By NANCY WILSTACH / Community Columnist

When the University of Montevallo’s Center for the Arts opens in Fall 2019, it could serve as the catalyst for some exciting developments in the city of Montevallo.

Mayor Hollie Cost was only half kidding when she told her City Council: “Maybe we will be seeing the ‘Walking Dead’ in the streets of Montevallo.” That was right before she handed over a sheaf of papers to Council Member Tiffany Bunt.

Bunt is the point person for the concept of making Montevallo “camera ready.”

“It is all so new,” Bunt said. “I have not had a chance to really delve into it yet, but it is intriguing.”

While Bunt focuses on pitching the city as a great filming location for television and movies, UM’s College of Fine Arts Dean Steven Peters is studying the possibility of adding a non-degree certificate program in film production. Such an offering would provide the valuable link between the city as movie set and the availability of local technical talent.

“We really want the (arts) center to be an asset to the whole community,” Peters said. The idea for the film production certificate came up as one way to “build bridges between (the community) and our college.”

The Forte Festival of Creativity shows how such cooperation can function. The April event this year coincided with the groundbreaking for the arts center and included theatrical productions on campus, films produced by UM mass communications students, author talks, musical performances and the city’s Art Fest in Orr Park, where student artists displayed works alongside professional painters, potters, carvers and artisans.

Cost said that she knows of no other Alabama cities that are classified as “camera ready,” although Georgia abounds with them.

“We are looking to Georgia as the model, and we would like to be first in Alabama,” she said. “We have been approached by filmmakers over the years, but we need a clear idea of what this entails.”

That is Bunt’s assignment. Luckily for her, the Alabama Film Commission has put out a set of guidelines that summarizes many of the issues, such as pyrotechnic use, road closure, child labor, insurance requirements and contacts in relevant state agencies.

Montevallo’s inviting new streetscape and its conservation-inspired creek bank restoration shine as drawing cards for movie makers, but many more eye-catching settings present themselves within a radius of a few miles: from American Village to the UM campus.

Need a wilderness? Check out Shoal Creek Park. The perfect spot for a romantic rendezvous? Look no further than under the classic red clock in Bicentennial Park. Antebellum houses? Check. Ravines? Spillway? Baseball? Golf? Wood-fired brick Anagama kiln? All those and more await the filmmakers.

Lights! Camera! Action!