SPOILERS: Indy 4 Filming Car Chase in New Haven, Connecticut - UPDATED June 24th

The New Haven Register

Part of Chapel St. to become scene of car chase in the 1950s
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
05/15/2007

-NEW HAVEN ? Indiana Jones will be racing up Chapel Street next month, a spokesman for director Steven Spielberg confirmed Monday.

The fourth installment of the hugely popular series, arriving in theaters almost 20 years after the third, will include some kind of car chase on Chapel between College and High streets. A pre-production crew was in the city last week and Monday talking to shop owners on the block.

"I really have no details on it at all, except to say that there will be some filming there," said Marvin Levy, a spokesman for Spielberg, who did confirm the film will be the next in the series starring Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, set to open May 22, 2008.

Indiana Jones" began with a script by George Lucas, whose hits include the "Star Wars" franchise. The collaboration with Spielberg, now a three-time Oscar winner, certified Harrison Ford, the lead in both series, as a superstar.

Levy said the filming dates are not set, but one merchant said she was told it would happen June 28 and 30.

Barbara J. Lamb, director of the city?s Office of Cultural Affairs, said the production would close down parts of College and Elm streets and possibly other downtown streets as well.

"We are working with them on a plan to minimize those disruptions on the community," Lamb said. "We will ensure the smoothest flow of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic in downtown New Haven."

"Indiana Jones IV" (a working title) will also feature two new stars, Cate Blanchett and Shia LeBeouf, who is starring in "Disturbia." LeBeouf was 3 years old when the third Indy movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," came out in 1989.

The first three movies featuring Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr., soft-spoken archeologist-turned-swaggering adventurer, were set in the 1930s and were made in the style of cliffhanger serials of that era.

This one will be set in the 1950s, according to several merchants who were approached by crew members. Savitt Jewelers will become a pharmacy, according to owner Mike Rosenthal. And Enson?s men?s clothing store will become ... Enson?s.

"They wanted to make it look more like the 1950s, and I actually showed them pictures of what it looked like in the ?50s, since we?ve been here for 55 years," said owner Jim Civitello.

Next door, Rob Muller of Merwin?s Art Shop said he was asked to make his storefront look appropriate to the era. That shouldn?t be a problem. "We?ve got stuff that?s probably been here since the ?50s," he joked.

Lamb said New Haven was chosen because "they like the look of Yale" and added, "I think a lot of it has to do with the film incentives that are now in place ... and New Haven has been an extremely attractive location for filmmakers."

"We?ve been working with them for several months now on identifying various locations in the city ... and we expect it to have a major (positive) economic impact in New Haven," Lamb said.

Spielberg received an honorary degree from Yale in 2002, but Lamb said she didn?t think that played a role.

The last Hollywood visit to the Elm City was in September, when Uma Thurman filmed a scene for the thriller "In Bloom," planned for release later this year. That also was shot on Chapel Street.

This time, the crew members talking to Chapel Street merchants were coy about the title.

"They told me it was a major motion picture, that we know people in it, but they couldn?t divulge that yet," said Civitello.

Other shop owners said the crew talked about compensating them for any business loss. "They just wanted rough numbers, like how much it would cost for a couple of days," said Muller.

"It?s a plus for New Haven, probably a negative for the business for a day, but one day does not a year make," said Paul Indorf, co-owner of Peter Indorf Jewelers. "We?re not a business that de

 

Awesome news! A car chase with hopefully some 50s era hotrods.

 

Well, this is as close to a confirmed era as we've ever had I guess, too bad it's so vague. I wonder, early fifties? Late fifties? Middle fifties?

 

More Info from the New Haven Register

MINOR SPOILERS

'Indiana Jones' filming means big bucks for city
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
05/16/2007

The film will have a major chase scene downtown and on the Yale campus ? and inside Yale as well, including Indiana riding his bike through the Commons, Yale?s dining hall.

The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring an older, wiser and achier Indiana Jones, will have lots of thrills and humor, much like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981, according to location managers who briefed city officials Tuesday.

"Steven very much wants to make this film in the manner of the first movie ? wink wink, nod nod," said Michael Fantasia, chief location manager. In other words, action will be over the top, we?re in on the joke and we?re going along for the ride.

Set in 1957, the scene will appear near the beginning of the movie. Indy will be chased down a transformed Chapel Street into Old Campus, onto High Street and escape briefly through a gate into Branford College.

Other segments have Ford on York and Elm streets, roaring out of Sterling Memorial Library, flying into Old Campus through Phelps Gate, breaking up a political rally on the way.

