Mayor Barbara Roden says the community of Ashcroft is getting a big economic boost from the filming of the TV series “The Twilight Zone”.

“It’s been estimated that by the time everyone gets here and filming starts there will be 175 crew members in town and I don’t know if that includes all the locals because they put out a casting call for extras. So one of the interior scenes is going to require about 80 background people so that’s a lot of locals being hired for that.”

“Been talking to some local business owners and they’ve notice uptake in people going to the local bakery you know, they’ve been busy at breakfast time, the hotels in Cache Creek are full, the restaurants are doing good business. And just, January is typically not a great time.”

Roden says they will be using the United Church for interior filming, but for the purpose of the story line the church needs to be beside a bank which is why they are building a 3D replica in the parking lot beside the Mascon building which was originally built as a bank. It’s weird to see an iconic Ashcroft building being recreated in front of my eyes.

Roden says it looks like once the dust settles on this project, a new crew will be in town to film. “Pretty much as soon as the Twilight Zone crew has finished their filming and struck the set and departed, we’re having another film crew move in. They’re going to be doing some shooting in the area, so some fairly big events going on in the area around us, and they to want to film at least one scene in downtown Ashcroft.”