Destruction of Metropolis Part II

Some more pictures from the Corktown set here. I felt like hanging up my ‘paparazzi’ hat while filming this set over 2 days because I singularly failed to catch Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne except for the back of his head through smoke once. I did have a fun time hanging with my kids though, so I should just be thankful for that experience, right? In any case I’m not the paparazzi (no sh!t), I’m there to record the movie-making process. If I happen to snag a shot of Mark Wahlberg taking his pants off while I’m there, of COURSE I’m going to try to make a few bucks. Wrong movie, but you know what I mean.

Here we see Ben’s stunt-double and Zack Snyder setting up for the shot where Bruce Wayne runs through the ruins of the Wayne Industries building rescuing children, and in particular one adorable little red-headed girl. Aww. Bad Superman!

The Destruction of Metropolis Part I

Still counting down to the official release of Batman v Superman at the end of the months and I’m looking back at the scenes we saw filmed in Detroit in the Summer and Fall of 2014. One of the most exciting periods was early August when the big set that had been constructed in Corktown finally came into play, followed over the next few days by huge scenes filmed across few streets in downtown. Both scenes seemed to be a flashback to the devastation caused by Superman’s battle with Zod at the end of Man of Steel.  This has pretty much been confirmed by the trailers at this point. (I’ve lost patience with adding a watermark to all my shots at this point, but if you do use one somewhere, please give credit. Thank you.)

These are the Corktown set which is the area around the large Wayne Industries Building. Below you’ll see extras in various states of disarray after the buildings have come down, Ben Afflek’s stand-in/stunt double, Scoot McNairy is in there somewhere (and therefore is perhaps an employee of Wayne Industries), a bunch of schoolchildren that Bruce Wayne rescues, Ben Afflek leaving his trailer, and Zack Snyder scowling at me.

Superman and the School Bus

I’m still pretty sure we’ll be seeing some kind of flashback to a young Clark Kent rescuing kids from the school bus. Why? Only because I spied this rusty, vegetation-filled bus on the lot at the Pontiac Studios, along with a pink mini-van that looks circa 1990s?

Clark Kent Investigates

So nothing particularly earth-shattering here, but a scene that hasn’t appeared in any trailers yet. Maybe it takes up 30 seconds of the final movie or doesn’t make the cut at all, but here it is. I posted a couple of these shots was back when, but I took literally hundreds over the course of the evening while I was hiding out in my car at the end of the street in one of the not so great neighborhoods in Detroit in which to be hiding out in your car. Whatever, I was in luck as over the course of the evening I saw Henry Cavill as Clark Kent coming in and out of the building carrying his reporter’s bag and a newspaper. Clearly he’s out investigating crime, and the headline on the newspaper could possibly say …”Red Light Massacre…” or something like that. My guess at the time was that he was investigating one of Batman’s bad-guy clean-up efforts on the rough side of town, but that’s purely conjecture.

The only other obvious characters in the scene are a boy (around 10 or 11 and dressed in very Clark-Kent-like plaid) and the older, homeless-looking guy who could be blind, or maybe he just likes wearing cool sunglasses at night. We (thanks Mark Bialek) are pretty sure that the other actor may be local musician/actor Paul Miles, but we probably won’t find out for sure until we see the real cast list.

 

 

Batman v Superman Countdown

Way back in June 2014, the release of Batman v Superman in March 2016 seemed a long way off. Since that time we’ve seen many other movies film and come to theaters, and often it seemed the wait was endless, but at long last we are almost there. Over the next few weeks until the release I’ll be sharing some of my favorite photographs of the sets and filming in Michigan. There are some that I haven’t released before, and some from scenes that haven’t appeared yet in any of the trailers.

My very favorite set was of course the Superman statue that’s featured prominently in the trailers. There was speculation when we first saw it, in all its incomplete glory, and the full effect wasn’t visible until we saw the missing pieces added with CGI. The scale of it on set was awesome. Thank you, Wendy’s parking lot for the great views.

Batman v Superman filming at the Broad Museum (II)

We’ve now seen several scenes in the Batman v Superman trailers that are clearly from the party/event filmed in the Broad Museum at MSU in October 2014. One of my favorites is Lex Luther introducing Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. It was while watching the set from a window on a stairwell at MSU that we saw the party beginning. Of course as always (for the Michigan shoots at least — in Chicago they filmed everything for all to see), the set was pretty locked down, and most of us were disappointed at what we were able (or not able to see). Whatever, it’s the movie set vibe that really counts. Filming went through the cold, wet, October night, so although there were crowds early on, they had definitely thinned out by the time most of the action was recorded. What we did see were a lot of cars arriving, but no one exciting getting out of them!

The Red Carpet at Lex’s Party

Still at the Broad Museum in East Lansing, the famous and infamous of Metropolis and Gotham arrive at Lex’s mansion for a party. See that board in front of the red carpet? Did you wonder what was on it? I posted this on my Twitter feed way back then, but it never got here to the blog where it belongs. Here are the organizations sponsoring Lex’s lavish party/benefit.

