Well it's certainly a title that catches our attention here at Blogging Ohio, and anyone else living in Ohio. Not a lot of movies get set here, and fewer just plain filmed here, so seeing the word 'Ohio' in a title certainly got my attention. "The Oh in Ohio" features Danny Devito, Parker Posey, and Paul Rudd in a tale about a Cleveland woman in a marriage that falls apart due to her inability to... uh, have the big O (an orgasm), and how she's able to find herself sexually on the journey that follows.

The movie premieres this weekend in a handful of theatres around the country. In Ohio we'll be able to see it in Cleveland at the Cedar Lee.

Poking around their website, I found out that the whole movie had actually been filmed in Cleveland, and that director Billy Kent and the cast had really enjoyed the city and made an effort to promote the city in the film. Intrigued I spent some time to track down Billy Kent. Yesterday I was able to interview him about the movie, and the experience of filming in Ohio, which he said was fantastic thanks to the city of Cleveland being so welcoming.

Tobias: In the notes to your site I saw that you chose to set this film in Cleveland because you wanted to help Cleveland kind of dig itself out of some of the butt of the jokes and give it some credit. Was working on this film your first time in Cleveland?

Mr. Kent: No, it wasn't my first time. It was probably my third or fourth time. Actually, I had been there a couple of times when I was younger and in college and then Sara, who is my wife, and Adam, who is my screenwriting partner, all went out there when we were talking about the movie to basically walk it out, to kind of like see how Cleveland felt in relation to our story. We really felt it was the appropriate place to put it for a multitude of reasons. One, Adam's first girlfriend came from Cleveland and he was sort of a New York rock guy and really made his way into the rock and roll aspect of Cleveland. You know, it's so undersung in those ways. People don't really understand how important is to the rock and roll culture. Not that there's that much of that in our movie, but -- there were a lot of reasons and we relate to one of them, because there are a lot of water metaphors in our movie. It's just - it's sort of an East Coast city, but it's also a midwestern city. It's got history, but it also doesn't feel like New York or L.A. or San Francisco. It's got it's own heartbeat, so we kind of felt like we wanted to be able to use the fact that it was very much like our main character; somebody who was changing, was transforming and was in the process of a transformation.

Tobias: Did you guys have a chance to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while you were there?

Mr. Kent: Oh, yeah. I mean, we almost filmed there. In fact, they were very generous to us and offered us to have the location, but we were in the midst of changing and rewriting a scene when Mischa came on board to act and play the role of Kristen. When Mischa Barton came on board, we felt it was sort of inappropriate and would have seemed a bit staged to have Mischa Barton hanging out at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This became very O.C. all of a sudden on us, and we decided rather than do something that was not appropriate and wasn't necessarily showing off the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was inappropriate to the story, we sort of took it in a slightly different direction and went and shot it at the Geary Building at Case Western.

Tobias: The character Parker Posey plays is a Cleveland promoter. That was a really cool choice of you to make. Was there anything else behind choosing that other than sort of promoting Cleveland?

Mr. Kent: That was a very important part of the story, that she was somebody who really firmly believed in her job and her job was to promote the city. It was more than just like a - you see a lot of people in the movies or movie jobs, where people are in advertising or in similar kinds of positions, but we felt that we wanted to take something that was kind of a real job, it was almost like a film comission job, and utilize it in a subtle way, to have it show that - how deeply she believes in the city and kind of underscore the importance of the city as a character in the movie, about her relationship with the city. It's a city that grows for her as the movie goes on because her relationship with Danny DeVito and her relationship with her husband evolve and show her different aspects of the city, as the movie happens. We chose to kind of shoot the movie almost through her eyes, in terms of how she sees it, showing the city as more shiny and maybe more kind of twinkly in a way.

Tobias: How did the cast react to spend all that shooting time in Cleveland? Were there anything they discovered or enjoyed about the experience of being there?

