"Gods and Generals" delayed again

May 09, 2000|By LAURA ERNDE

The making of a Civil War movie in Washington County has been delayed again, this time for six months, filmmaker Ronald Maxwell said.

Filming of "Gods and Generals" had been scheduled to start this summer, but has been postponed until early 2001, Maxwell said Tuesday in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

"It's just had a life of its own," Maxwell said of the project, which was first made public in August 1997.

Maxwell said he been rewriting the script. He has been traveling between Los Angeles and his Antietam Filmworks office in Hagerstown.

This fall, Maxwell expects to begin scheduling shoots, lining up actors and staff and picking specific locations in the county.

It took Maxwell 13 years to make the movie "Gettysburg," based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Shaara.

"Gods and Generals," based on a book written by Michael Shaara's son, Jeff Shaara, details events leading up to the 1863 battle.

Two weeks ago, the Washington County Commissioners and Hagerstown City Council extended loan guarantees to Antietam Filmworks.

In 1998, the government agreed to back the loan with Farmers and Merchants Bank and Trust. So far, the company has drawn $360,000 on its line of credit with the bank.

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