Posts tagged with “george clooney”
On Location: George Clooney, Hollywood Take St. Louis Behind the Middle School and Get It Pregnant
George Clooney and director Jason Reitman rapping in my fake snow covered hood. (photo by: Dale Robinette, Paramount Pictures)
St. Louis and its environs finally gets its due as a viable major motion picture production location in Jason Reitman’s new George Clooney Oscar bait (and actually pretty awesome) Up In The Air, a film that not only shot St. Louis-set scenes actually IN St. Louis (gasp), but also used STL as a stand-in for several other locations, including a wedding in suburban Wisconsin, Clooney’s character’s spare condo in Omaha, Nebraska, various cities, airports, etc. A fun and very detailed listing of STL locations used can be found here. (It’s fun! And very detailed.)
St. Louisans pretty much lost their shit as soon as word of the impending production made its rounds last year and never really got their shit back. Production moved right into my very quiet Maplewood neighborhood for a couple weeks—all of the wedding related Wisconsin-set scenes were shot in and out of Maplewood United Methodist Church, exactly two blocks from my crib—and you’ve never seen a happier bunch of Midwesterners, all lined up and gawking at the set (the whole block was cheerily spray painted with a thick layer of fake snow covering houses, trees, and piles of dirt standing in for snow drifts) and eagle eyeing the lot of REAL MOVIE STAR TRAILERS with REAL MOVIE STAR NAMES ON THE DOORS (although I’m pretty Danny McBride could have walked by unnoticed—considering he looks like every dude these people went to high school with). Those who caught a glimpse of Clooney still talk about it in awestruck whispers. Those are some happy weirdos. Some of my family drove into town to stand amongst the throng for a few hours and were shocked that I wasn’t interested in altering my sleep schedule (I sleep SO much!) and joining them. (Weirdos.) I figured a couple casual strolls by the set would suffice. (It did.) Read more »
He’s a Wild Animal, a Husband and a Father
Oh, hello there.
FANTASTIC MR. FOX (IN THEATERS/2009) What a year George Clooney is having: Men Who Stare at Goats, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and this weekend, Up in the Air. Kudos to Wes Anderson and his incredible stop-motion animated feature, Mr. Fox (voiced by Clooney) literally jumps off the screen and comes alive before your eyes—exuding seductive charm, indefatigable pluck and hilarious bad boy behavior that will put you distinctly in the mind of…Danny Ocean at his very best in Soderberg’s first of the Oceans series. Wes Anderson fans will immediately recognize all his trademarks, including familiar voices (Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, just to name a few) and some very Rushmore-like scenes. I want to give a particular shout-out to Alexandre Desplat and the soundtrack, already available on Amazon and iTunes. I could go on and on—the art direction, the attention to detail, all the characters, both big and small—there’s simply too much great stuff in here to spoil by describing it. Take my word. If you’re looking for 87 minutes of fun this weekend, be sure to catch this one.
Grade: A. Highly Recommended.
