VINCE VAUGHN will team up with director Ron Howard for the first time this spring on an untitled comedy about infidelity. Vaughn always can be counted on to boost Chicago as the location whenever he can.
The last and only time Howard shot in Chicago was “Backdraft,” in 1991. Overall his experience here was a good one, except for a location conflict that so incensed the director that he vowed never to shoot in Chicago again. Vaughn, who has had excellent experiences here, may have helped Howard change his mind.
The movie is being produced by Howard and Brian Glazer’s Imagine Entertainment and Vaughn’s Wild West Picture Show for Universal Pictures.
Vaughn’s last wholly Chicago-shot feature was “The Break Up,” in 2006, with Jennifer Anniston, his real-life girlfriend at the time. Since then, he’s shot some scenes for “Couples Retreat” and “Fred Claus” here.
PAUL HAYWARD, former partner of Outsider director/editor Michael LaBellarte, celebrates his first “very busy” year as the CME Group’s associate director of broadcast and digital communications. (CME is the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the futures and options exchange.)
Hayward oversees a growing staff of eight — six in Chicago and two in New York — and a newly-built broadcast studio/news room to handle its 100 live broadcasts a day from Chicago. Many of the broadcasts are market commentary by experts that are provided to hundreds of daily financial and news outlets throughout the world, giving Chicago a tremendous presence, he says.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE GOES TO SUNDANCE in a big way, hosting the Jan. 22-24 weekend of activities. It starts with a Friday Open House reception at the exclusive Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley, hosted on the school’s behalf by Denis Healy, Brenda Sexton and Julee White, at the exclusive Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley.
On Saturday, there’s a a luncheon and discussion about the school’s new Media Production Center with top department heads, and an invitation-only reception Sunday is being held for the cast and crew of the festival film, “The Dry Land,” directed by Ryan Piers Williams and starring America Ferrera and featuring Melissa Leo and Jason Ritter. To attend the Sunday, Jan. 22 Open House, RSVP Brenda@chicagolinkproductions.com.
IRONIC, ISN’T IT that an upcoming episode of CBS’ “The Good Wife” takes place in an Illinois farm house, yet it will shoot at a rustic family farm in New York’s Hudson River Valley, Jan. 13-22.
REELMICHIGAN: Grand Rapids is beginning to feel like a second home to Val Kilmer and 50 Cent. They are currently shooting “The Gun,” budgeted around $1 million, for producer Randall Emmett (“Bad Lieutenant-New Orleans”).
Last year Kilmer starred in “The Chaos Experience,” and 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson), toplined “Caught in the Crossfire” for Emmett.
Director Patrick Read Johnson’s “The Genesis Code,” which filmed in Grand Rapids in August, will premiere Feb. 2 at two local theatres and run for two weeks. The film features Ernest Borgnine, Fred Thompson, Louise Fletcher, Lance Henriksen, Rich Franklin and Catherine Hicks. ?
THERE IS SILENCE on the Cinespace Studio front. After Chicago Film Studios received a $5 million DCEO grant, plans were announced for a massive $80 million, multi-studio complex on the site of the Ryerson plant at 2558 W. 16th St. ? ?
Nick Mirkopoulos, chairman of Toronto-based Cinespace Studios who is behind the proposed purchase, later said he was not the buyer but would be running the operations for the buyer, Chicago Film Studios. He cited Alex Pissios, a real estate broker and his nephew, as a studio owner.
The reason for the silence may be the quest for city incentives — as much as 40% of the purchase price — would be needed to get the show on the road.
IF YOU MISSED “PUBLIC ENEMIES” in the theatres, you can now see it on DVD or video-on-demand. The expensive Michael Mann movie was the last complete studio feature that filmed in Chicago — 19 months ago. DCEO insists that “A Nightmare on Elm Street” broke the spell, but it was an indie feature, not a big-budget studio feature like the kind that goes to, say, Michigan.
