Dragon_316ca wrote: ↑

June 14th, 2019, 12:33 pm

Nolan and the mayor are currently in a stalemate

wait, I'm a bit out of tune here

What actually happened? They decided to shoot on location in Tallinn and wanted to shut down the city's largest and busiest high-way for like two weeks? And what they got was a couple of hours for Mon-Thu-Wed and other times for Thurs-Fri and the weekend a closed highway or something?

I mean, if you are going to shoot in another city this should all have been pretty clear before they actually went there?

I know that McQuarrie didn't got to shoot at the arc de triomphe in Paris at first but they gave him like a couple of hours to shoot there in the end and it became a great sequence in the film, beautifully shot too.

The first reports said they wanted to shut down the road for a whole month! That’s crazy. I bet what he wants to shoot there is really complicated to require that much time to shoot. I still don’t know how accurate all of these news reports are.

It’s crazy they didn't go through all of this beforehand. What a perfect way to start production lol. Can’t wait to see how all this mess resolves.

Well, it sounds like a mess. I mean, logistical wise it's already very daunting... But for then to have conversation fall flat... Well good luck with that lol

On the other hand, setbacks and all are part of filmmaking and the crew faced quite the weather when making Dunkirk... Which then resulted in quite some gorgeous shots so there's that.

Nomis wrote: ↑

June 14th, 2019, 5:14 pm

Well, it sounds like a mess. I mean, logistical wise it's already very daunting... But for then to have conversation fall flat... Well good luck with that lol

On the other hand, setbacks and all are part of filmmaking and the crew faced quite the weather when making Dunkirk... Which then resulted in quite some gorgeous shots so there's that.

I`d like to disagree, while in dunkirk the weather did really make for some beautiful shots, the time constrictions here in Tallin, i just can't see them being any good for the shooting, less prep time means not being able to do sophisticated stuff, in short, they will probably go for a more conservative approach,we might never know what Chris`s real vision ever was for that set piece.

Nomis wrote: ↑

June 14th, 2019, 2:25 pm

Dragon_316ca wrote: ↑

June 14th, 2019, 12:33 pm

Nolan and the mayor are currently in a stalemate

wait, I'm a bit out of tune here

What actually happened? They decided to shoot on location in Tallinn and wanted to shut down the city's largest and busiest high-way for like two weeks? And what they got was a couple of hours for Mon-Thu-Wed and other times for Thurs-Fri and the weekend a closed highway or something?

I mean, if you are going to shoot in another city this should all have been pretty clear before they actually went there?

I know that McQuarrie didn't got to shoot at the arc de triomphe in Paris at first but they gave him like a couple of hours to shoot there in the end and it became a great sequence in the film, beautifully shot too.

The larger problem is rather that the film crew apparently now also wants to shut down other major streets in the city centre + some alternative routes for the urban highway previously talked about.

The city was seemingly OK with the partial shutdown of the highway according to the schedule posted here before, and the holdup is caused by the production company insisting on the closure of the other streets being part of the same written agreement as the highway.

The Mayor says that the city's new offer (about which nothing is known) will be final, and that Nolan and his crew can take it or leave it. We should know who is bluffing in a few days.

I suppose it's Emma who's dealing with the city, whilst Nolan focuses on directing.
Anyway, go the rock'n roll way, Chris&Emma, stop respecting your budget! Pick an eighth country, shoot there in January, finishing editing two days before the premiere, like everybody else!

Well yeah it's true that having to face unpredictable weather conditions is something else compared to shutting off a highway and even more roads. As for Dunkirk, they weren't allowed to use explosions on the beach so they had to go with water/air explosions and that worked, too.

Anyway, I just hope the final deal will work for them and that they get the shots they need. Chris' scripts are always so detailed and locked that I doubt he's going to go a completely different way.

Yeah, well if this doesn't work out, they will have to do it in downtown Chicago.

Things to consider regaring the seemingly poorly pre-planned street closures:
Estonia was not Nolan's first choice. According to the head of Estonian Film Institute, Edith Sepp, Nolan chose Estonia after he could not find suitable locations in Sweden. However, this is a bit questionable, as Nolan seems to be mostly interested in the "Soviet legacy" in Estonia, which he obviously could not have found in Sweden.

This is the first international production of such scale, by far, in Estonia. Local film companies don't have connections with Hollywood studios and vice versa. "Fun" little story from the DVD-era: a film distribution company in Russia who got the DVD distribution rights for Paramount and Universal titles for Russia also got the rights for Baltic territories thrown in as a freebie. The company had no interest of doing business in Baltics. That's how for a decade no Paramount or Universal DVDs were sold in Estonia.

Local film industry in Estonia doesn't really exist. There was a complete crash from production to distrubution to exhibition in the 90s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Things have been slowly getting better for the last 10-15 years. Coming back to the scale of this project, the 16 million euros Warner is reportedly spending in Estonia is more than the combined budgets of 10 average Estonian films. Some examples: Estonia's first (and so far only) Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated film Tangerines (2013) = 650 000 euros; Estonia's second Golden Globe nominated film The Fencer (2015) = 1.6 million euros; adaptation of a beloved Estonian novel, directed by Estonia's first (and so far only) Academy Award nominated director Truth and Justice (2019) = 2.5 million euros.

I assume what WB/Allfilm (whoever was in charge of this fiasco) expected was that what worked in the U.S. and France would also work in Estonia (the implicit cultural soft power of Hollywood plus the explicit costs of alienating Hollywood).

But unlike those countries, Estonia has nothing to lose, implicit (no pre-existing relationship with Hollywood) or explicit (no local film industry, so no 'actual' damages if the production pulls out), and so holds all the cards.