Lights, camera, action!

Filming begins today (Monday) in Columbus for the Johnny Depp movie “Public Enemies.”

It chronicles bank robber John Dillinger in the 1930s.

Historic Columbus, northeast of Madison, has been made to look like Crown Point, Ind. That’s where Dillinger escaped from jail while awaiting a trial.

Rubber cobblestone has been laid on the downtown streets.

Some of the buildings now have old-fashioned facades and awnings. Big crowds are expected today in a city with 4,500 residents.

Kate Lueders of the mayor’s office calls the transformation “magical.”

There will be at least one day of filming in Columbus and maybe more.

Filming is also expected in Oshkosh, Madison and Milwaukee — plus Illinois and Indiana — before production wraps up in July.

The filming will add an estimated $20 million to the Wisconsin economy.

It’s the first movie to receive new state tax filming credits which took effect in January.

newrichmond-news.com

NOTE: I’ve received some emails talking about the filmages, two girls saw Johnny. Did you saw him? Talk with us about this in this thread.

Now city officials in Oshkosh have confirmed several scenes of the Johnny Depp film “Public Enemies” will be shot in their downtown this spring.

But nobody’s saying exactly where.

Director Michael Mann and about 50 department heads walked through the downtown yesterday looking at locations and figuring how to make Oshkosh look like it did in the 1930s.

That’s when John Dillinger was on his bank robbery spree that ended when he was shot to death in Chicago by FBI agents. Depp is to play Dillinger in the film.

The filmmakers have already started work to prepare for filming in Columbus, north of Madison.

Another filming location is the Milwaukee Historical Society, which once was a bank and still has a vintage vault.

wsaw.com

Johnny Depp is holding auditions to find writers for his latest movie Dali, reports say.

The actor is keen to find the best possible script for the film, in which he plays Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

A source is quoted as saying: “He’s open to working with anyone – from housewives to pensioners – if the script is right.”

Al Pacino and Peter O’Toole are also in talks to portray the surrealist painter in upcoming movies Dali and I and Goodbye Dali respectively.

Dali died of heart failure in 1989, aged 84.

Source: DigitalSpy

NOTE FROM THE WEBMASTER: I’m receiving hundred of emails about this. I don’t have an address where the scripts can be sent, or if this news is really true. Any news on this will be posted on the main page.

Johnny Depp, aka John Dillinger in the Universal film “Public Enemies,” is hitting Crown Point this spring reportedly to reprise the gangster’s bold 1934 escape from Lake County Jail.

The scene will be shot on location at the Old Sheriff’s House and Jail, 226 S. Main St., sources said. Universal declined to comment on specifics.

The front part of the Second Empire-style building housed the top cop in Dillinger’s era. The back holds the cells from which the bank robber fled in broad daylight.

Dates for the Crown Point shoot are under wraps. But director Michael Mann has targeted the old Lake County Criminal Court, 220 S. Main St., as his headquarters during a three-day stay. Reborn the Hall of Justice Bar and Ballroom in the early 1990s, the jail’s neighbor will host up to 200 actors, crew members and technicians.

“Hollywood’s coming to Crown Point,” said Philip Struebig, co-owner of the Hall of Justice. “It’s going to be a heck of a thing for Crown Point. It will put us back on the map.” Read more… »

Ain’t Cool is reporting that Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell will pay tribute to Heath Ledger in “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”. It will be something like “I’m Not There” and the many Bob Dylans from the movie.

Let’s stay on, to see what Johnny’s rep has to say about this. We do remember that he denied all this rumours, telling that Johnny is currently working on “Public Enemies”.

Paramount Home Entertainment has alerted retailers to expect Sweeney Todd to be released April 1 on HD DVD, day-and-date with the standard DVD version. And no, the release date is not an April Fool’s joke.

Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, is based on the Tony Award-winning musical. Depp received an Oscar nomination for best actor for his role in the film. The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jayne Wisener, Ed Sanders, and Timothy Spall.

Paramount has yet to issue an official announcement so we won’t have any specific disc information until they do. Also, as with any early retailer dates, the release date could change at any time.

Sweeney Todd on HD DVD will carry an SRP of $39.99. Check back regularly for high resolution cover art, disc specs, special features, and pre-order information.

Source: themanroom.com

April 2nd is my bday. Will win a gift!

Yo-ho-ho, there be plot rumors here.

February 6, 2008 – Although there has been no definitive word yet on if or when Walt Disney Pictures and producer Jerry Bruckheimer might set sail on a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie — indeed, both the cast and the filmmakers said while promoting last summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End that the franchise would be taking a well-deserved break — rumors have now surfaced about the plot to Pirates 4.

The end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End saw Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow setting off in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth — and his on-again, off-again enemy/ally, Captain Barbossa (played by Geoffrey Rush).

According to JimHillMedia.com, Pirates 4 “would toss the Elizabeth & Will characters [portrayed by Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, respectively] over the side in favor of doing a bawdy buddy picture which would star Jack Sparrow & Barbossa. Where both captains of the Black Pearl would initially be competing for the exact same prize.” (IGN.com)

Director Terry Gilliam is trying to figure out how to keep Heath Ledger in his last film, according to one of the late actor’s co-stars in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which Ledger was still shooting when he died last week.
“Terry’s throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture,” veteran actor Christopher Plummer told People.com over the weekend.

Despite reports the director might shelve the $30 million production, Gilliam, whom Plummer described as “terribly saddened” by Ledger’s death, is “trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI.”

Ledger and Plummer left the London portion of the movie’s shoot last weekend and were due to continue filming next week in Vancouver. Plummer said, “Heath was in very high spirits,” though Plummer confirmed Ledger was ill and complaining about not being able to sleep.

As for reports that Gilliam has approached Johnny Depp to step into Ledger’s role, the actor’s rep said, “There have been no official talks, and he is currently working on ‘Public Enemies’ for Michael Mann for Universal.”

Marion Cotillard, who was nominated for an Oscar for her star turn in “La Vie en Rose,” is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in “Public Enemies,” Universal’s Depression-era crime drama being directed by Michael Mann.

An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” the story follows the government’s attempt to stop the criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Depp is playing Dillinger to Bale’s famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

Cotillard will play Billie, Dillinger’s torch singer girlfriend.

Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman wrote the script.

Production is due to start later this winter in Chicago and other Midwest locales.

Mann and Kevin Misher are producing. Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal, who originally optioned the book, are exec producing.

Musical grabs a cut of the foreign box office
From: Variety

“Sweeney Todd” sliced its way to the top during the weekend at the international box office with an impressive $18.7 million at 1,760 playdates in 11 markets, ending the five-week winning streak for “I Am Legend.”

With Johnny Depp having landed an Oscar nom for the pic last week, Warner Bros. saw “Sweeney” dominate via first-place launches in the U.K. with $8.7 million and in France with $4.4 million. Brits backed “Sweeney” solidly, with nearly 50% of the biz among the top five pics; in France, it topped the soph sesh of local entry “Enfin Veuve” and the launch of “No Country for Old Men”; and in Japan, it stayed in first with a 36% drop to $2.3 million.

“Sweeney,” with a beefy $10,624 per-location average, enjoyed the twin benefits of Depp’s international star power plus last week’s Academy Awards noms. With $30 million already banked offshore, the musical should wind up with an overseas take well in excess of the Stateside total, which is now at $50 million.