OCEAN CITY, Md. — A new movie, filmed in Ocean City is already being called a cult classic by some.
On Friday, “Ping Pong Summer” opens in theaters nationwide and will be available on iTunes.
Writer and director Michael Tully grew up in Frederick, Maryland, and spent summers in Ocean City.
“[He] actually came to Ocean City — along with George Rush, who’s the producer — and met with me in the office here and wanted to talk about it, and tell us what their vision was,” Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan tells WTOP.
“Michael wrote this about his experiences in Ocean City, and he said ‘There’s no where else we can do this movie. We need to do it here in Ocean City, Maryland. This is what I wrote about.'”
They filmed last summer and fall, and because the movie is set in 1985, the filmmakers wanted the scenery to look authentic.
“Everything was filmed in Ocean City. They had to use props to change some things around, but the places they used, some of them look pretty much the same,” Meehan says.
The film locations included Trimper’s Rides and Paul Revere Smorgasbord.
The cast includes Susan Sarandon, Lea Thompson and Judah Friedlander.
But Meehan says one particular actress in the movie causes a lot of excitement in his town.
“One of the stars is a local girl named Emily Shockley, who actually got a part in the movie and is one of the featured stars.”
The AFI Silver in Silver Spring is showing the film, and Michael Tully will appear in person at Friday’s 7:30 p.m. screening.
Watch the movie trailer:
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