Hey folks, Harry here.... Well Monday Night was the first night of shooting in New York, if they're shooting long, perhaps I'll have to visit the New York Kitten and take a field trip to the set my own self. We'll see how it turns out. But for right now, between Amateur Scientist and Ceres... it seems the film reports are well in hand... ENJOY...
Harry,
take a look at this. it's a picture from the MEN IN BLACK 2 movie set. you'll see that it's a medium sized flying saucer stuck into the top of a diner like it's crash landed or something. a plot point? we'll see. what I also found out was that two members of the crew were good friends of mine, so I'll be going back when they shoot tonight.
that's all for now
Amateur Scientist - out.
And then we have a complete report from tonight's shoot of MEN IN BLACK 2 below... WAY COOL! And hopefully we'll get more shots of the craft when there is no tarp obscuring it! Here ya go...
I'm in from Ceres visiting family in the Big Apple. Not much going on on Ceres, but here's what's going on for the next two days in Chelsea.
First night of the MIB2 shoot was Monday, 6/11/01 in New York City, USA, at W. 22d and 10th Ave at the landmark Empire Diner (as seen in Woody Allen's and countless other NYC films).
On Monday, shooting ran all night. Filming in in this neighborhood is scheduled to go at least through this Wednesday, 6/13.
The diner has been redressed as a pie shop, with with pictures of pie slices superimposed upon the menu behind the counter, as well as neon "Fresh Pie" signs in the windows (I did not see David Lynch hiding in the park across the street). The only menu I could see through the window had normal pie varieties, but at the bottom was listed "Moon Pie" ($3.50). Interior decor includes a conical lava lamp and a little white rocketship on a shelf for a retro-sf-diner motif.
A dull silver flying-saucer-shaped spaceship has crashed, edge down, into the roof of the diner, with smoke painted upon the brick wall behind. This may be a UFO for the movie, but it's pretty small, so I'm guessing it's part of the decor of the fictional diner itself. Some P.A. types were hinting that it was going to get blown up tonight, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt. Isn't that what CGI's for?
In any case, they wrapped the saucer with plastic to protect it from the rain last night.
I'll try to submit some diner photos tomorrow.
Will Smith and Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld, and soon to be seen as The Tick on TV) were on location. At one point Warburton, clad in full-dress Man In Black costume and grinning from ear-to-ear, walked extremely slowly from his trailer to the set, scanning the small crowd as if he were dying to sign autographs. Smith also found a few moments to sign autographs, though later four large guys escorted him as he sprinted the entire 40 feet from his trailer to the makeup trailer.
The crowd dwindled from about 50 to a handful as it began to rain around 10pm, with the paparazzi finally outnumbering the crowd.
Props guys obscured a table of bloopy-looking ray guns and funky computer monitors with a tarp as the drizzle intensified.
Both sides of the street were filled for two blocks with vehicles. Panavision trucks and official-looking signs blocked the bus stops, instructing people to use bus stops on the next block. I assume a typical New Yorker, tired of movie crews constantly disrupting the peaceful routine of Manhattan street life, ratted them out, as later police were seen chewing out the guys in the trucks for unauthorized blocking of buses. The guys in the truck were giving back as good as they got, however. Gotta love this town.
For a movie with this kind of budget, the set security was lax. For example, two days ago props were just lying on a table on the sidewalk where at least one passerby just wandered over and picked up something just to give it a look before being shooed away, gently, by a dumbfounded prop guy. There wasn't even a Production Assistant on the street corner herd padestrians until 20 minutes before the shooting.
An announcement was made to cast and crew gathered on the sidewalk to the effect of: "Welcome to the first day of MIB2. Be aware this is an open set. It's NYCwe want to see live street life..."
--Fourmyle
