Remember how two weeks ago a Pittsburgh city councilman said the director of the Pittsburgh Film Office didn’t want Mysteries of Pittsburgh? Well now an independent producer on work on the film is speaking out, and the city film chief, Dawn Keezer, is responding.

In an interview with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, producer Todd Eckert said that when he moved to Pittsburgh five years ago, he was surprised when Keezer complained about Pittsburgh.

“She maligned Pittsburgh,” Mr. Eckert said. “She told me it was a backward, hick town. If she’s not successful in getting something, she falls back on blaming the city, saying it is a backward, cronyistic place.”

Keezer denies the accusation.

“Those who know me know the word ‘hick’ is not in my vernacular,” she said.

“Who is Todd Eckert?” she asked. “Did you ask him what he’s done? He’ll tell you he’s made a movie in Germany. But who is he?”

Eckert shrugged off her criticism. “She can get nasty rather quickly,” he said. “She is very high school. If you criticize her, she immediately gets personal.”

A Pittsburgh city councilman is calling for the city to fire its top film official for, among other things, allegedly trying to talk producers on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh out of filming in the city, The Pittsburgh Business Times reported Tuesday.

Doug Shields, a member of the city council, wrote to the board chairman of the Pittsburgh Film Office, calling for the organization’s board to fire its executive director, Dawn Keezer, and for all the board members to resign. The film office had given the OK to Keezer working out of Los Angeles instead of Pittsburgh, which Shields said was an outrage.

“I’m not mincing words on this,” said Shields. “I’m not putting up with public dollars being shipped out to California so she can live the good life.”

Shields also accused Keezer of trying to convince film producers for two films, including the Michael Chabon novel adaptation, out of filming in the city.

Producers on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh had considered filming somewhere else, but ultimately decided to stay in Pittsburgh.

Contrary to previous reports, Max Minghella will not star as the lead in the screen adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Hollywood Reporter reported Thursday.

Sources told Hollywood Reporter that the Art School Confidential star will not be able to star in the film because the production dates conflict with his fall semester schedule at Columbia University.

Sienna Miller is in final negotiations and Peter Sarsgaard is in talks to star in the film.

Note: An earlier version of this story, based on another version of the Hollywood Reporter article, stated that Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon’s wife, had been tapped as a producer for the film. This was an error, however. She did, according to Chabon, try about ten years ago to find financing with two producer freinds for a script written by Jeff Blitz (Spellbound). However, as Chabon notes, “This production has nothing to do with that one.”

This site regrets the error.

Max Minghella, star of Art School Confidential, will play Art Bechstein in the film adaptation of Michael Chabon’s first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday.

The film, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball) has been budgeted at $6 million and will film in Pittsburgh. Reports in April had suggested producers were considering filming in other cities, but that’s no longer the case, according to one producer.

“I think that we feel pretty confident that Pittsburgh is giving us every reason to make the movie in Pittsburgh. Our issues are more just pleading the financing for the movie now, which we’re in the home stretch of,” Michael London, CEO of Groundswell Productions, told the paper.

Minghella, son of English Patient director Anthony Minghella, also recently appeared in Syriana and Bee Season. Other actors in the movie announced so far include Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller.

To read the rest of the article, head over to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which is increasingly the home for all Mysteries of Pittsburgh scoops.

Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller have been cast for the film adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today.

Sarsgaard, most recently seen in Jarhead, will star as a character that combines two supporting characters in the novel, Arthur and Cleveland. Miller, who stared in Casanova, will play Jane, Cleveland’s girlfriend.

“The only thing that’s holding us back now is figuring out whether we’re shooting in Pittsburgh,” said Michael London, a producer on the project.

Actually, as the Post-Gazette reports, there is a chance the movie may film somewhere other than Pittsburgh due to cost. Please check out their article for all the reasons.

As for the changes from book to film, Chabon told the paper he was fine with them.

“You’re not just making a transcript of the novel with pictures, you’re trying to reinvent the story so it works as a movie,” Chabon said. “I think it’s going to be great.”