Eliza Dushku

Three murders in the Rochester area nearly 30 years ago, called the "double initial" murders were never solved. Now, a movie is being made about it right here in Rochester. Tuesday night, crews were filming at Richmond’s bar in Rochester. It began last week and will continue through the new year.

The movie is called Alphabet Killer and is based on a series of murders in the 1970’s. All of the victims were Rochester girls whose first and last names had the same initials. The bodies of Carmen Colon, Michelle Maenza and Wanda Walkowicz were found in towns starting with that same letter.

This storyline peaked the interest of a local man named Tom Malloy, the person responsible for transforming the story into a movie script. The film’s Executive Director, Greg Polissen says, “You’ll be seeing locations like this outside some of the city streets. We do have some interior, but there is quite a bit of activity outside.”

Inside the bar, crews were hard at work preparing for the next scene and actor Brian Scannell talked about the importance of filming a movie in the area the actual events took place. “As an actor it’s important to shoot on location. We were all saying last night, that there’s a certain energy about Rochester you may not get somewhere else. There’s so much history here.”

Director Rob Schmidt says Rochester has been great for filming, although he wishes there was some snow on the ground. Schmidt says that when the film is released, the audience is in for a real thriller. “Alphabet Killer is a supernatural thriller and much of it is based in reality like Silence of the Lambs, rather than Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

Some of the stars in this movie include Michael Ironside (Top Gun), Eliza Dushku (Bring It On), Timothy Hutton (The Good Shepherd). Alphabet Killer is on schedule for a Fall 2007 release.