Hospital back in theaters
For the second time this year, a movie is hitting the big screen after using Butler Memorial Hospital as a filming location.
“Concussion,” which will be released on Christmas Day, shot footage in November 2014 at Butler Memorial's laboratory.
The movie is directed by Peter Landesman, produced by Ridley Scott and stars Will Smith. The cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paul Reiser, Luke Wilson and Albert Brooks.
The movie, based on a GQ magazine article by Jeanne Marie Laskas, tells the true story of Nigerian-American forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered and published findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease caused by repetitive brain trauma.
Omalu's research into head injuries began in 2002 after he did an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steelers' center Mike Webster.
The movie depicts his research and also his subsequent sparring with the National Football League, according to the synopsis released by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“Omalu's emotional quest puts him at dangerous odds with one of the most powerful institutions in the world,” it said.
Most of the filming was done in the Pittsburgh area.
Dr. Robert Patterson, Butler Memorial medical director of pathology and director of the laboratory, said a Pittsburgh-based scouting company came to take photographs of the lab last year before the movie's producers decided to shoot there.
The assistant director, camera crews and a medical technician spent one day in the hospital's lab filming shots of lab equipment, the technician looking into a microscope and looking at images of a brain.
Because the movie takes place in the early and mid-2000s, the hospital put away some of its more modern equipment and got a few pieces of older equipment from storage to make the laboratory look realistic for that time, Patterson said.
“It was interesting for us to watch how they work, and it's a little flattering that they wanted to come up here,” Patterson said.
Patterson said he is not positive how much of the footage ended up in the finished version of the movie, but the hospital will be mentioned in the credits.BMH's willingness to allow filming for “Concussion” directly led to it being used more extensively in February for the filming of “Love the Coopers,” a Christmas movie that was released Nov. 13.“Both movies are good exposure for the community and the hospital,” Patterson said.
