Dawson's what? 'One Tree Hill' picked up for a sixth season

To hear the folks at One Tree Hill talk, the specter of Dawson's Creek has always hung over them.

Until now.

It was announced on Monday that One Tree Hill will be back for a sixth season, effectively matching Dawson's run in Wilmington.

“It’s sort of unimaginable,” Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill’s creator told the Wilmington Star-News.

"Dawson’s Creek is a huge, big, wonderful show that when you come to Wilmington to make a pilot, you have this spectre of this show looming over you and it seems unattainable to go as long as they would,” Schwahn said.

Locals crew members expressed a relief in knowing that after wrapping the recently ordered six episodes to be filmed for season five, they’ll go on a short hiatus and get right back to work.

Michael J. Hall, a construction coordinator on the show who also worked on Dawson’s Creek, was “a bit surprised” to learn the show had been renewed. He first learned about the sixth season approval when called by the Star-News for comment. He was in New Orleans working on a feature film.

“Yee ha!” he said. “I came here to do a show during the strike and I was unaware that after the strike was resolved, they’d come back and shoot a few more episodes for season five. So I’ll definitely be home for season six.”...

A sixth season for the show, which employs between 125 and 150 locals, is good news for the local economy, said Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. In the past, One Tree Hill has spent roughly a million dollars an episode, he said, “If they order 12 or 13 or 22, that’s how much more we’re going to get in the local economy.” ...

The One Tree Hill pick-up is just the most recent good news for Wilmington’s film professionals. HBO confirmed Thursday that an adaptation of the BBC series Little Britain will begin filming here this month.