"Oh, how exciting!" said Alderwoman Frances "Bitsy" Clark, D-7, when told how Ford will tear through the Commons.

New Haven scenes will be shot between June 28 and July 7, but not on Sundays or July 4.

It?s complex logistically, with streets closed and street lights removed. Barbara J. Lamb, director of the city Office of Cultural Affairs, said numerous departments, including traffic and parking, engineering, police, fire, health and building, and Yale, must be coordinated.

"These guys have been totally top-shelf professionals all the way," she said of location managers. "At every step of the way there?s absolutely no room for screw-ups, no room for confusion."

Location manager Dave Martin said they are still seeking permissions from Yale, and the Board of Aldermen must approve street closings. Michael J. Morand, Yale associate vice president, said "there are voluminous details that have to be worked out and are being worked out."

But he said benefits to both town and gown will be huge. The economic infusion "is going to be in the seven figures," he said. The film crew mentioned hotels, fuel, food and warehouse space they?ll need.

"Clearly it?s an affirmation of the leadership that the legislature and the state film office has provided," Morand said. Film-production companies are eligible for credits of up to 30 percent in state business taxes.

Ellen Woolf, project manager for the state Commission on Culture and Tourism?s Film Division, said several studios are working on projects in the state.

 

Well we will surely get some spy pics from crafty Yale students.

 

More details from the New Haven Independent

SPOILERS!

City Clears Path For Indiana Jones
by Melissa Bailey | May 22, 2007 3:08 PM

Books fly. Students flee. Into a Yale courtyard bursts Indiana Jones.

So is the scene described by the men pictured below as they came to City Hall to ask for street closures to facilitate New Haven's summer blockbuster -- the fourth, as yet unnamed, Indiana Jones film.

Aldermen Monday approved street closures for the riveting chase through downtown streets -- and heard a preview of the plot of the movie to be shot in part in downtown New Haven in coming weeks.

In the New Haven-shot scenes, professor Ford gets pursued by bad guys in black sedans through the Yale campus, up to athletic fields, where he may just catch a football for a moment of lighthearted shtick.

Aldermen approved closing sections of downtown streets to make way for the chase, as well as for a pre-filming street festival celebrating Harrison Ford's visit.

"Can we get autographs?" asked Newhallville Alderwoman Katrina Jones after the men described Ford's escapades through the Elm City.

Filming will run June 28 to July 6, reported David Martin, location manager for Genre Project's East Coast sector (pictured at right, with assistant location manager Jason Farrar). Most of the scenes, by Martin's recounting, involve Ford's motorcycle (with stunt man, no doubt) bursting through bucolic Yale spots.

Why New Haven? Because of "its great-looking university with great-looking architecture," Martin said. The film will be set in 1957.

Chase footage starts on Chapel between College and High, where Uma Thurman could be seen running takes of a pedestrian accident for a film called In Bloom last summer. On Monday, Indiana Jones bursts through Yale's Branford College courtyard on the motorcycle, continuing on through Saybrook College. Tuesday, he'll head to a Yale baseball diamond off Derby Avenue, which has a tunnel running under it, according to Martin's research.

"I'm sure they're going to make it try to fly out of the tunnel," Martin told the aldermen. Then Indy "steals a football from practice and uses it as a weapon," he said. (Martin later elaborated the football throw was just an example of a possible moment of lighthearted comic relief, not a guarantee.) Thursday, the chase will hit downtown's Wall Street, then Friday, it'll fly by Yale's Sterling Memorial Library, on to Woolsey Hall, where the film crew hopes to stage the finale.

Ford bursts through Commons, which is set up to look like a study hall. "Books will be flying, students will be running." If all goes as currently planned, a Sedan may flip over outside on Grove Street.

All the excitement will require about 500 extras, Martin said. (Look for announcements soon on where to audition.) Stores will be compensated for having to close business.

To prepare New Haveners for their impending date with Hollywood, the city plans to close Temple Street on the Green for a festival on June 26 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Festivities include projecting an Indy movie onto a screen on the Green, said Barbara Lamb, the city's director of cultural affairs.

Sounds great.

 

Mmm, extras...

I hope they need extras when they're shooting in LA.

Anybody have any idea where to check in on that sort of thing?

 

Don't be surprised if Harrison Ford himself is on that motorcycle instead of a Stuntman. Harrison Ford owns motorcycles, and does a lot of his own stunts in his movies.

