There's an interesting story in the Times about Oliver Stone's September 11 movie that he's currently filming. We had noted previously that it was filming mostly in LA with some exterior work in NYC. Now, with shooting starting in LA, the production wants to pre-empt crazed blogosphere speculation by having the NY Times visit painstakingly recreated World Trade Center wreckage set, by placing photographs of the set in context. And it looks like the nightmare all over again - it's very spooky-looking. According to set designer Jan Roelfs, workers "hand-carved thousands of beams from Styrofoam, molded rubber into countless strands of stand-ins for shredded reinforcing bars, and assembled all of this inside a pit erected atop stacks of cargo containers." The set of the pit will be actual size, and part of the World Trade Center's concourse of stores was rebuilt as well ("complete with period handbags in the Coach storefront, clothing in the Banana Republic windows and shoes from Johnston & Murphy").
Some other facts about the movie:
- "A street in downtown Los Angeles stood in for Manhattan's Barclay Street, with crew members tossing debris in the air."
- NYC locations included: "The police desk in the Port Authority bus terminal and along the route the officers took downtown on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001"; Staten Island ferry; the Long Island Rail Road; and a subway train (probably at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop)
Now we're very curious to see the movie, which is tentatively to be released in August of next year. And the film will not show planes hitting the building, but who knows what Oliver will plan for the director's cut.
Photograph from NY Times
