More than 50 movies and TV shows have had scenes filmed in Newton County. Below is the list complied by the Covington-Newton County Chamber of Commerce and Newton County Library System.
Made-for-TV
Boycott (2001)
* Carolina Skeletons (1991)
* Coward of the County (1981)
The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979)
A Father's Homecoming (1988)
Flash (1997)
For Love and Glory (1993)
Grass Roots (1992)
"I'll Fly Away" (1991 - 1993)
"In the Heat of the Night" (1988 - 1994)
* Miss Evers' Boys (1997)
* The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994)
A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story (1994)
Past the Bleachers (1995)
* The Price of a Broken Heart (1999)
* Resting Place (1986)
"Savannah" (1996 -1997)
* Sudie and Simpson (1990)
Stay the Night (1991)
White Lie (1991)
* "The Vampire Diaries" (2009 - Present)
Movies
The Accountant (2001)
American Reunion (2012)
* Black Dog (1998)
* Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
* The Cannonball Run (1981)
* Consenting Adults (1992)
* Dangerous Calling (2008)
Door to Door (1985)
False Face (1977)
* The Family that Preys (2008)
* The Fighting Temptations (2003)
* Fled (1996)
Flight (2012)
Footloose (2011)
* Get Low (2009)
* Halloween II (2009)
* Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012)
* Kalifornia (1993)
Little Darlings (1980)
* Madea's Family Reunion (2006)
* A Man Called Peter (1955)
* My Cousin Vinny (1992)
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
The Prize Fighter (1979)
* Remember the Titans (2000)
* Run Ronnie Run (2002)
* A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)
* Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
Wayward Son (1999)
Note: An * denotes the library has a copy of the production.
More than 50 movies and TV shows have had scenes filmed in Newton County, and local residents will be able to rent many of those productions beginning next week.
The Newton County Library System is establishing a Newton Film Collection and has DVDs for 29 of the productions so far, said Library Director Lace Keaton. Separate collections will be offered at both the Covington and Porter Memorial branches, and maybe even the Newborn branch in the future.
The library system received a $30,000 donation from the James Hyde Porter Foundation to buy materials, and the Newton Film Collection is one of several purchases Keaton hopes to make with the money. The library system received no money for materials from the state this fiscal year.
"People ask me questions about living in Newton County and working in Covington because of the filming. Everywhere I go I get asked about ‘In the Heat of the Night' and ‘Dukes of Hazzard' and I realized we didn't have them available to the public. With the economy the way it is, people can't go and buy the entire DVD set," Keaton said.
"Our movie history is something for people to be proud of. This is what public libraries do, provide access to information to people, educational and recreational items like this. That's part of our mission."
The collection is appropriate because Covington has long been called "Hollywood of the South," and the phrase was recently copyrighted by the Covington/Newton County Visitors Center.
The library will have seasons one and two of "The Vampire Diaries" and all seven season of "The Dukes of Hazzard," but unfortunately the "In the Heat of the Night" series has never been released on DVD.
Individual episodes of "In the Heat of the Night" are available on iTunes for $1.99 an episode, but Keaton said the library can't purchase those and make a compilation DVD, because that would violate copyright laws.
"I'm ever hopeful that ‘In the Heat of the Night' will be available on DVD, because people are begging for it on Amazon," Keaton said. "We ordered everything we could find on DVD, and the list will be ongoing. Whenever anything is released on DVD that was filmed in Covington, we'll add it to the Newton collection."
The collection will have dozens of movies, including well known flicks "Remember the Titans," "My Cousin Vinny" and "The Cannonball Run."
"If I had to choose one movie, I'd go with ‘Remember the Titans.' I laugh with ‘My Cousin Vinny,' but I do really like ‘Remember the Titans,'" Keaton said. "I'm a bit of a sucker for sports movies. My father was a coach, and I have a soft spot in my heart for sports."
