Article: Hollywood’s Back In Town.

A romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl, of TV’s Grey’s Anatomy, will be filming in Dean Studios, a former warehouse in the Diamond Hill Industrial Park, according to owner Bradford A. Dean.

Construction crews began moving equipment into the 60,000-square-foot space yesterday. Set building is expected to start at the end of the week, said Dean’s son, Brad Dean Jr.

The film, 27 Dresses, takes place in New York City and stars Heigl as a woman who has been a bridesmaid 27 times, then falls in love with her sister’s fiancé just before the wedding.

The screenplay was written by Aline Brosh McKenna, who wrote last year’s hit comedy The Devil Wears Prada.

Dean Jr. said crews will be shooting interior apartment scenes in the studio and one of the first sets to be built will be the apartment’s bathroom. "Apparently, there aren’t enough bathrooms in the state to accommodate an entire film crew," Dean Jr. joked.

Filming will begin in locations around the state and New York between early next month and July 4, when Heigl must return to Grey’s Anatomy, according to Steve Feinberg, executive director of the state’s Film and TV Office.

The film is the first production to come to town since CBS pulled the plug on Waterfront, a drama about Rhode Island politics starring Joe Pantoliano and William Baldwin, in November.

That show’s producers converted the warehouse, at 70 Industrial Lane, into a soundstage and office when they signed an eight-month lease in July 2006. After Waterfront cleared out, Dean Sr. announced his intention to continue offering the warehouse as a film studio.

The studio is a cornerstone in the state’s plan to develop home-grown businesses and talent catering to the film and television industry, Feinberg said.

It is one of the few indoor facilities in the state with the infrastructure to handle a full movie production, which can enlist up to 300 workers and require large amounts of electricity, according to Feinberg. The Brotherhood, a Showtime TV drama about a Providence Irish clan, is to start shooting its second season in a warehouse in East Providence tomorrow, Feinberg said.

"It is really important that we have houses for these productions," Feinberg said. "When producer Jonathan Glickman [of Spyglass Entertainment] approached me about this project, Dean Studios was one of the first places I mentioned because it offered a soundstage and office space."

Dean purchased the warehouse, formerly owned by Alcoa Aluminum, in June 2006, and originally planned on relocating the corporate headquarters of his company, Dean Warehousing Services, there.

But with 27 Dresses locked in for at least five months and the possibility of another film to take its place in August, the Deans say they intend to keep the studio open as long as there is a demand.

Dean Jr. says that other project is Paramount Pictures’ The Fighter, a film about Massachusetts boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward. The film is to be directed by Darren Aronofsky and is to star Mark Wahlberg as Ward and Matt Damon as his brother, Dickie Eklund.