Actor Richard Gere gave a wave to the crowd watching the making of his movie Hachiko: A Dog’s Story, outside the train station in Woonsocket in February.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

With the General Assembly still mulling changes in the state’s film tax credit program and producers spooked by the potential of a strike by the Screen Actors Guild at the end of next month, the pace of film production in the state has slowed considerably.

Tell-Tale, a thriller based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, wrapped principal photography last week after filming on locations in Providence, Burrillville and at a converted warehouse in Central Falls. The film stars Josh Lucas as a man whose newly transplanted heart leads him on a dangerous journey to learn who murdered its donor.

Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film & TV Office, said the producers of Brotherhood plan to return to the state in July for several months of filming season three, but that “may be held off because of the potential actors strike.”

The Clique, which is based on a popular series of books by Canadian author Isis Harrison about girls at a prep school, completed filming for Warner Bros. a month ago on locations in Aquidneck Island and Kay Studios, in North Kingstown. It’s a made-for-DVD release. When filming was first announced, Feinberg said if the film was successful, it might lead to “one or two films a year in Rhode Island” to continue the series. He felt it would be a good way to “develop our crew base.” But this week Feinberg said “I don’t know” if any of that will happen.

Hachiko: A Dog’s Story, the Richard Gere film about a faithful dog, completed its winter filming in March on locations that included the Woonsocket railway station, a home on High Street in Bristol and the campus of the University of Rhode Island, where the professor character played by Gere teaches. But Feinberg is expecting the movie crew to return for nine days in June “to catch the seasons.”

Meanwhile, Michael Corrente continues pulling together a cast for his screen version of Journal reporter Mike Stanton’s opus on former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., The Prince of Providence. Corrente said he hopes to make a major announcement about the film later this month. The project has been in pre-production for a few years, with occasional bulletins from Corrente about various actors interested in playing Cianci, including Russell Crowe and Nicolas Cage. Corrente would not confirm the names of anyone he has signed or is in the process of signing for the film, but said he “has applied for the Rhode Island tax credit” and hopes to begin production in the state this summer.

In addition, Corrente will produce and direct “the first animated horror film,” in partnership with the Providence-based Story Hat animation house. Originally titled Bloodline, it is now called Tracer and currently is in preliminary production as part of a class at the Rhode Island School of Design. What the students are working on is not the feature film itself, but basically a short pilot film that will be used to interest financiers for the later feature film.

Corrente also said that his plan to produce 10 low-budget horror films in the city using local talent is moving forward. Following a well-publicized daylong session last winter in which 320 potential screenwriters pitched ideas for horror films to Corrente, he said he had narrowed the scope to 20 writers, who are now working on screenplays.

He also co-produced the film The Education of Charlie Banks, which was filmed in Pawtucket and other Rhode Island locations in 2006 and directed by Fred Durst, former lead singer of the rock band Limp Bizkit. But Corrente said he lost touch with the film shortly after it was financed and went into production. Although The Education of Charlie Banks had some screenings at film festivals, including last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, in New York City, Corrente added, “I don’t think it had a theatrical release.” A call to the film’s co-producer, Marisa Polvino, in New York City, was not returned.

mjanuson@projo.com