It all started out when I first blogged about Christian Bale being in my hometown some time ago, and what the heck was that all about? He visited the waste water treatment plant where a friend of mine works and then was spotted in Starbuck's locally. The town was abuzz and then a friend of mine saw Rachael McAdams at a little downtown cafe one morning at breakfast, weird we thought.
Then there is a casting call for our town and also in Tulsa and Oklahoma City to be extras in a movie to be filmed here in our area. Several people I know went to audition, but it was an unnamed project and no details were given.
Then speculation broke out when Ben Affleck showed up all over town with his beautiful wife Jennifer Garner, children in tow.
They campused our short block to look at houses to film in and around. My neighbor took the film scout into her home to see if they would be interested in using hers to film in. She said they took lots of photographs of the neighborhood. She was so excited!
A lot of people thought wow, they are doing Pioneer Woman's love story to Marlboro Man, but I did not think it was related to this since Christian Bale had been here before Ree's movie project had been talked about. Then Pioneer Woman posted that it was in fact not her story, but her brother had gone to audition and got a call back. You see Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, is a local girl from my town also. This is the town where she grew up until she went to college, then came home met Ladd and married. I know her parents when I see them, and she was a little ballerina at the same time as a friend of mine back in the day.
During the Indian Summer Festival they were filming at the Pow Wow the night my mom and I attended, but we really did not think much about it. I thought they were just doing a promotion piece for the festival for tourism.
They were filming all around my 87 year old mom and she was getting irritated because they were in her line of vision filming Olga Kurylenko and she was there to see the Indian dancers! Oh my goodness, I am surprised she didn't give them a piece of her mind. I was watching some of that while I climbed up to the top of the bleachers to take photos of the dancing.
Olga Kurylenko |
| My mom was sitting right in front of this. Who knows she might be an extra by pure luck |
The papers started reporting on movie starting to shoot and then it all got going. Here are some of Ben on our downtown street taken by a local woman who was lucky to have her camera with her.
They have been filming around town and in Pawhuska also. One of the local ranch lady Frances Gardner got a paid part at 92 years old.
The funny thing last week was the newspaper had on the front page for us to leave them alone while they are the streets of our lovely town filming! It cracked me up, what do they expect? Yes, there are people who want to see movie stars in their town and might want a autograph and a picture but all in all we are a respectful bunch here in Oklahoma, we are not like home grown paparazzi here!
Our friends from the UK (Aberdeen Scotland) were here in town and Richard thought it was a joke we were telling him that they were filming a major movie in Bartlesville! He heard it again when he reported into work here at ConocoPhillips, so he then had to believe us! Then as the week progressed they were all around town this week and even in the hotel our friends were staying in. On the last night that our friends were here we saw them filming at the Romine house, so Angela got to see that happening before she left.
The project is still unnamed and it is reported to be an epic love story about a fisherman who works at the waste water treatment plant, and that is all I know about the plot. Odd sounding story line if you ask me......
but I am excited for it to come out so I can see my town and some people I know in the big lights! They could have the Premier here too when they are set to release it!
So I guess exciting things can happen to a small town in Oklahoma!
This is a report from the Tulsa World below:
Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz Starring in Terrence Malick's Next?
In that original announcement, Malick's next project was described as a "romantic drama" and a "powerful and moving love story." But as anyone who's seen Malick's work knows, referring to one of his films as just a "romance" isn't exactly accurate, as there's always a lot more depth to them. Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko were all announced originally, but word is that Affleck is replacing Bale, and Weisz may just be joining (not replacing anyone). Production is scheduled to begin the first week of October in Oklahoma, which is where some odd celebrity reports have been popping up recently as well.
Our friends at AICN point out that TulsaWorld.com recent published an article saying that Ben Affleck and his wife Jennifer Garner were spotted at a local store in Bartlesville, OK buying fishing supplies. Malick grew up in Bartlesville and apparently Christian Bale and Rachel McAdams were also spotted in the same area last year, scouting for this exact Malick film, which is why it makes sense that Affleck has replaced Bale and is out getting familiar with the area as well. Affleck apparently told an employee at the fishing shop hat he was filming a movie in Bartlesville, playing a fisherman, and needed to buy some fishing equipment.
Considering Malick's projects are always very secretive, that's about as much as we'll probably know about this until he finishes editing it some two or three years from now. It's always interesting to learn about the next project from someone as incredible as Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World), but I'm more interested in figuring out when we'll finally get to feast our eyes on Tree of Life. We'll keep you updated on anything related to Malick and his two upcoming films, so stay tuned here.
Oh My! That is very very exciting to have all that happening in your town! and you thought it was going to be another quiet autumn lol
ReplyDeleteI love the part about your mom getting a little huffy at the people "in the way"!
I really enjoyed this article and the pictures! I think everybody in town has seen them but me. Hope your mom ends up in the movie. That would just be SO cool! Connie : )
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