Bar affection, ugly building, dating flops and an idea
By ERNEST HOOPER
Published August 5, 2003
The Punisher.
The title of Tampa's first big-time movie production hardly inspires warm and fuzzy feelings, but the movie's key people want you to know they are falling in love with Tampa.
Take Jonathan Hensleigh, the movie's writer/director. Not only is he embracing the area as an ideal place to film, but he's taken a liking to The Hub.
Hensleigh, who has worked on such films as Die Hard With A Vengeance, Jumanji and Armageddon, said he first discovered downtown Tampa's venerable bar when he was here scouting scenes in January. It shouldn't be all that surprising given The Hub is one of the few nighttime spots in downtown, but for Hensleigh, finding the bar was more difficult than finding a good actor.
"A couple of times I was scouting downtown I had seen this neon sign," Hensleigh said during a Monday media conference. "So I drove around from 11 o'clock to 12 midnight trying to find that neon sign. And it was The Hub. I pulled in there and yeah, they know me down there. Cheers to Scooter, the manager and my best friend. A good guy. He serves me my medicine there and I edit the scripts there."
Hensleigh quickly added that he probably won't be frequenting The Hub after those gruelling 15-hour production days.
Amyra Shaheed didn't find the kind of love connection The Punisher folks have for Tampa, but I give her kudos for making a game effort on Live With Regis and Kelly last week.
Internet voters chose the former Bucs cheerleader as one of three women who would vie for a dream date with Houston Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley.
Shaheed was flown to New York, where each contestant had eight minutes to answer Mobley's questions. Unfortunately, he also asked each woman to shoot hoops on a mini basketball goal. Shaheed blew the jumper, and I think that was the reason Mobley picked someone else.
Still, Shaheed said she enjoyed her four-day visit to New York. She stayed at the contemporary Le Parker Meridien, where televisions on the elevator broadcast cartoons and Twizzlers were used in place of dinner mints on the pillow.
"Regis is a hoot and Kelly is sweet as a doll," Shaheed said. "I had a good conversation with Cuttino. Who knows, maybe I can be the next Bachelorette."
Hey Amyra, be careful what you wish for.
So The Punisher folks love our city, but they are not exactly enamored of the architectural greatness of the old Walters Industries building at the corner of Dale Mabry and Interstate 275.
Hensleigh said he spotted the building when he first arrived in Tampa and thought it was "the ugliest building in the western hemisphere." Yet plans to include the demolition in the movie did not materialize. At Monday's press conference, however, lead actor Thomas Jane quipped, "We could blow it up anyway."
Added producer Gale Anne Hurd: "Yeah, maybe on a weekend."
Old Meeting House fans have found another reason to love the SoHo diner. Ten percent of all sales on the first Monday of each month will go to Metropolitan Ministries. General manager Cathy Malone said business was up significantly on the promotion's first day.
You know, there's no reason other restaurants couldn't follow suit.
How much does "The Punisher' love Tampa? Well, Hurd made it clear we're past the dating stage.
"I think it's a perfect marriage between Hollywood and Tampa and I would like to see this be the first film of many that come to Tampa."
Any production company with plans to disrupt the city for weeks would offer such platitudes, but I think The Punisher folks are genuinely smitten.
