Father Geek here with his newly re-established E-mail service and what do I find in my E-box but a couple of dozen notices of the MINORITY REPORT filming in Washington DC. Soooooo, here are a couple of the better ones for your information and entertainment...
Call me Mizuke.
I am working in downtown Washington, DC, today and just happened to stumble smack dab onto the set of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report!
The shoot is currently taking place in the Ronald Reagan Building a few blocks away from the White House. Though I haven’t seen him myself, I talked to several people who had seen Tom Cruise walking around the set. I did, however, get to watch Mr. Spielberg blocking a shot of what looks to be Tom Cruise’s character walking out of the building and across a courtyard filled with giant "artsy" sculptures.
There are a ton of extremely "Hollywood" looking extras (perfect faces, perfect bodies, perfect clothing, etc.) crawling all over the place. I caught a glimpse of their staging area and it is immense. There were no fewer than 20 makeup tables all lined up in neat little rows, and rack after rack of extra clothing and other wardrobe items.
I wish I could tell you more, but I’m here on business and don’t have all day to hang! a! round the set. Later!
Mizuke
Father Geek back with another report from the streets of DC...
It looks like Spielberg is filming part of Minority Report at the Ronald Reagan Building on 14th and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. The Rent-A-Cop who detoured me away from the set said that both Tom Cruise and Spielberg were on the set, which is doubly exciting because I am kind of hoping the will be on hand for tonight's preview of A.I.
Anyway, I didn't have a camera, but hopefully they will be filming later this evening... I will get pix. A Description though. It looks to be a very expansive scene. But my description is of observations from the past few days while they have been setting up.
Basically, the Reagan Building is Romanesque with fat turrents (almost reminiscent of Jabba's Palace from Jedi). There is a big courtyard between the Reagan Building and the old Post Office building, probably 150 yards long by 50 wide. Today it was half filled with people. Over the past week, I have noticed changes to this courtyard. One change was a track installed in the cobblestones (apparently for a camera). Another change is the replacement of the federally issued park benches with these big ugly retro-future ones that look like 3/4 of an egg.
The most impressive change was the three statues they erected. When I first saw them last week, my first thought was that there were erecting yet another statue in honor of Reagan. But then I went up to one and tapped on it only to find it made of fiberglass. The statues themselves are three 20-25 feet tall women. Well, I can't really say women, rather obscurely feminine figures who are looking away from each other in a circle. At the base of this circle is a stage where most of the action will take place.
That is all for now...
The Monkey Charmer
This is Father Geek back with an update from Mizuke on his earlier report...
Mizuke here,
Ok, here's more of the Minority Report scoop:
Seems they are using the Ronald Reagan Building as the Headquarters of the Government's Pre-Crime unit. They've got Pre-Crime insignia plastered all over the windows and doors to the building, as well as a set of metallic "Eye-dentification" pillars in front of the main entrance. The scene they are shooting, however, takes place in a courtyard just outside the headquarters. They've erected two gigantic sculptures in the courtyard. Both are very dark and abstract. One is of three human figures huddled in a circle, and the other looks like some sort of gigantic calf (as in leg, not bovine).
I watched the shooting during my lunch break and only got to see repeated takes of a man leading a children's tour group up to the first sculpture. During the shooting, I was standing behind this tech guy sitting in front of a computer. He had three LCD screens showing the recently shot footage as well as a computer screen with 10 to 15 little mini-windows open, each showing a different shot of the movie. While I was there, this techie struck up a conversation with a woman nearby and told her the details of the scene. Tom Cruise's character is going to meet with some men in the courtyard. They speak to him of a future crime and, during the course of the conversation, Cruise realizes that he is the perpetrator of said future crime. Cruise bolts, men give chase, end of scene.
Gotta get back to work. Hope this is useful!
Mizuke
