The 4th installment to the 2013 film "The Purge" has started shooting in Western New York.

According to Cosmic Book News, crews for the movie began unloading equipment and setting up lights on Monday (9/25).

"The Purge: Island" as it will be called is the prequel to the first Purge movie when every crime goes unpunished one night a year. The film will be Buffalo's biggest Hollywood biggest production.

Although cast members for the film have yet to be revealed, Y'lan Noel from Insecure and Lex Scott Davis from the Training Day series have been cast. Hundreds of people from throughout the Buffalo area were hired as extras during an audition session held in late August. The movie will include an almost 100% black cast.

The setting for "The Purge: Island" will take place on Staten Island. It has an Independence Day, 2018 release date.

During the summer several movie and TV projects were shooting or scheduled to begin shooting in Upstate and Central New York..

• The True Adventures of Wolfboy starring John Turturro is also currently filming in Buffalo.
• An unnamed film starring John Lithgow and Blyth Danner were shooting scenes for a low budget film in Rochester. Filming for that film is scheduled to wrap in the next couple weeks
• The supernatural film "A Quiet Place" directed by "The Office" star John Krasinski and starring his wife Emily Blunt will start filming in Little Falls sometime in October, 2017.
• The 8 episode mini-series  "Escape to Dannemora" directed by Ben Stiller is currently filming in the Malone and Plattburgh area.

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