By DANI BLACKBURN
Stage lights and cameras flooded downtown as Hollywood came to Nocona this week.
The flurry of activity began as filming for the Christmas horror movie “Sick for Toys” got underway.
The movie is produced by independent film companies Nine Ten Films, owned by Jon Paul Burkhart, and Delco-Cut Productions, owned by David Gunning. It is directed by David Del Rio.
It was Burkhart’s vision that brought the production to the Nocona area. Although he currently resides in Los Angeles, Burkhart grew up in Dallas and has remained friends with the nephew of Don MacLaughlin, owner of a local art gallery and the MacLaughlin Ranch.
Burkhart had visited the ranch with his friend years ago and reached out to see if the family still owned the ranch.
“His answer was oh yes, it has two houses on it now. I sent a letter to Don and they said yes, we would love for you to come out and look,” explained Burkhart. “I came out with Justin Xavier. We were walking around and Justin kept saying ‘I wrote this.’ And so it was pretty clear almost immediately that we wanted to shoot here.”

Read the full feature in the weekend News.

Filming of “Sick Toys” got underway this past week in downtown Nocona. (Photo by Dani Blackburn)