Detroit Zoo Stars In New Indie Hollywood Film

ROYAL OAK (CBS Detroit) If you're in the market to see a film marketed as an "offbeat romantic comedy about a silver-painted street performer and the soft spoken zoo worker who falls for him" -- keep your eyes peeled.

Does the setting look familiar? You got it, that is the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak.

The zoo provides the backdrop for several key scenes in the upcoming feature film "The Giant Mechanical Man", scheduled for local release next month. Although the scenes are set at the fictitious Fillmore Park Zoo, there's no mistaking the Arctic Ring of Life, Penguinarium and Rackham Fountain in the film's trailer.

The romantic comedy stars Jenna Fischer from "The Office" as the zoo worker drifting through life who falls for a charming silver-painted street performer played by Chris Messina. Fischer plays a woman who gets fired from her job and moves in with her sister, played by Malin Ackerman, and her sister's husband, played by Bob Odenkirk from "Mad Men."

They want her to date an arrogant motivational speaker -- played by a long-haired Topher Grace.

Written and directed by Fischer's husband, Lee Kirk, "The Giant Mechanical Man" will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival April 23, 2012, in New York City and will open in the Detroit area May 4, 2012.

"It should be very exciting to see the zoo on the silver screen," said Detroit Zoological Society Executive Director Ron Kagan.

The Detroit Zoo scenes featuring the movie's lead characters were shot in December 2010.