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Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
In all our excitement yesterday over the start of Filmfest DC, we completely failed to mention the other big "local" premiere. State of Play has garnered continued curiosity on this site for over a year and a half now, ever since Brad Pitt popped into the newsroom at The Washington Post to do a little research on the role of intrepid "Washington Globe" reporter Cal McAffrey— a role that eventually went to Russell Crowe after Pitt dropped out. A good portion of the movie was shot in D.C. last spring, and we all thrilled at seeing Crowe hanging out at Ben's, complete with that authentic journalistic paunch that presumably results from a few too many chili half smokes while out on the beat trying to uncover governmental conspiracy.
In this case, a pair of unrelated deaths leads Crowe into a complex web of deceit and cover ups in the halls of power in a script adapted by Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy (and others) from the excellent BBC miniseries of the same name. Advance reviews are actually looking pretty good, and seem especially complimentary of Ben Affleck in the role of the Congressman with lots to hide. Considering Affleck's already stated interest in politics, this movie may have just significantly increased the chances of a Senator Affleck coming to Washington in 20 years or so. Everyone get ready to pick out all those errors in D.C. geography — we already know one: Georgetown has been recast as a dark and dangerous part of town.
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Can't wait to see it.
I take your point, Ian, that most of Georgetown doesn't resemble the underside of the Whitehurst freeway, and I hate to nitpick -- but it is dark and dangerous once you leave the main thoroughfares, (i.e., M St and Wisconsin Ave)...this from somebody who lives in Shaw.
I hope Crowe returns soon to film an episode of Fightin' Around the World.
"Washington Globe?" Are there any scenes of Brad Pitt taking the "Metra" to "NoMA" to eat "tapas" with his "transgender condo elf?"
I saw it on Monday. My favorite faux DCism? The menu for Kramerbooks on Russell Crowe's fridge, as if some Thai takeout menu. Love it!
@ emily, right next to the nats sched. I saw it too. well, le's see... the capitol was really the masonic temple on 16th street, but nice shout out of my hood (look for me behind the curtains in that apartment across the street from ben's "office") not really sure what the kennedy center was supposed to be? itself but then later... congress? or a dark alley? Crystal City = rosslyn i think? but anywho,my apt. and i were pleased to be extras and totally ate up the celeb comes to town experience. i can't even lie. there's plenty of stuff they DID get right, actually and lots of "i know where that is" moments. :) color me giggly newbie (even though I'm neither) but I thought it was fun.
Saw it last night in Arlington. There were a few laughable geographic inaccuracies -- a woman living in Adams Morgan goes to her job on the Hill by way of the Rosslyn Metro, and the HUD building (I think) is a stand-in for a hospital -- but overall, I think they did a pretty good job of presenting DC and Arlington. (The use of the Americana Hotel in Crystal City drew a few knowing laughs from the audience I was with.) I also thought the set design for the newsroom was fairly spot-on.