WILMINGTON, N.C. -- The largest sound stage east of California combined with an indoor water tank will attract larger, more expensive productions to North Carolina, said the head of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington.

"We were in California last week visiting the studios, and the reaction was extremely positive," said Bill Vassar, executive vice president of the Wilmington studio. "Filming is a lot less expensive than in Los Angeles and having this asset here is going to benefit us a lot."

The 283,000-gallon, 60-foot-by-60-foot indoor water tank will be only one of three in North America, he said. The others are at Universal and Warner Brothers in Los Angeles, and they're typically reserved for productions from those film studios.

The studio will unveil plans Thursday for both the tank and the 37,500-square-foot stage, which will be the 10th on the 50-acre lot. Both are expected to be completed in spring 2009.

Also scheduled for Thursday is the second North Carolina screening of "Nights in Rodanthe," which stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane. The movie, which involves a surgeon, a separated wife and an approaching hurricane, seems determined to attract storms.

A system that eventually became subtropical storm Andrea interrupted filming in May 2007, and on Wednesday, a nor'easter threatened to overwash N.C. Highway 12 on Hatteras Island.

"I just find it ... poetic," said Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, who was in Toronto on Wednesday, talking to the travel industry about visiting the Outer Banks. "It's our dance with Mother Nature."

However, the movie has gotten less-than-stellar reviews. "You would pretty much have to be sentimental to tolerate such schlock, or at least be willing to check your cynicism at the multiplex door," wrote The Associated Press' Christy Lemire.

Vassar's office was also making contingency plans to hold the Screen Gems studio tour and media briefing indoors in case the predicted 40 mph-winds materialized.

The tank should be an especially big draw since Vassar said the studio gets about six calls a month inquiring about whether one is available.

Movies such as "Titanic" and "Jaws" could have used such a tank, and "we could have done a lot more for 'Surface' when they were here and help shave some costs off that production," Vassar said.

"Surface" was the science-fiction series about a sea monster that aired on NBC for one season and filmed in Wilmington.

But the stage and the tank aren't just about previous productions that could have filmed here. They're also about the future of the industry.

"As we move into the future, more of this stuff will be filmed against CG (computer graphics)," Vassar said. Directors can shoot their exteriors at Wilmington's many bodies of water -- from the Atlantic Ocean to swamps -- then do their special effects screening inside.