Back to the 1970s! Freaky Deaky, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard is currently being filmed around Detroit. Set in Detroit, 60s radicals turn to blackmail and mayhem. There are a lot of 1970s cars driving around town from movie set to movie set showing off their period fenders.
Some pictures from the set in Palmer Woods, Detroit. Billy Burke is hiding in there, and also the back of Roger Bart’s head. Great shots, huh?
Crime tape. Cool cars.
The good news is “nowhere yet.” At least it doesn’t feel that way this Summer. If you want to be a movie extra in the Detroit area there are casting calls almost every day, base-camps are springing up all over town, and there’s still that movie vibe going on. Of course, you might not want to read any news about The Dark Knight Rises, or The Avengers, the two HUGE movies which were rumored to have abandoned their plans to film in Michigan this Summer due to uncertainty about the Film Incentives. OMG, how much fun would it have been to have The Avengers filmed in town? Thanks, Governor Snyder. Some of the movies currently filming were approved before the absurd $25 million cap, others are frankly, small movies, and don’t have the Big Movie feel of last Summer.
It’s great to have the small movies being filmed here, but it’s clear that the small independent movies aren’t going to bring in the Big Bucks that will help build the industry and keep young, talented people in the state. $25 million is a crazy low cap. Insane. My hope is that at some point sanity will prevail, that the real information will get out there, and people with influence will force a change and increase the cap to a more reasonable level that wouldn’t be used up on one big movie. Like Oz: The Great and Powerful currently filming in Pontiac.
So what is filming right now?
Have a little Faith just wrapped. Based on the #1 bestselling book by Mitch Albom, starring Martin Landau and Laurence Fishburne, was filmed mainly where it was set, in downtown Detroit.
Freaky Deaky, Charles Matthau’s upcoming adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel is still filming in Detroit at locations downtown and Harper Woods. The cast seems to change by the day, but currently stars Christian Slater, Billy Burke and Crispin Glover.
AWOL, has the younger celeb-spotters in a frenzy down in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Based on a true story, Austin Stowell stars as a young soldier in Vietnam who gets dumped by his hometown girl (Aimee Teegarden). Liam Hemsworth plays his best friend who joins him in going AWOL. Together, they return to the States to win her back. Liam brings with him to set his on-off girlfriend, Miley!
Oz: The Great and Powerful Is this the last Big Movie to be filmed in Michigan? Hope not. Filming has started at Raleigh Michigan Studios in Pontiac, the Disney prequel boasting stars James Franco, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams. Big Names. Big Budget. Thousands of extras needed.
It’s been a hot Summer so far, movie-stalking has mostly been abandoned in favor of air conditioning, but I’ll be updating with some pictures soon. Watch this space.
Michigan Movies and More 