Movie Mania

Behind the scenes at Gwinnett’s Eagle Rock Studios Atlanta

BY LANE HOLMAN

S

ome of television’s best shows get filmed right in the middle of Norcross. Who knew an acclaimed series like the Netflix crime drama Ozark was being produced mere feet from bustling Jimmy Carter Boulevard?

That’s where Eagle Rock Studios Atlanta (ERSA) opened its central facility four years ago, and production has been flying high ever since. Tucked away in a quiet industrial corridor, it is the country’s largest studio facility under one roof, with an interior roughly the size of 11 football fields.

Beth Talbert, Eagle Rock Studio’s vice president of studio operations, likens her job to that of a landlord. “My role is bringing productions in and keeping ERSA full,” she says. For Talbert, her studio rises above others in the area not only because of its unique “drive-through” setup, but also because of its prime location. “We’re just up the road from where the talent wants to be—a 15-minute drive from Buckhead.” Even with rush-hour traffic, surface streets provide quick access from points south.

Since opening its doors, Eagle Rock Studios Atlanta has stayed busy thanks to multi-year television productions like Ozark, Dynasty, MacGyver, and Greenleaf, and movies like

Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol

Mother’s Day and The Darkest Minds. ERSA offers four soundstages and two flex-space areas connected by covered breezeways large enough to drive in and park all staging vehicles, so cast and crew are under the same roof. “We offer true, purpose-built sound stages unlike a lot of warehouse conversions that you have in town,” Talbert says.

“It’s been so much fun to watch the business grow,” says Talbert, who moved from L.A. in 2016 to work with ERSA. “Both Eagle Rock and the industry, in general, are having a positive impact on the regional economy, and that’s immensely rewarding. Each production has a staff of around 200, and brings in caterers and uses local businesses like lumberyards, hardware stores, and area restaurants.”

So keep an eye out; you might see Ozark’s Jason Bateman and the cast of Stranger Things lining up for biscuits at Martin’s Restaurant.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX Doom Patrol Stranger Things

Filmed in Gwinnett

Dozens of movies and television shows are filmed around the county, in studios and on location. Here are a few highlights:

Stranger Things, an immensely popular Netflix series that revolves around a group of middle-schoolers fighting off unimaginable terrors in the early ’80s, made Gwinnett Place Mall its primary filming hub for Season 3

Instant Family, a family film with Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne, filmed its adoption and court scenes in Gwinnett’s Justice and Administration Building in the heart of Lawrenceville

Doom Patrol, a DC Universe film starring a band of superhero misfits led by Timothy Dalton, spent weeks filming in downtown Lawrenceville

Black Panther, the highest-grossing film in 2018 ($1.34 billion), was filmed on the OFS/Atlanta Media Campus Studios in Norcross

Godzilla: King of the Monsters, featuring Stranger Things’ Millie Bobbie Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Bradley Whitford, was filmed on the OFS sound stages

Ozark, starring Jason Bateman as a financial planner who has to pay off a debt to a Mexican drug lord, films in multiple Gwinnett locations, including ERSA, Chateau Elan, Norcross, downtown Lawrenceville, Peachtree Corners, and Lake Lanier

FUN FACT: Three of the top-grossing films of 2018—Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Venom—were filmed in Gwinnett at OFS/Atlanta Media Campus Studios