Hometown Filmmaker

Becky McCray writes a wonderful blog from rural Oklahoma. She sent me a wonderful story about an Enid, OK (population 47,475) native who is coming home from Hollywood to turn Enid into the “Family Film Capital of the World.”

Mark Marshall grew up in Enid, graduated from Enid High School in 1975 but moved to CA to work for Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas on such films as “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Goonies,” “The Color Purple” and others.

Earlier this year he returned home and launched Nice Entertainment, along with a half dozen other partners. He told the Enid News, “We want films that have the family values but don’t look down to people. We should talk up to the audience, not down.” He told of working on “Free Willy”, the original version of which had several swear words in it. However, the test audiences objected and the studio wisely took them out and the film went on to great success.

Marshall hopes to build upon the incredible varied topography of the state, which I’ve seen as I travelled extensively throughout. There is desert in the northwest, bayous in the southeast, and mountains, rivers and plains throughout the state.

It’s great to see people with unique talents like Mark Marshall come back home.