Mr. Kent: Well, actually, I just got off the phone with Parker about five minutes ago and we were talking about it again. She's going to be on Jay Leno tonight talking about the movie. We were talking about how much fun we had there, what a great experience it was. Parker, especially, really gravitated towards the city and really liked just the atmosphere and the people. I think that she's a city girl. She lives in New York. She's kind of - I know that when you walk down the streets with Parker Posey in New York, you get, "Hey, Parker", you know, people yelling at her, but in Cleveland, people don't naturally think, "Hey, there's a movie star", so she really enjoyed being there and she loves being on location. It was a place where, when you weren't entrenched in the fourteen hours a day of filmmaking, there's an opportunity to have nice dinners and new experiences. Going on location is sort of like being a kid and going away to summer camp. We had a good experience there.

Tobias: Well, this movie is about finding yourself sexually. Is there any sort of comment you had on midwest marriages in general, or where you aiming for nationwide angle here?

Mr. Kent: I think we were looking for something more nationwide, but we were looking for something that wasn't jaded and I think, like, if you compared this to a "Sex in the City" or something that would take place in L.A., well, we didn't want that. We wanted a baseline that sort of said, these people are very understandable and reachable and just like the person next door. Some of the comments that we've gotten from screenings at film festivals, from people that have seen it in Colorado, where some woman from Kansas will come up to me, and who probably never really have the opportunity to see a film of this size in a small theater near them, said, "Oh, my God, that's the best movie I've seen in a year. I just love Parker and I really think you're talking about something most people wouldn't dare talk about" and I think it kind of really communicates to people like that, or maybe to a larger audience, just because you get - you're not - it's not somebody walking down the street with a Prada handbag. It's somebody who has a real job, does a real thing, has a real life and has a husband that's a teacher and has an affair with a pool man. It's not something that's sort of outside your realm of experience.

Tobias: I see you're premiering on the 14th of course, and one of those initial places will be in Cleveland. Is there anyone from the film who is going to be there to see how people react or introduce the movie formally to the city, or has that been done already?

Mr. Kent: Well, no. Chris Carmody, who is the film comissioner there, is going to be there with Amy Robertson, who is one of the producers, and my producer on the film. I may be there. I'm trying to rearrange my schedule. I'm hoping I'll be able to fly out early Friday and I'm really, really trying hard to figure it out. Hopefully I'll be there. That's where I want to be for the opening of the movie.

Tobias: I see that there's another showing that's going to be in Columbus. Are there plans for this movie to be shown elsewhere in Ohio, or are you just kind of playing it by ear right now?

Mr. Kent: You know, being the director, once you finish the movie, you still have your hand, but the reality is that I - my thoughts are that I hope it will be playing elsewhere and I'm hoping it's going to go on to Cincinnati and Toledo and other places where it should go. I think that if there are theaters out there, theater chains or small theater companies that are interested in getting the movie for a couple of weeks, who are progressive, that would be fantastic and they can contact Cyan Pictures or go the Cyan Pictures web site and talk to the guys over there. They would love to be able to get a print to them at some point. The more people that can see it, the better, obviously, and the more it can be seen in the theaters, the better.

Tobias: Okay. What's the next project you're working on after this?

Mr. Kent: Well, I've got another thing titled "Hair Brain". That's coming along. That's just almost done and another project I'm working on with my wife, Sara, and also our screen writing partner, Adam Lucianski, and that's kind of coming along. That does tip it's hat to Cleveland, although the movie doesn't take place there. There is a little wink to Cleveland at some point in the movie, so hopefully we'll get that off the ground in the next few months and get going on that.

Tobias: Well Mr. Kent, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us and thank you for making what looks to be like a great little film that we're all looking forward to seeing, set here in Ohio.

Mr. Kent: Well, we were treated like kings out there in Cleveland. We really- to the crew that worked on it, I have to say, "My hat's off to everybody". They were very helpful to us and it's been very meaningful. The city, itself, and everybody who helped obviously did a great job and we would love to come back some time and shoot again and give you guys more money, bring cool actors, whatever we can do. Thank you very much for your time.

Tobias: Thank you!