2006_03_reign.jpgWe were walking around the Upper West Side when we noticed that part of West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue had been cordoned off by a film or TV production. Was it more Bruce-and-Halle filming? Or August Rush? Or Dedication? Or a Law & Order? But actually it was Reign O'er Me. Gothamist wracked our brain, because the name had sounded familiar... and then we found a production letter: It's the September 11-related movie with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. Oh, boy. On IMDB, it's called Empty City, and the description is this:

A man (Sandler) who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate (Cheadle). Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

Cheadle plays a psychiatrist, and last we read, Jada Pinkett Smith was going to play his wife, with Liv Tyler playing another psychiatrist and Saffron Burrows playing playing a patient of Cheadle's character who has "entanglements with both" men. Hmm! Now, the film is written and directed by Mike Binder, who we're predisposed to dislike because we hated his baby, The Mind of the Married Man, aka, an HBO show almost as bad as Arli$$. But The Upside of Anger wasn't that bad, so we're hopeful, as we do like Sandler (hey, he was great in Punch Drunk Love) and love Cheadle. And Sandler said on his website that this would be a "serious movie."

Have you seen Adam Sandler or Don Cheadle filming in your neighborhood?