ROCKINGHAM — A coming-of-age movie recently released by Amazon has a little local flavor.
Towards the end of “The Tender Bar,” directed by George Clooney, a vintage logo for the Rockingham Police Department is seen on a patrol car and officer’s patch.
“The Tender Bar” is based on the memoir of Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist J. R. Moehringer, who has worked for the New York Times, Rocky Mountain News and the Los Angeles Times.
Rockingham Police Chief George Gillenwater said in a Facebook post Monday that a representative for the film reached out to the department about a year ago for ‘70s-era patches and police cars.
The logo is seen after JR, played by Tye Sheridan, travels to North Carolina to visit his alcoholic father.
After telling his father off, JR walks outside and gets into a patrol car from the Rockingham Police Department and has a brief conversation with an officer.
The backdrop of Rockingham was actually shot in Braintree, Massachusetts, south of Boston according to the Patriot-Ledger. Most of the film takes place in New York, though it was shot in other Massachusetts towns.
The film was released Jan. 7 on Amazon Prime Video and opened in select theaters last month.
While no shooting for this film was done in Rockingham, Richmond and surrounding counties have had a Hollywood connection.
Parts of “Billy Bathgate” were filmed in Hamlet in 1990, bringing actors Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman to the small Sandhills city.
With its racing roots, part of the NASCAR comedy “Talladega Nights,” starring Will Ferrell, was shot at Rockingham Speedway.
Neighboring Anson County also served as locations for Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple,” starring Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg, as well as Sam Raimi’s horror-comedy cult classic “Evil Dead II,” starring Bruce Campbell.
In the early 2000s, the Tar Heel State ranked third in film production behind California and New York.
According to the N.C. Film Office, there are currently three productions filming in the state and more than a dozen projects in post-production.
