Holding Out Hope For Barbershop 3 or Ocean's 13

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 24, 2004 6:18PM

Chicagoist had a nice chuckle last week over this wire piece that was picked up by The Star Online, a Malaysian news site. It seems—-make sure you’re sitting down for this one—-that some American movies are not filmed in the cities in which they are set. The hell you say, Chris Hewitt! He notes two particularly egregious instances of this uh…commonplace occurrence that just so happen to be films bearing Chicagoist names:

Would Chicago have won an Oscar if it had been called "Toronto," which is where it was filmed? Would Josh Hartnett's Chicago-set "Wicker Park have been a bigger hit titled "Montreal Park"?

The answers to these questions are, of course, “Eh?” and “No, nothing would have saved that piece of crap and frankly Josh Hartnett should fire his agent for giving him Paul Walker’s leftovers.” However, many actors and directors believe in filming movies where they’re set as it lends realism to the work. Offering her support is intellectual bon vivant Brittany Murphy. The grammatically challenged Murphy noted that when she appeared in 8 Mile: “I didn’t have to pretend Detroit, because I was there” (the sound you just heard was the evaporation of the last bit of goodwill Murphy earned from appearing in Clueless).

Still, most movies are fictional. So despite The Star Online’s dedication to bringing the truth to the Malay people, we’ve been going on about our lives. Until we saw this story in the Tribune. Filming locally not only brings the verisimilitude (look it up) but also local jobs. Despite the recent buzz about the city experiencing a renaissance in filmmaking, it’s rough making your living as a film actor or crewperson in Chicago. While being a Chicago actor is more about the craft than the fame, these films support equipment rental companies, editors, and people like Brian Connelly. Brian is a stuntman whose had to take work as an independent software engineer to make ends meet. We’re not really sure what that is but it can’t be as much fun as throwing people around and pretending to shoot them, which is Brian’s other “day job” at Asylum Stunt School. You can see some of the techniques he teaches on the school’s website. Chicagoist thinks it looks a lot like a lot of fun—like when we used to play A-Team in the basement as kids.