get involved don't have to go to Hollywood to do this. It's going to be here. But also, people that are in New York, I have actors that are in New York that reached out to me asking to move here," Morgalo explained.
Morgalo and Gomez say that they hope to be making movies out of their new $30 million studio in Tamaqua as early as 2024.
Take a virtual tour of the planned film studios HERE.
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