Old Tucker Mill Jumps Into Film Boom

Old Tucker Mill, the antique shop on Railroad Avenue, is setting the stage for Tucker's close-up with Georgia's booming film production industry.

Owners Jeff and Lori Gold, who opened the store in August 2011, have been getting visits from the makers of the movie "Prisoners," starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, which has been shooting in the area in recent weeks.

“We both got really lucky,” said Kathleen Denson, Set Decoration Buyer for Captive Productions and a prop buyer for the movie. “Our office is over off of Mountain Industrial. I just looked up antique stores, thrift stores, kind of in the area and the internet lead me to the store next door which was closed. Then, these guys were open. So, I came in and looked around and it was great. They have a very eclectic selection here.”

Denson has worked in the film business for about fifteen years doing painting and sculpting. She has worked on "Vampire Diaries," "Drop Dead Diva," "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and "Footloose," all of which were made in and around Atlanta.

“It's a challenge because we are buying for a character, we're not buying for a pretty house,” Denson said. “So, we're not just going out to set a pretty setting. We're building a character with the surroundings in the house. So we buy everything. We buy toothbrushes, jewelry. If you look around your house and have it laying around, we are buying that stuff for a movie. We do all of that – blinds, curtains, rugs.”

The Golds are thoroughly enjoying helping with the historical accuracy of the pieces and set design. “One of the things I've loved about working with Kathleen is to just really do one of the things that jazzes me the most and that is to put together spaces. With the store, I call it my hobby gone rogue,” Lori said.

“It's been very exciting,” Jeff reaffirmed. “When a movie set buyer comes in and says 'we're here because we're shooting a film in the area' you can't help but get some butterflies. So, that's been a great experience as we've gotten to know some of the people within that industry. Ironically, we have a tremendous amount of original signed wildlife prints and Hugh Jackman (has played the part of) Wolverine. We happened to have a picture of a wolverine that Kathleen thought would be fun to put up on the set to see if Hugh noticed it. And, she filled me in on the day that Hugh finally ended up seeing it and they had a nice laugh over it!”

The owners are thrilled to be a part of Tucker and look forward to building strong relationships with their future clientele.

“Right now we are just enjoying so much being part of the development, the resurgence, of Tucker and just loving the community feel. All of the downtown merchants, the Farmers Market, all of those,” Lori said. “That's what we're really enjoying now and is something that we're just looking forward to seeing how the future plays out for the town of Tucker.”

Related articles on Tucker Patch:

Viewfinder: On a Movie Set in Tucker

Arnold Schwarzenegger Coming to Tucker

Hollywood Meets Tucker