Mayor meets Hollywood director, film commissioner confirms several scenes will be filmed here

BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announcing on Twitter he met Monday with Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro at City Hall.

The mayor declaring in his Tweet “Hollywood comes to #Buffalo!”.

The mayor saying, he is quote “looking forward to seeing what he is work on.”

The Oscar winning director won for Best Picture in 2018 for his film "The Shape of Water” and “Crimson Peak”. Some of the scenes in “Crimson Peak” was inspired and set in Buffalo.

There have been rumors for weeks that he could be considering shooting some scenes in Buffalo for his latest film “Nightmare Alley” featuring actor Bradley Cooper.

Director del Toro tweeted Tuesday afternoon he is leaving Buffalo, but will be back and asked for suggestions for a number of places. His tweet says quote "Any culinary suggestions, antique stores, bookstore and indie comic shop suggestions-? And yeah, let’s screen some horror or noir when I come back!"

The mayor’s Tweet does not reveal any details of their meeting or what the director is specifically planning.

As you can see from the mayor's photos on Twitter, the meeting with the director included Buffalo Niagara Film Commissioner Tim Clark, Buffalo Niagara Film director of operations Rich Wall and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

Clark tells 7 Eyewitness News the film company is now "confirming" the director will be filming "several scenes" in Buffalo for his next project. i

"Guillermo del Toro is very interested in Buffalo. He loves the architecture here. He loves the people here. He loves the community and the scene of it all. They are scouting for sure – this is a bit of a scouting trip and just seeing what's available as far as our inventory of architectural assets and movie things here," Clark said.

Both the mayor and county executive gathered for an economic development announcement Tuesday talked about the meeting with reproters.

"The director shared with county executive Poloncarz and I that he loves Buffalo and Erie County, that he is looking at doing a project here in our community," Mayor Brown explained.

"If you noticed on his Twitter page he talked about how he’ll be back and he’s looking for recommendations on a number of things including comic stores, so of course, I recommended Queen City Comics – my favorite comic story in the city of Buffalo," said Poloncarz.

Clark described del Toro as a great guy.

"He's very genuine and loves this community and loves the movie industry and that's a good combo for us for sure," said Clark.

The director also made a stop at North Park Theater on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo.