Merchant Ivory Productions is coming to CU this weekend to film parts of their new movie, “City of Your Final Destination,” starring Laura Linney and Anthony Hopkins. The film crew will be in Boulder shooting until Feb. 17.
The screenplay is based on the novel, “The City of Your Final Destination,” by Peter Cameron. The story follows a grad student who is trying to write a biography on his favorite writer, according to the Internet database IMDb.com. In Cameron’s novel, the graduate student attends the University of Kansas; however, the script was changed to accommodate the location and the student will be going to CU in the film.
Merchant Ivory is a well-known independent film company that makes “classy independent, high-minded character dramas,” said the Director of University Communications Bronson Hilliard.
Greg Babcock, the location manager for the film, said the crew would be shooting scenes on campus and around Boulder.
“We will be shooting near the quad, in the library and in Hale Science,” he said. “We will also be shooting at the Indian restaurant Himalayas and at the Boulder Lodge.”
Unfortunately for fans, Hopkins and Linney will not be in Boulder shooting scenes. However, the film’s lead actor Omar Metwally and Charlotte Gainsbourg will be on hand.
The crew will also be filming in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay for the film.
One of the reasons CU was chosen as a filming location was because the scenery offered a good contrast with the scenery in Argentina.
“We wanted a snowy, mountain campus to contrast the scenes in Argentina,” Babcock said.
For everyone who is not a film production guru, Professor Kathleen Man of the film studies department, offered insight on what happens on a set in a typical day of shooting.
“There is a lot of activity and a lot of people,” she said. “People will see a huge group of people working on a whole set of tasks seamlessly.”
Since the film crew will only be on location at CU for one week, only a few scenes will be shot.
“In a big, two-hour movie you will see one character in a big office in the Rockies,” Man said of how the shooting at CU over a short period of time will appear when the film comes out in theaters.
The set will be closed to try to keep curious bystanders from interfering.
“You will have to have a badge or a pass to get into the area,” Man said. “So I wouldn’t try.”
When asked why Boulder was all of the sudden getting so much attention from film crews across the country, Man said there must be people in the community reaching out.
“We have a beautiful place” to film a movie at, she said. “Anytime you bring in a big production, the local community benefits.”
According IMDb.com “City of Your Final Destination” will be released sometime in 2008.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Ashley Herzberger at Ashley.Herzberger@thecampuspress.com.
