'I have over 600-700 photographs from Animal House alone'

LEABURG, Ore. - Katherine Wilson says people used to laugh at her 40 years ago when she talked about boosting the Oregon film business.

"They went, 'Oh, a film industry in the state of oregon,' and I went, just you wait," she said.

Wilson has a passion for films that comes from decades in the business. She was a screenwriter, location scout and casting director for made-in-oregon pictures like "Animal House" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

"I have over 600-700 photographs from 'Animal House' alone," Wilson said.

Now Wilson has a new vision: the Oregon Film Factory Movie Museum.

"You know, I've got all these trunks and boxes and file cabinets full of stuff," she told KVAL News, "and I would like to leave a legacy to Oregon."

Wilson wants it to be an interactive museum to help college students who are film majors get work in the movies.   

Her vision was to set up the museum in an old office space along Willamette Street where she used to have her old casting office in the 1970s. 

Those plans have fallen through now, and she has to find a new home for her collection.

The search could lead back to the "Animal House" parade town - Cottage Grove - and the old armory building, where wilson said sets for the film were built.

"We're talking to them about possibly recreating those five movie sets in the basement and putting the museum in there," she said.

But a legacy costs money: this one nearly $300,000. Project financing is tied up by lawsuits in Texas right now.  Wilson refuses to give up.

"It's a perfect industry for Oregon," Wilson said, "and Oregon is a perfect place for the film industry."