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Cameras rolling for Japanese TV show

Barb's Family Diner, the Zephyrhills Police Department and other Pasco locations are being used for the CSI-like show.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published February 23, 2005

A Brooklyn, N.Y.-based production crew is spending the week in east Pasco filming a Japanese television show called Astonishing! News.

Tim Ries, production manager for Milky Way Media, said Dade City and Zephyrhills provided a good location for the CSI-style show, which pulls stories from headlines, films them in English and then dubs them into Japanese.

The show is aired on Japan's Nippon Television and broadcast in prime time to 15- to 18-million viewers throughout Japan, Ries said. "This show is very popular because of the American programs that are similar in nature," he said.

Pasco County will be featured in two episodes. One called "Video Game Bomb Scare", about a man who was arrested after a misunderstanding led him to report a bomb threat, is based on a May 2004 incident at a restaurant in Jacksonville. The crew spent Tuesday filming the main scene at Barb's Family Diner on Gall Boulevard in Zephyrhills.

About 10 local extras were included among the cast of 20 who worked on Tuesday, the first day of shooting in Pasco County.

A second episode, entitled "Perfume Attack", also will be shooting in east Pasco. The story, about a woman who tries to kill her allergic husband using perfumes, is based on a Jensen Beach incident from 2003, Ries said.

Other locations to be featured in the filming are the Zephyrhills Police Department, Pasco Regional Medical Center and Pasco-Hernando Community College, both in Dade City.

Ries said Florida's good weather makes it an ideal location for winter shooting. The company in the past has filmed in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Kissimmee, Winter Garden and Orlando.

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:35:16]