 

If you've read the spoilers I would guess that Indy "borrows" the motorcycle from Shia LaBeouf's character.

 

UPDATE: June 3rd

From The New Haven Register

West Haven looks to get in on the Hollywood action
Marissa Yaremich, Register Staff
06/03/2007
Email to a friendPrinter-friendly
WEST HAVEN ? Move over, L.A.


"Hollywood West" ? as in West Haven ? may be growing into a prime set for Tinseltown's A-list actors this summer.

The nickname jokingly rolled off the tongue of city spokesman Michael P. Walsh when he confirmed this week that West Haven may join the elite status of New Haven as the production location for a major movie.

No, make that two major movies.

Within the last two weeks, representatives of both the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino thriller, "Righteous Kill," and the fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones" series rubbed shoulders with city officials to discuss potential sites throughout West Haven.

She also referred the "Indiana Jones" film crew to the First Congregational Church in West Haven when they asked if she knew of any quaint white churches in the area.

Paramount Pictures representative Abby Eon, in a letter to the city, said the producers for the PG-rated action-adventure film are considering using the exterior of the historic church on the Green, "with actors entering and exiting the church."

Neither Eon nor church officials returned calls seeking further comment.

"Since the movie is set in 1957, we will need to have only our period 'picture cars' on the street (both driving and parked)," wrote Eon. Yale University's practice field on Derby Avenue may also be transformed into a stunt-packed action scene on July 3. Shooting in New Haven is set to begin June 28.

According to Police Chief Ronald M. Quagliani, the West Haven Board of Police Commissioners will consider during its Tuesday meeting Paramount's request to close Derby Avenue intermittently on July 3 and 6 between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.

"We are going to do all we can to encourage the expansion of the arts in the area," said Quagliani.

Mayor John M. Picard said he has faith West Haven can provide a balanced atmosphere of safety and excitement to movie crews and observers alike. "We are hoping they use West Haven in the scenes of the upcoming movies, but until it's definite we are going to be cautiously optimistic," he said.

The rise in interest in filming in Connecticut is largely fueled by major tax breaks the state initiated, providing 30 percent tax credits for many production-related expenses.

For anybody whose read the script for Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars will know what the significance of the blacked out spoiler. You can click the link above to read about the De Niro/Pacino film.

Plus this from The New Haven Register

Casting call creates excitement far and wide
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
06/04/2007

The throngs of Connecticut residents hoping for their 2.3 seconds of fame in the new "Indiana Jones" movie should get out their publicity photos.

An open casting call for the fourth installment of the modern classic adventure series, starring Harrison Ford, will be held June 11 and 12, according to Billy Dowd Casting.

If you're over 18 and want to get paid for possibly standing in the background on Chapel Street as Ford is filmed on his motorcycle, go to the Omni Hotel at Yale between 1 and 9 p.m. on either day. The photo is not returnable.

Plenty of people want to breathe in the excitement of the production and have come out of the woodwork since it was announced last month that Paramount Pictures was filming a scene in the still-untitled movie in New Haven and, possibly, West Haven.

"I could be scenery that moves. I could be the tree that breathes or anything in the background," said Mitchell Hallock of Trumbull, who met Ford years ago.

One would-be minor cast member would even fly from Bologna,

 

Update! June 4th

From The New Haven Independent

Indiana Jones Comes Calling -- For Classic Engines
by Linda Cuckovich | June 4, 2007 12:08 PM

Indiana Jones?s dramatic chase through downtown New Haven next month will unfold against a back-drop of classic cars like this one ? assuming, that is, that the film?s props department can convince 40 owners to park their mint-condition autos for the spectacle.
Although the location shooting for the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise has sparked giddiness in some New Haven alderfolk, car collectors were decidedly more wary on Saturday during an open casting call for vintage vehicles at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven.

The steady trickle of car owners who passed through the high school parking lot spent as much time interrogating the filmmakers as they did asking about the movie. One Hamden resident brought his father?s 1956 Ford Fairlane and a long list of questions. A props department worker who would identify himself only as Bobby offered reassurance. ?The cars will just sit, parked, for 12 hours.? His colleague, a young woman answering to the name Sarah, concurred, ?Your car might roll across an intersection three blocks from the action. There?s no risk.?

According to Bobby, none of the cars being cast would participate in the high-speed chase. ?Those cars will just be classic bodies combined with 1980s Chevy Caprice Chassis. The old cars? engines just aren?t reliable enough to run all day.?

