Coweta and Fayette

counties are going Hollywood.

Wynn's Pond is a prominent

location in the upcoming Touchstone Pictures release, "Sweet Home

Alabama." Pigeon Creek Films, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios,

began filming at the location this week. Andy Tennant, who directed "Anna

and the King," is directing the film.

The pond borders Wynnmeade

subdivision on Peachtree City's west side. The set is just across the

county line in Coweta.

One of the locations

in the film is a cabin on Wynn's Pond on private property, known as the

Featherston Fishing Club. They will also be filming a pontoon plane taking

off and landing on the pond.

"Sweet Home Alabama"

is a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon as Melanie, a young woman

who runs away from her white trash background and husband and reinvents

herself as a New York socialite. In New York, she falls in love with the

mayor's son, played by Patrick Dempsey, who proposes to her. Melanie returns

home to finalize her divorce from her beer-swilling pontoon pilot husband

but ends up falling in love with him again. Other cast members include

Glenn Close as Melanie's mother, Candice Bergen as the mayor and Ethan

Embry as Melanie's gay friend from Alabama, as well as Jean Smart, Fred

Ward and Mary Kay Place.

Filming began yesterday

and the crew plans to be in the area for eight days. Though most of the

filming will be done during the day time, they will be doing some night

filming at the location as well. Citizens may have even seen the pontoon

plane flying in the area over the past several days. Another location

that will be used in the film is Starr's Mill, which will be a factory

in the film.

Location manager Michael

Riley is from the Atlanta area and found Atlanta to be the perfect place

to film the remainder of the movie. Along with filming in Coweta County

and Starr's Mill, the production will travel to Rome, Crawfordville, Tybee

Island and Atlanta proper. Riley chose the Featherston Fishing Club because

it is remote and has been used in films before.

"Atlanta is a

great place to film because it gives us rural areas outside of the city

and great crews, as well as places that can match up with New York locations,"

said line producer Michael Fortrell. The location scouting for the film

only took a few days.

The producers of the

film are shooting for a summer 2002 release. As the first day of filming

began, the cast and crew were enjoying the weather and hospitality of

the local citizens.

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