Vicksburg is being scouted as a shooting location for a road trip comedy, “Due Date,” for which filming is to start in two weeks.

Herman Smith, superintendent of the U.S. 80 Bridge over the Mississippi and Bill Seratt, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, said an independent site scout for the film’s distributor, Warner Bros.,  has inquired about featuring the river bridges in the film.

The film is to star actors Robert Downey Jr. as an expectant father and Zach Galifianakis as a mismatched buddy who pair up on a cross-country rush to California for the birth of Downey’s character’s first child.

Most of the movie will be shot in Atlanta, parts of New Mexico and Los Angeles with a Sept. 21 start date, according to the Web site for Variety magazine. The movie’s release is likely by fall 2010.

What could be filmed locally are scenes of the Vicksburg riverfront as the movie’s unlikely duo presumably will ride across much of the south-central United States.

Though scenes of the local area will be limited — in contrast to the full-scale exposure given to Vicksburg and surrounding communities in 2000 for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — the movie figures to help Vicksburg’s tourism promoters.

Seratt said he hasn’t passed up any chance to market Vicksburg’s architectural skyline or Warren County’s pastoral panoramas to filmmakers looking for a backdrop. “Anything to help market tourism here,” he said.

Smith said a scene might involve placing cameras atop the 79-year-old railroad bridge and showing a vehicle traversing the Mississippi River on the Interstate 20 bridge.

“Due Date” is to be directed by Todd Phillips, who helmed “Road Trip” nine years ago and this year’s raucous, bachelor party-themed hit “The Hangover” co-starring Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper.

Recent appearances by television crews near the bridge have included an episode of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2007” and the Canadian-produced weekly documentary “The Thirsty Traveler.” Vicksburg was also in an episode of the Food Channel’s series featuring Chef Alton Brown traveling by motorcycle on U.S. 61.

Events slated for the bridge include the Over the River Run on Oct. 10, the Living Independence for Everyone Oct. 31 and the Bras for Breast Cancer event Nov. 5, which was first held last year and featured more than 3,000 bras strung across the railing to the unused road deck.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com