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By RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

The Ohio Department of Development has given the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit to a Los Angeles production studio to film its next feature at Shawnee State Forest in Scioto County.

“Scorned,” is produced by Portsmouth native Lance Thompson of Portsmouth Pictures.

“It’s basically a thriller. It’s a mix of ‘Misery’ and ‘Fatal Attraction’. It’s written and will be directed by Mark Jones, who was the brains behind the ‘Leprechaun’ series of horror pictures,” Thompson explained. “Since the Shawnee Lodge was built, I’ve been there probably 100 times, or more. It’s just a perfect spot to produce this movie.”

The cast has yet to be announced, but Thompson is expected to hire 107 Ohio residents for the cast and crew.

“We’ll be in pre-production in Ohio, at the lodge, in March. Then we’ll plan on beginning production. The cast will be locked down before we start shooting on April 1,” he said. “We want to utilize as many local artisans as possible. I’d say a substantial portion of the crew will be from Ohio, wherever they are available.”

Thompson lived in Portsmouth as a child and graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1974. He always wanted to make movies, so he earned his cinematography degree from The Ohio State University. He then earned his law degree, and now is making movies in Los Angeles.

“We did a movie for the SyFy Channel a few years ago,” Thompson said. “We’ve also done two animated movies. The first one was “Elf Bowling: The Movie,” based on an Internet game. The last one, which was just released in November of 2011, was based on “The Littlest Angel,” which was the 15th best-selling children’s book of all time.”

“The Littlest Angel” is a direct-to-DVD 3-D animated feature, starring Ron Perlman — best known on film as Hellboy, and on TVs “Beauty and the Beast” (1987) and most recently “Sons of Anarchy” on FX.

He said he has always been looking for a movie to film in Portsmouth.

“We did our last picture in Michigan using the Michigan Tax Credit, and that kind of dried-up after we did that film. So we were looking around for other opportunities and Ohio has the tax credit, so we applied for it and were granted,” Thompson said.

The production has received an Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit of about $727,108.

After production has completed, the film will be distributed direct-to-DVD through Anchor Bay, and will also be aired on Starz and Encore TV networks. It might also be played at big-screen movie theaters, he said.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.