Western Pa. company plans film on Kecksburg 'UFO' incident

Kecksburg is about to go Hollywood.

Grand Conspiracy Films, a production company based in Washington, Pa., is planning a film about the supposed UFO crash landing in 1965 in the small town of Kecksburg, an unincorporated community in Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County.

The company, which specializes in films based on folklore and urban legends, will hold auditions on May 7 at the Preston Community Arts Center in Kingwood, W.Va. The open call begins at 2 p.m.

Kecksburg will be the third feature film produced by Grand Conspiracy, and the fifth feature film directed by Western Pennsylvania native Cody Knotts. The company plans to create a series of films based on American folklore and urban legends, all of which will be filmed in West Virginia.

The script seeks to answer many unresolved questions surrounding the acorn-shaped object that crashed in 1965. In 2015, John Ventre, state director of the Mutual UFO Network, who will appear in the film, and Owen Eichler, who has done extensive research on Kecksburg, put forth the theory that the object that crashed on Dec. 9, 1965, was a General Electric Mark 2 re-entry vehicle that was launched as a spy satellite by the Air Force, but fell out of orbit.

Other actors slated to appear in leading roles in the film include Remington Moses, granddaughter of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and daughter of Tracy Nelson, professional wrestler Shane Douglas as Kecksburg fire chief Stan Zielinski, Pittsburgh-based actor Richard John Walters and “Pittsburgh Dad” Curt Wootton.

The “object in the woods” was designed for the movie by Lycos founder Michael “Fuzzy” Mauldin, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate.

Filming for “Kecksburg” is scheduled for spring 2018 in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. More than 250 actors are needed for principal, supporting and background roles.

Details: 724-350-0127 or email Emily Lapisardi at kecksburgufo@gmail.com