Two N.C.-filmed TV pilots will continue shooting ... in L.A.

According to the reports, two television series that filmed pilots in North Carolina won't be returning to North Carolina to film regular episodes.

The StarNews of Wilmington reports ABC's "Revenge" and The CW's "Hart of Dixie" will film in the Los Angeles area.

EUE/Screen Gems Studios executive vice president Bill Vassar says the stars in the shows wanted to stay on the West Coast to be near their families. Vassar is waiting to hear about a feature film that could open production offices in Wilmington next week.

The HBO comedy series "Eastbound & Down" begins filming a third season in Wilmington in July.

Now promoting K-Swiss: Mr. Kenny Powers

No, Kenny Powers is not real. But this endorsement deal is. (BTW, NSFW, y'all.)

Kenny Powers Gets Signed By K-Swiss - watch more funny videos

From the AV Club: HBO’s Eastbound And Down officially returns on September 26, but for those who can’t wait until then to see what Kenny [expletive] Powers has been up to ..., this new Funny Or Die video offers some clues. In short, he’s doing what he does best—cashing in on his fame via an endorsement deal with K-Swiss. Oddly enough, the campaign is real: K-Swiss really did sign “Kenny Powers” to be the spokesperson for its Tubes training shoes, and soon enough you’ll be seeing his face in magazine ads, billboards, subway posters (as seen above), and commercial spots for TV and movie theaters.

Fate of HBO shows filmed in Wilmington?

The Star-News is reporting that HBO's "Eastbound and Down," which is filmed in the Wilmington area, has been renewed for a second season. Unfortunately, HBO's "Little Britain USA," also filmed in the Port City, likely will not return in the same form. Instead, it will likely return as a special or series of specials.

More likely is the return of 'Eastbound and Down' to the Port City. The raunchy half-hour comedy starring Danny McBride filmed in Wilmington last fall and aired on HBO this spring. That show has been renewed for a second season, which could start production as soon as this fall. And though it is not definite that season two will film in Wilmington, the creators have said they want to return.

'Eastbound' gets the thumbs up from HBO

According to the Star-News, HBO has renewed the filmed-in-Wilmington comedy series “Eastbound & Down” for a second season.

The raunchy, dark series stars Danny McBride as Kenny Powers, who becomes a substitute teacher in his North Carolina hometown after his big mouth and declining fastball knock him out of Major League Baseball. ...

HBO says new episodes will begin production later this year and debut in 2010.

Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commision, said the show's return to Wilmington has not been confirmed, but McBride and co-star Ben Best each told the Star-News in January they hoped to return to the Port City to film more episodes.

The series filmed its pilot episode here in 2007, then returned in fall 2008 to film the five remaining first-season episodes. The show filmed entirely on location, shooting several scenes at Schaeffer BMW on New Centre Drive and at Blue Post Billiards in downtown Wilmington.

Barbara Weetman, co-owner of the Blue Post, said some cast and crew members hung out there even when they weren’t filming and that the wrap party for the pilot episode was held there as well. ...

'Eastbound' is 'Hicksploitation'

Randomly came across this Variety review of the North Carolina-filmed and -based HBO series, "Eastbound and Down," which we discussed last week.

"The premise isn't all that unusual," writes Cynthia Littleton, "but the setting is. You can tell that the show is shot [in] North Carolina with local extras. The tweens and teens in the middle school scenes don't look like L.A. kids who are angling for their SAG cards.

"McBride, Best and 'Eastbound' co-creator Jody Hill have talked about inventing a new genre dubbed 'Hicksploitation' that introduces the rest of the country to the best and worst of small-town Southern culture. In the same way that the small-town Texas setting of 'Friday Night Lights' was such a breath of fresh air, so is 'Eastbound's' Anytown, North Carolina. (Not that I am remotely comparing 'FNL' to 'Eastbound' in any other way. Not by a country mile.) ..."

'Eastbound and Down' is very much an N.C. creation

Was watching HBO in a hotel room while away at a conference a couple of weeks ago, and managed to see a sneak preview of the new Will Ferrell-produced series, "Eastbound and Down," which follows a washed-up Major Leaguer ("Kenny Powers," played by Danny McBride) as he adjusts to "normal" life back home in North Carolina.

The creators of this show were educated at the N.C. School of the Arts, and they commented that it just made sense to film it in North Carolina. ("Eastbound" is filmed around Wilmington.)

The show, I believe, starts next week. As with most HBO series, parental advisory is suggested.

"If nothing else, 'Eastbound,' set to bow Feb. 15, should have a ring of authenticity," says Variety. "McBride, who hails from small-town Virginia, co-created the series with two pals from film school in North Carolina: Jody Hill and Ben Best, who are both sons of small-town North Carolina (though Best bragged that his home town of High Point was 'the furniture capital of the world' and hosted a mammoth trade show every year.) And 'Eastbound' was shot in North Carolina using 'real Southern kids' as extras, 'not kids from Burbank,' McBride noted. McBride, Hill and Powers said they aim to update urbanites' view of life in the South beyond the 'Hee-Haw' stereotype. ..."

"We wanted to find new things to make fun of," McBride told the publication. "We wanted to get a little bit deeper into the South that we know," Best added.