Wide open spaces
The citizenry suddenly vanishes in a new Hayden Christensen thriller being shot in Detroit

Click both to enlarge

Hayden Christensen plays a TV reporter in the film

Cars appear to have been abandoned on a portion of I-75 in Detroit, a setting for “Vanishing on 7th Street,” a psychological thriller/horror movie that is filming locally.

A neon sign for a bar called Sonny’s glows in the night at an intersection in southwest Detroit. The cars in the street are parked haphazardly. The sidewalks are scattered with pieces of clothing, oddly enough.

Suddenly, a man and a woman run tentatively away from the bar. “Keep up,” says Hayden Christensen, who’s best-known for playing Anakin Skywalker in two “Star Wars” prequels. He’s talking to Thandie Newton, star of “Crash” and “Mission Impossible II.”

The actors are working on a scene for “Vanishing on 7th Street,” an independent movie that has aspects of a psychological thriller and a horror film.

The story involves a blackout and the mysterious disappearance of a city’s population. Five remaining people must try to figure out what they’re up against.

Detroit will play itself in the film. For this scene, the crew has turned an existing building on Junction Street into the exterior of a tavern.

The movie, which has a budget of around $10 million, needed a setting that would evoke the right look and feel for the subject matter. After considering locations in Iowa, Washington, New York and Canada, the filmmakers chose metro Detroit for creative reasons and for Michigan’s generous tax breaks for filmmaking.

“The city is such a character in the way we’re shooting the movie,” says producer Celine Rattray. “The city looks a combination of beautiful and, at times, haunting. We hope that it portrays Detroit in a beautiful light.”

The “Vanishing” team has been impressed by the architecture and friendliness of local communities as it’s gone about its scary-making business.

And in practical terms, when you’re shooting an eerie scene like the street exterior on this particular night, it’s easier to shut down locations and create an empty landscape in Detroit than it would be in a more crowded urban area.

Executive producer Kelly McCormick, who grew up near East Lansing, has been struck by the fact that “there’s beauty and there’s brilliance juxtaposed to extreme destitution and emptiness.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Once again here is another tweet mentioning Vanishing.
Looks as if Taylor Groothuis has finished shooting her part.

WRAPPED on “Vanishing on 7th St.” Sad to be done, but made great friends w/ Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, and Jacob Latimore. Also…!


..the other cast and GREAT crew. Special thanks to Mr. Brad Anderson, such an awesome director! Thanks to everyone! Luv, Taylor

All the best Taylor!

Marisa Gaggino is the owner of the heritage company II architectural artifacts.

OK can’t save the lafayette building or it’s beautiful crown of terracotta finials, but hey that telephone pole laying on the side of the road got a new life! Well a girl’s gotta eat gang and now that I’m a prop house for movies, when they want weathered telephone poles, I’m gonna find them. Oh I could get all maudlin about the madness of spending gobs of money building temporary artifices to tell stories while the real ones fall apart but hey, this is the most fun I’ve had in the salvage business and this movie racket might be the salvation for this old city afterall. Today I got to take my 10 year-old Wyatt downtown to to see the big action on the set of “Vanishing on 7th Street” and there on the street scene is the old Heritage Co. Sign they rented, and a neon sign of ours too, sweet. All that equipment, cranes and trucks, fake sidewalks and lights, people running around talking into headsets all in an old Detroit parking lot. We loved it. I dropped my sign off to them yesterday with the help of my painter friend David King. It just so happened they were painting the store fronts just then and gee could they use a muralist. So I dropped off David too and today admired his quick work painting David Bowie and Joey Ramone on the “record store”. Now I’m scrambling to get “props” ready for the new film on the scene “Crave”. Oh it’s fast and furious and these people work around the clock. As I write this, they are filming Vanishing and will be until midnight I guess. You gotta have stamina for that gig. I’m just happy to see all this weird stuff used, by people who think it’s cool, pal around with fun creative types and show my 10 year old how vast and clever and cool the real world can be.


Source

The cast list has been updated on IMDB.Com. We know Hayden’s character’s name is Luke, Taylor Groothuis is now listed as Briana and Jacob Latimore as James.


VANISHING ON 7TH STREET needs Interns. You can view more information here


Also, yet another Hayden sighting via Twitter.

Hah! I just saw Hayden Christensen in the lobby. Muuuch cuter in person. If I didn’t know he was staying here I wouldn’t have recognized him

He mentioned Hayden before not too long ago!

Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo are staying at my hotel filming this in MI
7:46 AM Oct 27th from Echofon

dconstructionx


Thanks Trish!