Old Navy Yard Could Be Site Of New Movie Studio

CROWS LANDING (CBS13) -- Are the bright lights of Hollywood coming to a small Stanislaus County town?

There's a new plan to build a movie studio in the small town of Crows Landing, located about 100 miles south of Sacramento between Patterson and Newman.

The site is an old and abandoned Navy yard, and Hollywood soon may be breathing new life into it.

At least at night, the site seems uninviting. But believe it or not, Hollywood is knocking on the door.

A movie company whose president was a producer on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Return of the Jedi" is considering building what it calls a world-class motion picture studio that would bring with it some 2,000 jobs.

The interest came as a surprise to the Stanislaus County economic development CEO.

"Currently Stanislaus County does not have a film commission, no," Keith Boggs told CBS13's Steve Large on Tuesday.

The site is already being developed into a business park by the same man behind the Sacramento Kings arena land swap proposal -- Gerry Kamilos.

A solar park and cargo container port were already in the works, but a movie studio? That's a twist no one expected.

It's an unlikely script for a place like this, old but apparently not forgotten.

"It's like a reality TV show," Boggs said. "We're gonna role our sleeves up. We're business-ready, we're gonna do our good work."

If a Hollywood studio does end up here, they'll have to polish things up … and maybe add some red carpet.