Have You Seen My 1932 Studebaker?

The Historic Auto Attractions Museum in Roscoe was visited by Universal Studio people and their 1932 Studebaker was picked to be the car Johnny Depp will drive. This is the actual car Dillinger used in his escape from the Greencastle robbery. In fact there will be 50 antique autos being used March 17 as the full cast and about 300 extra people will stage the biggest robbery in Columbus history at the "Greencastle Bank". Never mind that this re-enactment is about the robbery in Greencastle Indiana!

The March 17th shoot will be DAY 1, the very first day of filming for the movie.

Back to the transformation of Columbus.

Nancy Osterhaus the Mayor of Columbus has communicated to me that " Each of the 50 buildings will be a unique business that would have existed in 1933-4," and that "after filming is complete, a team will restore our downtown. Universal is using our local resources whenever possible. They are eating in the restaurants, filling cars with gas, buying lumber at the lumber yard and hardware at the hardware store. They have contracted with Heartline Ambulance for their services. This is making a huge impact on our local economy!!"

She continues "We have been featured on Channels 3, 15, 27 and 47 this week. On Tuesday channel 12 out of Milwaukee came to do a feature for their Sunday evening magazine show. The host, Mike Anderson told me that as he approached our downtown he knew immediately why Hollywood chose Columbus . He was very excited about our beautiful historic architecture and spent all day filming historic buildings and interviewing people around town for their feature."

Todd Frey who is involved with the Main Street Program has a web site that contains photos of downtown and some information at his Colonial Carriage Works site if you are looking for more photos of construction.

Fifty buildings will be changed and the entire downtown will be blocked off. Many of the downtown buildings are receiving new awnings and window panels to take them back in time to the 1930s, along with temporary interior set pieces that will cover the insides of the buildings during filming.

If you plan on visiting downtown Columbus there will be no parking and street lights are coming down. People will be able to see the movie being made. "There will be limited access to specific areas during the actual shoot," and "people will be able to watch as long as they are "quiet on the set." "If they choose to not be quiet, then they will be moved back," she said.

On another side note Nancy Osterhaus asks that you please stop asking her for Johnny Depp autographs. However, she still has many Marion Cotillard "911 Never Happened" T-Shirts available.

JUST KIDDING!! a little joke for the IMDb people

For those uninformed there is a controversy over something Marion Cotillard said about not trusting the American Government. I'll leave it at that.

Highway signs are being removed and street lights are coming down and because of that the DOT says highways must be closed.

Here is an odd one - The studio will be making it's own snow for the movie (after taking all real snow away) saying THEIR snow looks more real. Perhaps they do not know what real snow looks like and we could trick them into removing OUR snow once that are finished.

Another place for information is the Columbus Visitor Center. It's a brand new website that is taking shape.

That's all I have at the moment.

More as I get it.

Rod