B efore “Titanic” and “Avatar,” Oscar-winning director James Cameron filmed his movie "The Abyss" in an abandoned nuclear reactor in Cherokee County.

From underwater films to movies about carnivals, Cherokee County has seen a wide range of movies filmed locally dating back to 1980. Films with scenes shot here locally is the theme of a new film series which will begins late this summer at the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum.

Copyright permission has been secured for the museum to screen three of the six films highlighted in its "Movies at the Museum" series, committee member Mary Ann Blair said in a news release Friday. The committee is working to secure copyright permission so the remaining films can be publicly screened by the museum.

The Earl Owensby movie studio in Shelby, N.C., had a prominent role in bringing many of these movie productions to Cherokee County. An exhibit with these movie posters is on permanent display near the front entrance to the museum.

"The posters were the inspiration for expanding the exhibit into a film series," Blair said. "We were researching the types of films that local residents would like to see and there they were, on display, right in front of our eyes."

The movies series will start in September with a screening of Burt Reynolds "Stroker Ace." The screening of the movie will be held in connection with the fall classic car show fundraiser by the Cherokee Historical and Preservation Society (CHAPS).

The museum will mark Halloween by screening the 1981 horror film "Final Exam." Many scenes in "Final Exam" were filmed on the Limestone College campus. College locations appearing in the film include the Winnie Davis Hall of History, the Eastwood Library, the Hamrick Hall of Science and the observatory.

The hayride and ghost walk tour of the historic district on Oct. 28-29 by CHAPS will include a tour of Winnie Davis.

There are plans in the coming months to screen the movies "Lost In America" (1985), "Carnival Magic" (1981), "The Abyss" (1989), and "Walker Payne" (2006), museum director Billy Pennington said. The exact dates and times for the screenings will be announced at a later date.

"We would like to know if anybody locally had a part in these movie productions, or have artifacts related to these movies," Pennington said. "We would like to have a presentation so people could learn more about the history on how these movies were made."

(SCOTT POWELL/Ledger Staff Writer)