News-Sun, 14.02.
By BARRY FOSTER
"It's called "Faces of Life,'" said Richard Crespo, who is helping with the production for Boehringer Ingelheim. "It is what we call an Image film." In the overall scheme of things, Highlands County will have a small part in the film, with only about five minutes included in the overall project. The portion shot here will show a country doctor driving down a back road, headed to the hospital.
"We might find a place where there's a dirt road, where the dust is billowing up behind him — that's always a nice shot," he said. "He'll drive through Sebring, around your Circle there, then on to the hospital." The roadway scenes will be shot north of Avon Park, with the parts of the second floor at the Highlands County Government Center to be transformed into a hospital setting. "When he gets to the hospital, he goes inside and is greeted by a former patient," Crespo explained. This is not the first time such a film has been made in Highlands County, in the early 1990s, Goodyear did a similar project, using the old Pepper Mill restaurant on State Road 17 for their interior shots, and doing some outside work on Airport Road.
Crespo said it would not be a large production. "Well have six, maybe nine people here," Crespo said. "This is not Hollywood, we're not going to be showing up with Michael Douglas." He said Highlands County was chosen because there is some topography to the land. At first, the plan was to do the filming in Miami, but Crespo said director Rainer Gehrisch wanted to find a place where there were some hills. He said he looked forward to filming here, but there were a few drawbacks. "It s a pretty part of the state, but it's pretty far away from everything," he said.
Boehringer Ingelheim is a global group of companies. Their principle activities of the Company is researching, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceutical products for both human health and animal health. In addition to cancer and AIDS treatments, the Company has drugs aimed at those with carthovascular and gastrointestinal disorders.
