Filming has wrapped on “Hershey,” director Mark Waters’ period drama about chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey, clearing the way for a nationwide theatrical release in 2026 after six weeks on location across western Pennsylvania. Finn Wittrock plays the confectioner-turned-philanthropist opposite Alexandra Daddario as wife Catherine “Kitty” Hershey, with new castmates Alan Ruck, Richard Kind, David Costabile and Heléne Yorke portraying key figures in the entrepreneur’s life.
The $40 million production shot in Pittsburgh’s South Side, Ligonier and Harmony, where late-19th-century streetscapes were recreated with horse-drawn wagons and gas lamps. Waters, best known for “Mean Girls,” said the state’s “well-preserved historic settings and stunning landscapes” let the crew “transport viewers back to the turn of the century”. Speaking when the project was announced, he added that the film’s core is “the special love story between Milton and Catherine Hershey, who inspired his greatest legacy—the creation of the Milton Hershey School”.
That philanthropic dimension is central to the screenplay by Sharon Paul and Timothy Michael Hayes, which charts Hershey’s rise from repeated business failure to founding a company that now posts more than $10 billion in annual sales and funds a tuition-free boarding school for nearly 2,000 low-income children. Hershey Company chief executive Michele Buck, an executive producer, said the picture “reveals how Milton and Kitty built something far greater than a chocolate company” by tying profits to community investment.
State leaders praised the shoot for delivering an economic boost and highlighting Pennsylvania’s film-tax-credit program, which the Pittsburgh Film Office credits with making the region “camera-ready”. Local outlet Axios noted that hundreds of extras were recruited through the Pittsburgh Film Office, underscoring renewed momentum in the post-strike production pipeline.
Produced by Dandelion Media in partnership with Hershey Entities and Aloe Entertainment, the picture is represented worldwide by UTA Independent Film Group. Marketing materials suggest the film will bow during the confectioner’s 130th-anniversary year, timed to capitalize on nostalgia—and, as fan sites observed when Daddario teased on-set images, to remind audiences that the brand’s real sweetness lies in its origin story.
