Native Sacramentan and actor Colin Hanks has picked a homegrown topic for his newest film venture: the rise and fall of Tower Records.

MTV News has the scoop, saying Hanks has done some preliminary filming and interviewing for the documentary. Hanks, the son of actor Tom Hanks, is working with two of his east Sacramento boyhood friends, Tim Comstock and Sean Stuart, on the project.

E-mails to the partners drew a response from Stuart, who said it was premature to discuss details.

But the MTV story is confirmed by Tower founder Russ Solomon, who says he's been interviewed by Hanks and considers the project "extremely flattering."

But, Solomon adds, "I told them they're nuts. How are they going to make any money on it?"

Also contacted by the filmmakers was Dick Harris, the first manager of Tower's Watt Avenue store, which opened in 1960.

Harris was interviewed on film – at the now-closed Watt site – and came away impressed. "These guys are serious," he says. "It's not two kids with a hand-held camera."

The Tower saga is a worthy film subject, despite Solomon's skepticism of its box office potential. Starting from humble beginnings in 1941, when the teenage Solomon began selling jukebox records from his father's pharmacy inside the Tower Theatre building, Tower Records played a big role in the rise of rock 'n' roll internationally. Its sad collapse two years ago became a symbol of the Internet's growing clout in the music-selling business.

As Hanks told MTV, "It's about this really amazing company that started in sleepy Sacramento ... and ended up becoming the predominant music retail chain in the world and then kind of disappeared."

Not quite. Tower's local legacy is alive at R5, the music store Solomon opened a year ago in the same location as his former Tower Records at 16th and Broadway.

Hollywood north: Speaking of the movie biz, film star Charlize Theron might be walking down a red carpet in Sacramento next month.

The event: One of several U.S. premieres for "Battle in Seattle," a film produced by Folsom's Redwood Palms Pictures.

Star-studded premieres are planned in mid- to late September in the usual places: L.A. and New York. But Sacramento also will get a gala - "in appreciation of our investors," most of whom are from this area, says RPP producer David Flanagan.

Details on the Sacramento premiere are not yet available. Theron's attendance is a "maybe," Flanagan says. But her co-stars Stuart Townsend, Michelle Rodriguez and Martin Henderson are definites.

The film, about the massive 1999 protests against a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, represents a step up for Redwood.

In earlier ventures, the local company simply raised money and invested it in independent Hollywood films. This time, it's also handling the film's distribution.

That's "no easy process," Flanagan says, but it should get easier "on the next one and the one after that."

Gotta eat: Now that he's signed up a regional pet supply store for his Stone Pointe shopping center, developer Paul Petrovich is turning his attention to a couple of potential food tenants.

Talks with an Asian restaurant are progressing, the developer says. A Mexican eatery also is being courted.

But it'll be next year before either one could open at the center, located on Sutterville Road near William Land Park.

The restaurant openings can't happen soon enough for some students and employees at nearby Sacramento City College, who've been screaming for more local food choices.

Says Liz Johnson, an information tech employee at the college: "I don't know if anybody outside the school knows how much we hate the cafeteria."

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.