By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Goodbye “Sleepy Hollow,” hello “Banshee.”
A few months after the Fox TV pilot “Sleepy Hollow” filmed in Salisbury for a week, the Cinemax suspense thriller “Banshee” is scheduled to shoot scenes in western Rowan County for about a week, starting Monday.
Film crews have started moving equipment into rural areas off of N.C. 150.
Ollie McKnight, who is renting her former cow pasture to “Banshee” production company Screaming Spirit Productions, said crews are expected to arrive at 4 a.m. Monday. They will use her field as a parking lot for tractor trailers and other trucks.
David Freeze, whose Weaver Road house was photographed inside and out three weeks ago but not chosen as a location for filming, said the project could bring hundreds of cast and crew members to west Rowan. “Banshee” will film in a nearby farmhouse and barn, he said.
The show, which is filmed in the Charlotte region, is set in Pennsylvania Amish country. Location scouts chose Cooper Road as a backdrop for “Banshee” because of its resemblance to that part of the country, Freeze said.
McKnight was born in Rowan County and has lived in her current residence since 1955 when she and her husband built the home. She said she’s never seen anything like the buzz surrounding “Banshee.”
“I tell you, this is going to be something else,” she said.
The film location is about halfway between Salisbury and Mooresville.
According to the TV show’s website, “Banshee” stars Antony Starr as Lucas Hood, an ex-con and master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where he continues his criminal activities, even as he’s hunted by the shadowy gangsters he betrayed years earlier. “Banshee” is from the creator of “True Blood.”
Read more in Sunday’s Post.