The Road - Rough Shooting Schedule, February - July 2008

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late July: Some reshoots in the Portland area

late July: Mt. St. Helens! (early scenes with tree devastation)

5/19-5/22: Filming in Portland; likely the scenes with Charlize Theron.

5/12-??: Filming near the wreck of the Peter Iredale, just outside Astoria, Oregon, which briefly appeared in the initial trailer. (As of 5/12, Charlize Theron was in New York City.)

5/5-5/10: Some shooting in Louisiana after the film wrapped in Pennsylvania. The "Coke" scene from the initial trailer was reportedly filmed in a dead mall in the New Orleans area; also the "flatland" scenes and the wind-damaged subdivision.

5/1-5/3(?): Conneaut Lake Park, Pennsylvania - the arrow and flare scenes

4/23-4/30: Presque Isle (on Lake Erie). Rumored Guy Pearce sighting around 4/24. The 5/27 New York Times article reported that Michael K. Williams filmed during the Lake Erie shoot. Most of the "coast" scenes, particularly when the water is pretty still. Also the thief and the veteran scenes. In late June 2010, a tornado ripped up over fifty trees at Presque Isle - it looked like the area where the scene with Williams was shot.

4/21-4/22: Some filming was reported as going on at Lake Erie's Presque Isle, but they may also have been filming the bunker scenes in the old Benkovitz warehouse in the Strip District in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the week.

4/19: They shot in Greentree on this date, fairly close to the Parkway West (behind the WDVE building). I remember driving by and seeing odd lights by the building, but I wouldn't have pegged that for a The Road location given its proximity to traffic. The gold WDVE building, with CGI-scarring, showed up in the initial trailer! Even though Greentree isn't a huge town. The Road was the second movie to have shot there that month, as Shelter also shot for a day or two.

4/14-4/18: Probably still shooting north of Pittsburgh - but had no filming rumors that week. Could be filming in studio (perhaps the bunker scenes?) as the weather outside was unseasonably springy and very un-Road-like.

4/10-4/11: New Galilee, PA (farm area used for the outside of the bunker scenes).

4/8-4/9: Possible filming in the Duquesne/McKeesport/Rankin area, in an old church. I think the large white building shown briefly in the initial trailer was in this area.

4/7: At another farm, in a corn field, this time in Saxonburg.

4/4-4/5: Hozak Christmas Tree Farm, Hanover Township (west of Pittsburgh). The movie trucks were there on 4/4 and gone on 4/6. The farm appears to overlook part of Raccoon State Park.

3/31-4/3 Seemed to have been an "off week," at least for the first unit. Viggo was in Argentina, and it would have been hard to film too much without him! Maybe some second unit work was going on. Many of The Road production trailers in a parking lot that week. Normally, those trailers were...well, on the road at a location somewhere.

Late March: Filming at Frankfort Mineral Springs, in Beaver County near a waterfall.

March 25-28: Robert Duvall was "in the building!" He's was rumored to be "the old man" for some time and now it's official as at least two people reported seeing him out in the country. The Road filmed in the area of the "Nemacolin Gob Pile." One look tells you why they'd want to film in one of the areas of coal waste in Western Pennsylvania:

Nemacolin Gob Pile

March 17-20: The "cellar scene" was shot in the Fanker Mansion north of Pittsburgh. The make-up for the cellar people was absolutely phenomenal. It was frightening and ghastly without being overdone - a very fine line to travel in this scene. There is only one extremely short snippet of this scene in the initial trailer, featuring the extremely thin Jeremy Ambler.

March 11-15: The production crew moved to Raccoon State Park on Tuesday, March 11 and started filming thereafter. According to the Beaver Valley Times - they'd been filming woods scenes, a cave scene and some field scenes at this location. Most of the "running in the woods" scenes from the initial trailer were filmed there.

March 3-7: Some filming took place near Gans, PA, on the unopened portion of Route 43. This was the "newer highway" in the movie, with the very high bridge over a valley.

Late February/Early March: Filming on a now-closed segment of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in late February and early March, including a cannibal attack scene. One odd weather bit - we had very little snow for most of February 2008. The initial shot of the trucks by the tunnel were some of the earliest shots made for the movie. But when they went to do some shooting with actors, it snowed about 3 inches overnight.

Late February: Some filming was done in North Braddock, Rankin and Duquesne. It sounded like the garage sequence may have been filmed there, and possibly city scenes taken from the river. One day in late February, there was an odd, large white barge on the Monongahela River that was pulling into a dock not far from the local movie office for The Road.

While I have not seen the script, I understand that much of it follows the book closely, including the ending. The scene where Father has to use one of his bullets sounded like it was straight out of the book (and made it into the initial trailer). The BBQ baby scene was in the script. Now whether it is kept for the movie...well, your guess is as good as mine!