Plot, traffic thicken in city
From:PittsburghLIVE
Date:March 24, 2006
By Michael Machosky
It's a frosty morning in Pittsburgh, where steel-and-glass buildings Downtown reach to a gray sky.
Perfect setting for a heist.
Well, maybe not perfect.
The script for "Smith" -- the pilot episode for a CBS crime drama shooting this week in Pittsburgh -- calls for a robbery at a museum Downtown.
The museum they want is the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland, but no matter. That's what movie magic is for. When the pilot is shown, it'll look like the Carnegie Museum is Downtown.
The setting is supposed to be dusk, so the film crew Thursday morning set up a 20-by-20-foot black screen to "take off the top light," according to a worker moving metal poles.
In the diffused light, the tanned L.A. production team and the local crew building the set didn't look all that different -- except for the Steelers World Champions caps some were wearing.
"They were supposed to shoot this in Chicago," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "But the Chicago museum said no. The Carnegie Museum said yes. That's the real reason they came.
"They needed a real museum with beautiful works of art. They liked Pittsburgh because we have crew and all the other things that make it easy for them to come here and shoot."
Shooting for "Smith" will take place in Oakland from Sunday through Tuesday. It's Warner Bros.' policy not to talk to the press at the pilot stage, so not much is known about the program.
Betsy Momich, director of corporate communications for the Carnegie Museums, knows a little about what's planned for Monday.
"They're doing like a chase scene through this area," she said. "The guard is actually tied up. It's an art heist."
There's no guarantee a pilot will be picked up for a full series, but "Smith" has several things going for it.
"Smith" is a John Wells project. Wells, a 1979 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, has a proven track record -- executive producer and co-writer of "ER" and "The West Wing."
And the cast is packed with well-known talent -- Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas"), Virginia Madsen ("Sideways"), Simon Baker, Amy Smart and Franky G.
Liotta's presence should be a thumbs-up sign for a crime show. He's getting to be a regular in Pittsburgh, having completed filming "Chasing 3000" here in October. Baker worked on the Pittsburgh-set series "The Guardian."
Keezer is excited about the pilot's local impact.
"They hired a ton of local crew, a ton of extras," she said. "Put a lot of people to work for a week. It actually ends up two weeks, because they were here for a week of prep."
This is only the beginning, she said. There will be other shows, other films in Pittsburgh this year.
"We're expecting a very busy summer," Keezer said. "But we don't have anything we can talk about yet."
From PittsburghLIVE.
Date:March 24, 2006
By Michael Machosky
It's a frosty morning in Pittsburgh, where steel-and-glass buildings Downtown reach to a gray sky.
Perfect setting for a heist.
Well, maybe not perfect.
The script for "Smith" -- the pilot episode for a CBS crime drama shooting this week in Pittsburgh -- calls for a robbery at a museum Downtown.
The museum they want is the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland, but no matter. That's what movie magic is for. When the pilot is shown, it'll look like the Carnegie Museum is Downtown.
The setting is supposed to be dusk, so the film crew Thursday morning set up a 20-by-20-foot black screen to "take off the top light," according to a worker moving metal poles.
In the diffused light, the tanned L.A. production team and the local crew building the set didn't look all that different -- except for the Steelers World Champions caps some were wearing.
"They were supposed to shoot this in Chicago," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "But the Chicago museum said no. The Carnegie Museum said yes. That's the real reason they came.
"They needed a real museum with beautiful works of art. They liked Pittsburgh because we have crew and all the other things that make it easy for them to come here and shoot."
Shooting for "Smith" will take place in Oakland from Sunday through Tuesday. It's Warner Bros.' policy not to talk to the press at the pilot stage, so not much is known about the program.
Betsy Momich, director of corporate communications for the Carnegie Museums, knows a little about what's planned for Monday.
"They're doing like a chase scene through this area," she said. "The guard is actually tied up. It's an art heist."
There's no guarantee a pilot will be picked up for a full series, but "Smith" has several things going for it.
"Smith" is a John Wells project. Wells, a 1979 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, has a proven track record -- executive producer and co-writer of "ER" and "The West Wing."
And the cast is packed with well-known talent -- Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas"), Virginia Madsen ("Sideways"), Simon Baker, Amy Smart and Franky G.
Liotta's presence should be a thumbs-up sign for a crime show. He's getting to be a regular in Pittsburgh, having completed filming "Chasing 3000" here in October. Baker worked on the Pittsburgh-set series "The Guardian."
Keezer is excited about the pilot's local impact.
"They hired a ton of local crew, a ton of extras," she said. "Put a lot of people to work for a week. It actually ends up two weeks, because they were here for a week of prep."
This is only the beginning, she said. There will be other shows, other films in Pittsburgh this year.
"We're expecting a very busy summer," Keezer said. "But we don't have anything we can talk about yet."
From PittsburghLIVE.
posted by nikita | 1:38 AM
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