On Tuesday, several passengers arriving at Tulsa International Airport were treated to a nice surprise: they got to see Sylvester Stallone at work.
“Tulsa King,” a Paramount+ series featuring Stallone, is now airing. Stallone arrived on site in the morning to film inside and exterior sequences, and filming in Tulsa began Tuesday at the airport.
Pat Ratzlaff of Kalamazoo, Michigan, flew in to see family at the airport and halted to picture Stallone from the upper level of a parking structure across the street after discovering that part of the airport had been turned into a film set.
“It’s not every day that you get to see anything like this,” Ratzlaff added.
“I’m thrilled,” Ratzlaff remarked as he walked away, his mission completed. I noticed him. “I have a photograph of him.”
Filming for “Tulsa King” was set to take place at several venues throughout Tulsa from Tuesday to Thursday. Due to the closeness of filming sites, certain downtown Tulsa streets are closed.
“Tulsa King,” directed by Taylor Sheridan and starring Stallone as 75-year-old gangster Dwight “The General” Manfredi, is dispatched to Tulsa by the son of his former boss after serving a 25-year jail sentence.
When the project was unveiled, Stallone commented in a video, “The ‘Tulsa King’ is a really intriguing narrative.” “He’s been a mobster all his life. He took the fall for his superiors and spent 25 years in prison, keeping his mouth shut, until now. He’s in Tulsa the next thing you know. He now has to establish a new life and form a gang since they want him to work. That’s when the real fun starts.”
“Realizing that his mafia family may not have his best interests at heart, Manfredi steadily gathers a ‘crew’ from a bunch of unusual personalities to help him construct a new criminal empire in a place that to him may as well be another planet,” according to a press statement about the series.
Stallone’s first starring role in a TV series is in “Tulsa King.” Last week, Stallone announced his presence in Oklahoma on social media, calling the state the “Paris of the Southwest.” More than a million people have seen the Instagram post.
Last week, the cast of “Tulsa King” was revealed to include Max Casella (“The Tender Bar”), Domenick Lombardozzi (“The Irishman”), Vincent Piazza (“Boardwalk Empire”), and Jay Will (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”).
A legion of extras waited at an airport entry before Stallone arrived at Tulsa International Airport before morning. For sequences shot in one of the airport’s baggage claim sections, the extras were costumed like airport travelers from different walks of life. Prior to rehearsals and during breaks, they sat on seats above the ticketing area.
Security sentinels were stationed at filming locations within the airport, and some tourists experienced minor rerouting issues traveling to and from their destinations within the airport.