Cincinnati wasn't chosen for filming the upcoming Oprah Winfrey film Beloved, but the star, director and 200 others secretly previewed a version of it Wednesday night at Showcase Cinemas in Bond Hill.
Ms. Winfrey and director Jonathan Demme were among those who traveled here to watch the private two-hour, 40-minute screening in an auditorium isolated by security personnel at the theater complex off the Norwood Lateral. They left quickly after the screening without comment.
The Toni Morrison novel on which the film is based tells of an escaped slave haunted by the memory of the daughter she murdered to keep from slavery. It is based on historical events in and around Cincinnati. The novel won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This audience was the first to see a preliminary version of the movie, said a spokesman for Touchstone Pictures, distributors of the film.
Local residents were recruited for the viewing through fliers distributed at the theaters during the last several days. Attendees were asked to sign a statement agreeing not to describe the movie. Most didn't know Ms. Winfrey was there.
"I liked it," said Rose Walker of Paddock Hills. "It held my interest for two hours plus. I will definitely see it again when it comes out."
The movie is likely to undergo further editing before its release near the end of the year.
The Greater Cincinnati Film Commission, hungry for another major motion picture to be filmed here, made a strong pitch to the project's producers.
But Cincinnati lost out to Philadelphia, which had a vacant convention center for indoor filming to supplement other appropriate sites.
Cincinnati has been host to 14 major films since 1988, including the Academy Award-winning Rain Man and Lost in Yonkers, but none since Milk Money in 1994.