Dodge supplied almost all the vehicles for the movie, so that’s no big surprise; Under Armor; LexCorp Industries and the Metropolis Public Library Renewal Project.

More from the Broad Museum (I)

In October, 2014 Batman v Superman filming moved to the college town of East Lansing, Michigan, home of Michigan State University. Rumors had circulated for weeks, then the casting calls for extras went out, and the town was on high alert for the movie production. Then came news that the main location for filming would be the extraordinary  Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on the edge of the MSU campus. Soon after that the familiar signs of lighting crews and set construction started to appear.

My original post from 2014 is here.

 

 

 

The Batman v Superman Turkish Airlines Connection

The link between Turkish Airlines and Batman v Superman was announced in January, but wasn’t news to those of us who were paying attention during filming.  There were rumors about Turkish airlines having some connection to the movie toward the end of the filming in Detroit, when people reported scenes being filmed at Detroit Metro Airport. The scoop then was that it probably involved Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and now in the latest trailer we have the proof: Wonder Woman herself (as Diana Prince) boarding a Turkish Airlines airplane.

However back in July, 2015, almost a year after the Batman v Superman machine left Michigan, Twitter came alive with rumors that the production crew were back in downtown Detroit filming again. Maybe some reshoots? Of course I headed down to see what was going on, to find a relatively small crew in place outside the Penobscot Building, downtown. Although there was some impressive equipment, and vehicles that were clearly from Batman v Superman, the set up seemed too small to be part of the movie itself. Local crew downplayed the movie connection a little at first, saying it was a shoot for a commercial. Also we knew that at the time the entire cast of the movie were at San Diego Comic Con and so unlikely to be involved. Further interrogation revealed that it was a commercial for… you guessed it, Turkish Airlines. Aha.

Closer examination of the crew also revealed the presence of none other than Larry Fong, Director of Photography for Batman v Superman. Unfortunately Larry is not my biggest fan. I think he may be the only person ever to block me on Twitter after I posted some pictures in the early days of filming in Detroit. Sorry, Larry! However, in addition to his phenomenal contribution to the big blockbuster movies (Watchmen, Man of Steel and many others), he’s also worked on some amazing commercials. The most notable in this context is the amazing Hardee’s commercial that released with Man of Steel (2013).

We’re therefore expecting great things from this Turkish Airlines-Batman v Superman tie-in. Of course I got some shots of the filming. Handsome guy leaves building, apparently holding onto something? Imaginary dog leash maybe? Waits for cab. Catches cab. Pretty sure we’ll soon find out. The commercial also filmed scenes in Chicago. We’re looking forward to the reveal which should be pretty soon.

 

Scenes at the Ransom Gillis House

The scenes we saw in the trailer from this location were all filmed at night in a location that isn’t the best to hang out in alone after dark. Just a stone’s throw from Tiger Stadium, but some of the alleyways I lurked in were a little hairy. Still nothing to match the filming locations of Ryan Gosling’s Lost River, and I survived that. Crews had been setting up at the Ransom Gillis House in Detroit’s Brush Park for weeks ahead of filming and at first it looked as though the house was being restored, before it became obvious that the chimney they were ‘fixing’ wasn’t exactly up to code. The ‘bricks’ literally melted in the rain after filming. There was a lot of speculation around this set, partly because of the old boats set up in the yard of the house. The first tip off we had that this house would be used for Batman V Superman was the appearance of the old boats, which we are still a little confused about. There were also dozens of them at the Russell Industrial Center set, and I have yet to see a good explanation of why there are so many boats in this movie! In the trailer we’ve seen a flood and Superman rescuing people from roofs and we know there’s an Aquaman cameo, but as far as I know there still isn’t a current theory on the boats.

The scene most caught on cell phones by Brush Park’s local residents was the Gotham PD car screeching up to the house. That’s pretty much all we could see going on here. Clearly something was going on in the house. Gotham PD were coming to check it out. Another scene showed the two Gotham officers getting out of the car and looking up at the house.

The trailer added two other scenes that look to be related to this set. 1. Someone is tied up in the house, and that someone has a bat-shaped brand on his shoulder. The suggestion is that Batman is punishing bad guys in a revenge spree.
2. The other scene from the trailer that was impossible to screen cap was bats coming down the chimney. I’m assuming that this scene was part of the story here, based on the positioning of the camera that we saw. When I watched the filming I thought that the camera was maybe to give the point of view of a hovering/flying superhero, but perhaps it was this instead.

Other rumors on set were that a ‘Big Bad’ was in the house. I’m not convinced of this. Some said this was Wayne Manor, which I’m 100% certain is not the case.  Most likely this is a run-down hide-out/HQ for one of Gotham’s minor crooks, possibly the guy we see tied up and branded. Several ‘henchman-types’ were also on set, in a kind of uniform with caps and black T-shirts. So far I haven’t seen any speculation around this and it may be something we don’t find out about until March 2016.