Thursday, September 24, 2009

Alleged: A Different Kind of Shooting

Nathan West and Ashley Johnson in a scene shot at the Stockton House in Flint. (Photo by Ryan Garza/The Flint Journal)


Brian Dennehy, Fred Thompson, Nathan West and Ashley Johnson are in the Flint area shooting the feature film "Alleged" about the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. Aside from giving Flintoids a chance to mingle with celebrities, Liz Shaw of The Flint Journal reports that the movie is bringing in some cash for the Flint area.
"The film's $4.1-million budget might be small by Hollywood standards, but nearly a quarter of it will go directly into the pockets of businesses right here in Flint and southeast Michigan in less than eight weeks' time -- and that's just for the most obvious, basic expenses."
Shaw gives a nice rundown of the more than $1 million that will be spent in Flint and southeast Michigan:

Housing: $320,000
Caterers' food supplies: $48,000
Set construction materials: $120,000
Antiques and other set dressing and props: $150,000
Dry cleaning: $12,500
Wages for 1,000 locals: $75 per day (20 days shooting total)
Lighting rentals: $40,000
Camera rentals: $88,000
Trucks: $46,000

Let's just hope Fred Thompson's acting is more compelling than his run for the presidency.

4 comments:

  1. I had heard they are shooting on Ann Arbor St, in a building that used to be the old St. Joe's hospital in the '30s.

    Nice to have that building around still...

    Along that same note, I wonder if they'll find enough parking downtown? hmmmm....

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    1. So I was talking to my parents about old Flint after dinner tonight, and my Mom mentioned the old (until ~1933) St. Joe's, which was Kith Haven, a nursing home, for a few decades after it ceased use as a hospital.

      Was that the building at 777 Ann Arbor Street, on the northwest corner of the intersection with Bryan Place?

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    2. I seem to remember what must have been a later version of Kith Haven on Ballenger just before the river near McLaren.

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  2. I wrote on the old Flinttalk.com site back around 2005 or 2006 that Michigan, and Flint in particular, could attract Hollywood because of very low production costs. I went as far as to mail - to a location agency in Los Angeles - a restaurant dinner tab for 4 people at a Flint restaurant that was $26 bucks. We ate a lot, too.

    It wasn't until the tax breaks came did real interest begin, however.

    Keep in mind Hollywood is a capitalist as any industry - when another state chooses to have even bigger tax breaks than Michigan, they'll go there. Enjoy it while it lasts.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.