But to set the scene, they are offering collectors $200 per day for their cars. ?We just want plain cars, that?s all,? Bobby explained. He gestured to a black, mint condition 1954 Chrysler New Yorker, ?Cars like that one are just what we?re looking for.? Incidentally, if that?s his idea of plain, I?d hate to hear his thoughts about my Toyota Corolla.

Even the most skeptical classic car owners weren?t entirely impervious to excitement of appearing in an Indiana Jones film. ?I?m definitely going to be an extra,? explained one resident of Fair Haven. ?Even if I decide to leave my car at home.?

[image=http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/upload/2007/06/green%20car.jpg]

[image=http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/upload/2007/06/chrysler%20new%20yorker.jpg]

[image=http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/upload/2007/06/ford%20fairlane.jpg]

Really cool. I love classic cars.

 

Nice.

If only they needed extras in Los Angeles. If only the devoted Indy fans of the west coast had a chance to appear as extras in the movie.

 

From The New Haven Regsiter

Chapel Street getting ready for its close-up
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
06/19/2007

NEW HAVEN ? If Indiana Jones decides to shop for a new fedora before the bad guys chase him down Chapel Street on his motorcycle, the name on the store should look familiar.

While the fourth movie in the whip-cracking adventure series will be set in 1957, Enson's men's clothing store will be there in the row of shops, just as it was 50 years ago, and looking just like its younger self.

The Paramount film, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford, will begin shooting June 28, but the work to take downtown Chapel Street back in time will start later this week, according to a production manager.

Jim Civitello, owner of Enson's, has photos from the 1950s of the store, and said the film staff plans to re-create the old sign and the window displays of that era.

They may bring a few props, like hats, but they said it will be so quick (on film) that we won't see much in the window," Civitello said Monday.

The new Indiana Jones movie features an older hero than in the first three, but chances are he won't be slowing down much. Plans call for a chase scene that careens through the Yale campus, including a run through the Commons dining hall.

The shooting is scheduled for June 28 to July 7, and the first three days are Chapel Street's time in the spotlight.

Enson's isn't the only store whose name may appear on screen. Merwin's Art Shop and Peter Indorf Jewelers should be recognizable.

"It's kind of neat," said Merwin's owner Rob Muller. "I'm kind of curious to see what it's going to look like."

Claire's Corner Copia won't be a vegetarian restaurant, but it still will be called Claire's.

"They're planning on making it Claire's Bakery," with a painted window as a sign and a baker's rack visible, said owner Claire Criscuolo.

Other stores will undergo some transformation: Ragg's men's shop and Seychelle's women's clothing will sell tuxedos and bridal gowns, respectively. Urban Objects, a gift store, may be the hardest to spot ? it's going to be a pawnshop, according to an employee.

Kimberly Pedrick, owner of Idiom boutique, said she believes her store will become a hat shop, but hasn't heard for sure. "This week all the rest of us are hoping to get some definites because it's coming up quickly."

Most of the stores will remain open during the filming.

"We had originally planned on closing but (the production manager) said sometimes a lot of people come into town to watch and it may be to our benefit to stay open," said Mike Rosenthal, owner of Savitt Jewelers.

While stray pedestrians will be kept away during actual filming, "The street will be open when they shut down for lunch, at least for pedestrian traffic," said Civitello.

The production manager who's been negotiating with the store owners, who would only give his name as Frank, said there will be times when shooting will be intermittent, and people will be able to shop.

"While they're filming, if we're looking at a specific store, we'll ask (customers) not to come out," he said.

Still, Paramount will be compensating the businesspeople for lost sales and inconvenience. All those interviewed said they were satisfied with the offers.

"Luckily, it happens at not a busy time of year for me," said Rosenthal of Savitt. "They've been fair enough is the way I would put it. If I lose a little bit, the city (still) benefits."

Criscuolo wasn't sure until Monday that she'd be receiving the amount of money she needs if her business drops to nearly nothing for three days.

"I have 35 employees, I have a huge rent," she said. Referring to her cleaning staff, she said, "I wouldn't ever give them a day off without paying them."

But by late afternoon, she and Frank had worked it out.

"It sounds like it's going to be fair and equitable, and that's all I wan

 

Update!

From the New Haven Register

Expect a hectic scene on city streets for 'Indiana Jones'
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
06/24/2007

NEW HAVEN ? Starting Thursday, downtown will become a Hollywood set, and that means driving will be something of a perilous adventure.

However, which streets, and when, is really "kind of a fluid thing," as police spokeswoman Bonnie Posick put it.

