I AM FROM CENTRALIA, PA. I was one of ‘those’ folks.. my parents moved away as we were in one of the hardest hit part of town due to the mine fire.. But the water is clean. The smoke has cleared.. there are lots of tourists desperate for a view of fire that they will never see.. and graffiti highway is amazing. Now on to the news..
For better or worse, CENRTALIA is going to get some major TEE VEE time coming up very soon.
According to DEADLINE, NBC just won the rights to produce ‘CENTRALIA,’ a project being called a ‘dark’ drama..
MORE FROM THE DEADLINE REPORT that broke today:
In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, Centralia, a genre drama from Star-Crossed creator/executive producerMeredith Averill and Amblin TV, has landed at NBC with a major penalty and has been laid off at Universal TV.
Written by Averill, Centralia is a dark character-driven genre soap based on a real town in central Pennsylvania where an underground mine fire has been burning for over 50 years. The remaining few residents of this ghost town are determined to preserve their homes but remain unaware of the evil that is slowly making its way to the surface. Averill is executive producing with Amblin TV’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey
And finally..
Averill has first-hand knowledge of the Centralia story as she grew up in the nearby town of Pottsville, PA. She is coming off an overall deal at CBS TV Studios where, in addition to creating and executive producing alien-themed love story Star-Crossed for the CW, she also worked as co-executive producer on the studio’s CW dramedy Jane The Virgin and producer on CBS’ The Good Wife. She is repped by WME.
I have very, very mixed feelings about this project.. I applaud the idea. It is natural–a ghost town, especially one with the history that Centralia has, is an amazing story. But it is also complex.. I would expect Averill to create a story with respect and beauty–something Centralia had and still does.. But it’s also a situation ripe for attention, entertainment, and profit.
This upcoming project is both exciting and frightening.
After all.. this is my hometown, by default. I know the real story of it. It’s not filled with ‘ghosts’ but instead wonderful memories of times long ago. And I hope that is brought forward in the setting of the series.
Centralia is worth attention.
In the best ways possible.
