Patrick
08-06-2004, 01:10 PM
This is always good news for our city. It seems like quite a few directors have used the bombing memorial as their back drop!
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Famed director films at bombing memorial
by Heidi R. Centrella
The Journal Record
8/6/2004
Cameron Crowe and crew filmed scenes Thursday afternoon at Oklahoma City's National Memorial and Survivor Tree for Paramount's upcoming Elizabethtown.
Part of that crew includes People magazine's "Hottest Bachelor" Orlando Bloom, one of the stars of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean.
While filmmakers and Paramount officials would have preferred a closed set with no media, such was not the case. With only about 100 onlookers and a small number of media, still Paramount officials were visibly unnerved, ensuring fans and certain camera folks were kept at bay for fear actors would be distracted while shooting Bloom's impending somber scene.
Paramount officials said this is a very important scene for the film and hoped the set would be as closed as possible. And they made every attempt to keep it that way, especially after Bloom arrived.
Gov. Brad Henry, daughter Leah and family friend Aimee Canavan were on hand with cast extras at Markie's Deli, 612 N. Robinson Ave., to meet Crowe and Bloom.
Filming began at the Survivor Tree during the late afternoon, after the crew finished filming other scenes in El Reno. Filmmakers chose to include the Survivor Tree for its significance and for being a "moving place," as Drew Baylor, the main character played by Bloom, is going through a very introspective time in his life, attempting to come to terms with his father's death, officials told The Journal Record. It is a "very significant place" for him to visit in the film, and he has a "very moving moment there."
Drew is on a road trip home from Kentucky where he has just buried his father. He's been given a handwritten map of interesting places he should stop along the way that includes the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
And according to Kari Watkins, memorial executive director, this "very significant place" is significant for reasons other than just Crowe's film.
"It's important because it recognizes the national scale of the memorial," Watkins said. "And we were in some tough negotiations on whether or not we could do it here, and this was an important scene for him (Crowe). He wanted it and he was willing to make some concessions and adjustments to do that."
Watkins said the crew's short stop is not only a boon for the city, but is also serves as a significant educational tool for those who perhaps have limited knowledge of the tragedy of April 19, 1995, and its aftermath.
"We believe that the caliber of the movie and those associated with it will help spread our mission to some we may never reach," Watkins said, noting many Bloom fans are of a young age and perhaps weren't even born in 1995. "By him being in this movie and on this site, if it can help teach young kids what this site's about then we've benefited from it."
Paramount contributed an at-least $10,000 gift to the memorial.
Shooting for Elizabethtown started July 12 and the crew has visited many other cities, including Memphis, Los Angeles and various locations in Kentucky. The crew is expected to wrap in October with a scheduled release date for summer of 2005.
Elizabethtown, starring Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon, will mark Crowe's sixth film as director. The former Rolling Stone writer is best known for helming such popular films as 1996's Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise, 1989's Say Anything starring John Cusak and 2000's Almost Famous staring Kate Hudson, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Crowe made his first big break into Hollywood as the writer for 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which starred Sean Penn in one of his fist on-screen performances.
The film is produced by Tom Cruise and production partner Paula Wagner.
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Famed director films at bombing memorial
by Heidi R. Centrella
The Journal Record
8/6/2004
Cameron Crowe and crew filmed scenes Thursday afternoon at Oklahoma City's National Memorial and Survivor Tree for Paramount's upcoming Elizabethtown.
Part of that crew includes People magazine's "Hottest Bachelor" Orlando Bloom, one of the stars of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean.
While filmmakers and Paramount officials would have preferred a closed set with no media, such was not the case. With only about 100 onlookers and a small number of media, still Paramount officials were visibly unnerved, ensuring fans and certain camera folks were kept at bay for fear actors would be distracted while shooting Bloom's impending somber scene.
Paramount officials said this is a very important scene for the film and hoped the set would be as closed as possible. And they made every attempt to keep it that way, especially after Bloom arrived.
Gov. Brad Henry, daughter Leah and family friend Aimee Canavan were on hand with cast extras at Markie's Deli, 612 N. Robinson Ave., to meet Crowe and Bloom.
Filming began at the Survivor Tree during the late afternoon, after the crew finished filming other scenes in El Reno. Filmmakers chose to include the Survivor Tree for its significance and for being a "moving place," as Drew Baylor, the main character played by Bloom, is going through a very introspective time in his life, attempting to come to terms with his father's death, officials told The Journal Record. It is a "very significant place" for him to visit in the film, and he has a "very moving moment there."
Drew is on a road trip home from Kentucky where he has just buried his father. He's been given a handwritten map of interesting places he should stop along the way that includes the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
And according to Kari Watkins, memorial executive director, this "very significant place" is significant for reasons other than just Crowe's film.
"It's important because it recognizes the national scale of the memorial," Watkins said. "And we were in some tough negotiations on whether or not we could do it here, and this was an important scene for him (Crowe). He wanted it and he was willing to make some concessions and adjustments to do that."
Watkins said the crew's short stop is not only a boon for the city, but is also serves as a significant educational tool for those who perhaps have limited knowledge of the tragedy of April 19, 1995, and its aftermath.
"We believe that the caliber of the movie and those associated with it will help spread our mission to some we may never reach," Watkins said, noting many Bloom fans are of a young age and perhaps weren't even born in 1995. "By him being in this movie and on this site, if it can help teach young kids what this site's about then we've benefited from it."
Paramount contributed an at-least $10,000 gift to the memorial.
Shooting for Elizabethtown started July 12 and the crew has visited many other cities, including Memphis, Los Angeles and various locations in Kentucky. The crew is expected to wrap in October with a scheduled release date for summer of 2005.
Elizabethtown, starring Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon, will mark Crowe's sixth film as director. The former Rolling Stone writer is best known for helming such popular films as 1996's Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise, 1989's Say Anything starring John Cusak and 2000's Almost Famous staring Kate Hudson, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Crowe made his first big break into Hollywood as the writer for 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which starred Sean Penn in one of his fist on-screen performances.
The film is produced by Tom Cruise and production partner Paula Wagner.