I lived in Bruce Wayne's penthouse
Okay, not exactly. Here's the deal:
I finally got around to seeing "The Dark Knight" a couple days ago. Good movie, but that's not what this is about. Chicago again plays the role of Gotham City, but it seems to be more prominent in this one. More locations that are obviously Chicago, except they mostly avoid lingering shots of the Sears Tower or John Hancock Building or whatever that would make it REALLY obvious (though they do linger on the twin cylindrical towers of Marina City, which I thought was kind of odd since it's a pretty famous Chicago landmark).
I'm no Chicago expert, but I've spent several years going to tradeshows there and getting very familiar with the hookers and drug dealersI MEAN familiar with a, say, six-block area in the heart of downtown. It seems about half of the location shooting for the movie was exactly in that area, so I was intrigued (and kind of distracted) by seeing something I recognized in every other shot. They even shot some stuff at McCormick Place, the bigass convention center I've been to about a shflagillion times.
They're building a new Trump Tower (because there aren't enough of THOSE in the world) right on the Chicago River, and this past April I stayed in a place called Hotel 71- okay, it's not just a "place", it is in fact a hotel- that is directly across the river from it. I had a terrific view from my room, which was on, I think, the second floor from the top. I saw this in one direction (sorry, the white balance went all blue on these shots):
And the Trump building directly ahead:
And some other cool stuff the other direction, but we're not talking about that right now. Anyway, early on in the movie I realized that some interior scenes had a view that could only be from one of the completed lower floors of the Trump building. A little while later, I realized that another building they were zooming in on was Hotel 71. Then, we were in Bruce Wayne's luxurious penthouse, and from the view, it also had to be Hotel 71, right about where my room was!
Anyway- it turned out that half the movie seems to have been shot in or on the Trump building and Hotel 71. The whole climactic scene with the Joker and the hostages and yadda yadda yadda, that was inside Trump and the cops were spotting it from the top of the hotel. Just to confirm I wasn't crazy or stupid- on this point anyway- I checked Reputable Online Sources and discovered that indeed, both buildings were used, and that yes, Mr. Wayne's penthouse was built on the top floor of the hotel, in what I think is a kind of bar/reception hall.
So.....no real point to this, except that it was cool to watch a movie and realize it was practically shot in my hotel room!
I finally got around to seeing "The Dark Knight" a couple days ago. Good movie, but that's not what this is about. Chicago again plays the role of Gotham City, but it seems to be more prominent in this one. More locations that are obviously Chicago, except they mostly avoid lingering shots of the Sears Tower or John Hancock Building or whatever that would make it REALLY obvious (though they do linger on the twin cylindrical towers of Marina City, which I thought was kind of odd since it's a pretty famous Chicago landmark).
I'm no Chicago expert, but I've spent several years going to tradeshows there and getting very familiar with the hookers and drug dealersI MEAN familiar with a, say, six-block area in the heart of downtown. It seems about half of the location shooting for the movie was exactly in that area, so I was intrigued (and kind of distracted) by seeing something I recognized in every other shot. They even shot some stuff at McCormick Place, the bigass convention center I've been to about a shflagillion times.
They're building a new Trump Tower (because there aren't enough of THOSE in the world) right on the Chicago River, and this past April I stayed in a place called Hotel 71- okay, it's not just a "place", it is in fact a hotel- that is directly across the river from it. I had a terrific view from my room, which was on, I think, the second floor from the top. I saw this in one direction (sorry, the white balance went all blue on these shots):
And the Trump building directly ahead:
And some other cool stuff the other direction, but we're not talking about that right now. Anyway, early on in the movie I realized that some interior scenes had a view that could only be from one of the completed lower floors of the Trump building. A little while later, I realized that another building they were zooming in on was Hotel 71. Then, we were in Bruce Wayne's luxurious penthouse, and from the view, it also had to be Hotel 71, right about where my room was!
Anyway- it turned out that half the movie seems to have been shot in or on the Trump building and Hotel 71. The whole climactic scene with the Joker and the hostages and yadda yadda yadda, that was inside Trump and the cops were spotting it from the top of the hotel. Just to confirm I wasn't crazy or stupid- on this point anyway- I checked Reputable Online Sources and discovered that indeed, both buildings were used, and that yes, Mr. Wayne's penthouse was built on the top floor of the hotel, in what I think is a kind of bar/reception hall.
So.....no real point to this, except that it was cool to watch a movie and realize it was practically shot in my hotel room!
posted by Zonthar at
9:15 PM
1 Comments:
in an interesting switch on the 'pretending it's not Chicago' series....re-check Spinal Tap...when they say it's Chicago, it's L.A.----the round glass hotel...can't 'member the name, but is very recognizably downtown LA.
.....but Batman never comes to L.A. it seems.
( Iwonder if zonthar will even know someone posted on an old entry of his)
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