The Berks County filmmaker and actor who intends to build a $30 million film studio complex in Tamaqua visited the borough Monday to scope out sites for a feature film.

Robert Morgalo’s first stop was at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center, and after that, he headed to the Tamaqua Area Historical Society Museum. He also paused at local cemeteries, businesses and residential neighborhoods before returning to his Reading residence.

“We are so thrilled with Tamaqua and just the support we have been getting,” he said.

Plans for what he is calling “Outhouse Production Film Studios of Tamaqua” are in the works, and already, Morgalo and his crews have committed to several projects that will be filmed in Tamaqua this year.

The first will be his feature film, “Children of a Fatherless Child.” It’s a personal and faith-based screenplay that Morgalo wrote, and one that won “Best Script” at the 2021 Christian Film Festival.

Scenes for the movie will be shot in Tamaqua, Los Angeles, Havana, Cuba, and Asturias, Spain.

“What we are doing here now is looking at locations that are suitable for what we have written in the script,” Morgalo said. “And we already found some stuff that wasn’t written in the script that we said, ‘Hey, we can use this.’”

Morgalo traveled to Tamaqua with his business partner, Ozz Gomez, and cinematographer Mateo Toro. They met at Hope & Coffee, where they planned their itinerary.

“We’re looking at cemeteries, and other places, of course. There will be some restaurant scenes - we just want it to be right,” he said.

At the arts center, the trio envisioned The Stitch performance center as a jazz club, and agreed that its lower level pottery studio could be used as is - or transformed into a studio apartment.

Artifacts at Tamaqua Area Historical Society could be used as props, they realized.

“Do you have any coffins here?” Morgalo asked society President Dale Freudenberger.

There were three, all part of a display on funerals and customs from long ago.

Gomez, who quizzed Freudenberger about the area’s coal mining history, said he found the borough’s architecture impressive. And tucked away, he said, are many unique locations.

But he didn’t enjoy only the visuals.

“The outside sound is so peaceful,” he said.

“It helps a lot when you are midway through a scene” to not have intrusive sounds, Toro added. “It can mess up the actors’ way of thinking and you have to wait until every minute of sound passes by.”

Outhouse Production Film is in talks to shoot at least two other films in Tamaqua by year’s end. One of them is titled “Bet on Jake” and is based on true accounts of a bookie in the Pennsylvania coal region during the 1970s. Some companies learned of the area through Outhouse Production Film’s marketing materials, including footage shot from drones.

“We currently have some production companies from Europe that are interested in Tamaqua as well,” he said. “One of the assets here is not just the location. We want to make this community-involved. For example, not just the film studios that we want to build here, but the whole community is a studio, it is a set. We can literally partner with anybody, a homeowner, a business owner, and then incorporate them into a film.”

The company is looking to purchase about 50 acres of land in the borough. Morgalo has already met with an engineer, and will meet with real estate development partners from Arctrust later this month.

Until he secures land, he’ll be looking for office space.

“One of the things we’ve been doing in the meantime is, you know how they say ‘if you build it, they will come?’” he said. “We are in that situation where we need them to come. We have been receiving bids and offers from production companies and other companies that want to do business with us.”

In addition to the studios, the complex would have a hotel, catering facility and day care center.

Morgalo said the venture would be comparable to other film studios across the United States.

“Things are moving along,” he said. “There is a lot more that needs to be done. It’s a big investment but we are so committed to this that we are starting our film production before we even start our studios.”

In October, Morgalo, Federico Castelluccio, who is best known for portraying Furio Giunta in “The Sopranos,” and others visited Tamaqua.

As an actor, Morgalo has more than 40 film and television credits and has done more than 50 commercials. He has written and produced 10 film projects in the last two years,

He is a retired and disabled U.S. Army combat veteran, and served in Iraq from 2002-03.