On Saturday February 27, I visited the set of Wonder Boys. Unfortunately, I did not get to see Tobey (he wasn't in the scene they were filming that day) but I did see Michael Douglas, Rip Torn and director Curtis Hanson, who directed L.A. Confidential and Hand That Rocks The Cradle but I left before I saw Robert Downey Jr.

Everyone was incredibly nice to me and it was a really great experience. I got to stand on the set about fifty feet from shooting. I met a lot of crew members (photo doubles, production assistants, location people and a bunch of people I don't know what their title was). The scene I saw them shooting was Michael Douglas' character has stolen a car and as he is driving it, a man runs out in front of the car. Michael Douglas is driving the car, Rip Torn is in the passenger seat and Robert Downey Jr. was in the back seat. Michael Douglas had longish hair, large black rimmed glasses, a gray knit cap on his head and a brown trench coat. Rip Torn was wearing a fairly expensive looking trench coat/outfit in the scene.

The special effects director told me about the scene and what they had to do (how they had to add fake ice to the windshield, how they had to stop shooting and put a dented hood on the car to make it look like the man had dented the car when he ran out, and all of the fake snow they had put on the ground). The scene was taking place in a street that included "The Hi Hat Club"(including a moving hat on the sign outside of the bar) and "Tim's Bar", which actually used to be a funeral home, according to the people who live in the neighborhood. The crew had come in and added the signs and converted the neighborhood into these bars. The local people who live in the neighborhood told me the crew had been shooting on the street for about a week, a week and a half. I talked to the guys who made and put up the signs on the bar and they actually had to stay and watch all of the filming in case something happened to the signs. The sign guys had been watching the filming the night before and they told me what they had filmed then. They said Michael Douglas and a girl (they didn't know who Katie Holmes was so they didn't know if it was her) and a guy (again, they didn't know who Tobey was so they didn't know if it was him or anyone else) come stumbling out of the Hi Hat Club bar and they walk over to the car (that Michael Douglas steals) and begin to "mess around with it" I'm not sure if they mean this is when he steals the car or not.

I got to stand in front of Tim's Bar and the Hi Hat Club and it was really neat to see all of the work that goes into shooting just one scene. I was there for about five hours and for about two and a half hours, we simply watched the director and the photo doubles go through the scene several times before Rip Torn came out. Then they shot the scene with Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr's photo doubles and Rip Torn with the camera shooting just Rip Torn in the scene. Then Michael Douglas finally came on the set and they shot the scene with just Michael and Rip Torn. I really wanted to see Robert Downey Jr. (since I thought he was amazing in Two Girls and a Guy) but by then it was 10 pm and I was very cold and tired so I left. I knew they probably had to run through the scenes for Robert with his photo double first which could take hours which meant hours until Robert actually appeared. The crew was grumbling that they would probably shoot until 6 am. They had shot until 6 am the night before as well.

I asked the makeup/wig woman about Tobey (surprisingly, she was the only one that seemed to know him) and she said he's really nice. So that's no new information but that's all I really learned about Tobey. One of the producer type people I talked to said they are planning to release the movie around Christmas time. I think they're hoping for some Academy Award Nominations (the cast is pretty impressive with quite a few nominations and wins among them) and with Curtis Hanson (former nominee for L.A. Confidential) and Scott Rudin producing ("the biggest producer you can get" according to several crew members) I think it's got a pretty good shot. I can't wait for the movie to come out because it sounds really interesting and I'd like to see the final result of the scenes I saw them shooting. I have a whole new respect for the movie making business. There is very little actual shooting time. There was a lot of standing around, a lot of setting up, a lot of rehearsing and then the scene is shot with the actors over and over again. It was very cool to see Curtis Hanson. I loved L.A. Confidential and I liked how he rode in the car with the photo doubles for the rehearsing of the scenes. He seemed very involved and one crew member was telling me how nice he was.

I just want to say again how incredibly nice the crew was to me and how willing they were to tell me, a movie making novice, about what they were doing. I really had fun and I hope to maybe catch some more filming before they wrap shooting in April and maybe see Tobey.

I feel like I'm forgetting something and I may be so if I think of anything else I forgot to add, I'll be sure to add it here.