KALAMA HIGH SCHOOL LIKELY CHOSEN FOR 'TWILIGHT' FILMING

By Chris Cook - Forks Forum editor

Brick-faced Kalama High School’s main building may take the place of Forks High School in the upcoming film version of the Forks-set best-selling book “Twilight.”

That’s according to www.tdn.com, the Web site of The Daily News newspaper that covers the Columbia Valley.

“A location scout told Principal Mike Hamilton Thursday that movie producers want to use the school for a film based on the ‘Twilight’ novel series,” The Daily News reporter Leila Summers wrote in Saturday’s edition of the newspaper.

Kalama, a town in southwest Washington named after a Native Hawaiian settler, is about 210 miles south of Forks, but only some 40 miles from Portland, where primary filming for the movie is scheduled to take place.

A look at the Kalama High School Web site (www.kalama.k12.wa.us/highschool.htm) shows a brick building circa 1938 that looks like an oversize version of the brick facade of Forks High School’s 1930s-era main building.

“Filming will likely occur while students are away for spring vacation, March 31- April 4 or a three-day weekend this spring, Hamilton said,” the news report said.

A blog report posted Saturday on the “Twilight” fan Web site twilightlexicon.com held up some hope for Forks filming. The blog post stated: “They may use Forks HS for exterior shots, but this high school for interiors.”

In the book, which tells of a love story between a Forks girl and a boy from a vampire family who have settled in Forks, main characters Bella and Edward are students at Forks High School.

Forks Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marcia Bingham said Monday that even if the cast of the movie fails to make it to Forks for filming, “We will still benefit from the movie indirectly. People want to see where it is sited.”
Bingham predicted boom business from “Twilight” fans traveling to Forks next summer.

“I think we’re going to be deluged,” Bingham said.

On Sunday, she added, though the chamber office to the south of Forks was closed, a visitor from Arlington, Virginia on a “Twilight” drive to Forks knocked on the office door. She was seeking information on where to see the places in Forks and LaPush that are key locations in author Stephenie Meyer’s book.

The three books already published from Meyer’s ongoing “Twilight” series stand at the top of the New York Times’ weekly “Series Books” list, now topping the mega-selling “Harry Potter” series.