Super sloother Valentine Xavier has turned up some chilling coolness on the streets of LA, "Sawdust/Psycho" is making a stab at production at this very moment. Spy Alert, you southern cal geeks keep us informed. Here's the report
No big scoop here but I was visiting the only laser-disc rental store on L.A.'s West side yes- terday -- Lazer Blazer, on Pico Blvd. near Over- land. Several generators, equipment trucks and portable dressing room vans were parked in the vicinity. About four storefronts to the east of L.B. was a large, black, tent-like shroud that had been erected to cover the facade of a hardware store. A similar shroud was erected in the rear also. So naturally I sauntered over to the rear parking lot behind the hardware store and asked one of the moustachioed cops standing there (WHY do 9 out of 10 L.A. cops have moustaches? I swear without the LAPD tere would be almost no moustaches, anywhere, in this city) what the show was.
"Uhhmmm...," he said cautiously, looking at the other cop. "It's, uhm, 'Chainsaw,' some horror movie."
"'Chainsaw'?" I asked, somewhat surprised. It sounded like a cheap-o schlocker, but the num- ber and size of the trucks and personnel defi- nitely suggested it was a big-studio feature at work.
I thanked him and started to walk away, and then the cop said, "Uhhn, no...wait a minute. 'Sawdust'! That's the name of it...'Sawdust.'"
I thanked him again and walked around the cor- ner and into Lazer Blazer. I asked the store manager if he knew what 'Sawdust' was and he said that's a cover name -- it's really 'Psycho.'
He said they're shooting the hardware store scene between Lila Crane (Julianne Moore), Sam Loomis (Viggo Mortensen) and Arbogast (who's playing this role? -- it's not on the IMDB or Coming At- tractions). He said they chose the nearby hard- ware store because it looks old-fashioned, but that the production designer had added a lot of prominent items-for-sale to make it look a lot like the 1960 hardware store set -- bam- boo rakes, hand-pushed lawnmowers, insecti- cides, brooms, etc.
"So it IS shooting 'in period,' then?" I asked. He understood that it was, he said.
If Gus Van Sant is really re-doing the 1960 ori- ginal lie-for-line and (for the most part) shot- for-shot, Stefano's original script is too clun- ky (i.e. dated, anachronistic) to be set in the late '90s.
Anyway, that's the cover name for this thing -- "Sawdust," obviously a reference to one of the more essential ingredients in any taxidermist's workshop.
And deeba-la, deeba-la, deeba-la....that's all, folks!
Valentine Xavier