Director Steven Spielberg, actor Harrison Ford and maybe even Cate Blanchett will be in town to shoot a chase scene for the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie, along with hundreds of locally cast extras, gaffers, best boys and other cinematic technical types.

Some streets will be closed for long periods. On others, cars will be stopped for a few minutes so they don?t appear on camera.

While Chapel Street will be closed to motorized vehicles, except for 1950s sedans and a motorcycle, for much of Thursday through Saturday, you?ll still be able to walk up the street and into Woolworth?s.

Woolworth?s?

The world-famous five and dime, which once had doorways on Chapel and Church streets, will seem to reappear at Chapel and High streets for the movie, according to Joe DeStefano, who was directing the "set dressers" Friday. You know it as Starbuck?s, Allegra Print and Imaging and Savitt Jewelers.

Put in the simplest terms, the block around Yale?s Old Campus, bounded by Chapel, High, Elm and College streets, will be the most affected. But it won?t be simple.

"They won?t all be closed at the same time ? and they?ll move from one street to the other," said Barbara Lamb, director of the city?s Office of Cultural Affairs.

A lot of the time, a street will be closed intermittently, remaining open while shots are being set up.

Because of the probability of changes in the filming schedule, the production crew will post the next day?s schedule each night on the city?s Web site, www.cityofnewhaven.com.

The dates are reasonably certain at this point, barring weather delays or other unforeseen events. Shooting will start as early as 6 a.m. Thursday and run through July 7, except for Sunday and the Fourth of July.

Posick suggested leaving the car at home. "They want to encourage people to use public transportation if you can, so if you work downtown you won?t be affected."

As of late last week, plans for Thursday were to shoot inside William L. Harkness Hall and the Yale Law School, and on the following streets, at least part of the time: College Street between Grove and Crown streets; Chapel, Elm and Grove between Temple and York streets; High between Crown and Elm; and Prospect Street between Trumbull and Grove streets.

Friday and Saturday?s schedules are similar.

Lamb said the film crew will keep Elm and other streets open during rush hours and will adjust if traffic seems to be getting especially backed up.

One change the Paramount decision-makers have made is that they will not use a Yale practice field in the scene. "Their creative team decided that they?re not going to use Derby Avenue for the chase scene," said West Haven Police Chief Ronald M. Quagliani.

Lamb said that part of the schedule will be filled with something new. "They?re creating a new scene, which hasn?t even been confirmed yet, so that?s going to go in there," she said.

That?s Hollywood!

 

Update June 26, 2007:

Possible SPOILERS
New Articler From The New York Observer

 

?You and I are simply passing through history. This?, this is history?
? Rene Belloq, Raiders of the Lost Ark


June 28th ? Well, maybe not up there with World War II or the moon landing, but for us locals, this is historic?the first ?Official? day of Indy IV filming in New Haven is here! I say official as there have been many dress rehearsals and filming here and there, but today it was the real deal. The boys, Spence, 9, and Owen, 7, headed out early and got to New Haven (or maybe the town of Bedford, located in Michigan ? as one wild rumor was said by a local) around 7:30. The boys and I woke up early and headed out to as grabbed a great scrambled egg breakfast at the Bedford Grill (again, the modern day Copper Kitchen), which like many of the retail shops has been transformed to 1957. Now added to the scenery were stamp machines, scale/fortune telling machines, a Bozo the Clown ? ?fun-phone?, shoe shine station, and a few new shops. All the shops are still open behind their Indy IV, (or The Untitled Genre Project, as it is called on all the flyers around town ? a PG Rated action-adventure set in the Golden Age of 1957 ? see no ?City of the Gods? or ?Raiders of the Lost Dentures?) window dressing ? so it is like stepping into ?The Twilight Zone? as you travel back 50 years in time at every corner.

A glance down College Street shows vintage cars and trucks from the late 1940s and early 1950s, and then small groups of authentically dressed extras, being led across the green start to appear. One really has to take a moment and soak in the amount of exquisite craftsmanship and detail that has been poured into the sets. The professionalism of the crew, not to mention the local Yale and New Haven Police, who are keeping a watchful eye and making sure that the normal business life in New Haven, goes on amidst the action of Indiana Jones. And yes, oddly enough, a lot of would-be Indiana Jones walking around in costume ? kind of like the guys at football games who paint themselves in the color of the team as my son, Owen, pointed out.

Lights, Camera,? Wait?.and?.Wait???Wait
We look down the street to see a familiar baseball capped, bearded gentleman walking down College Street framing the scene with his thumbs and forefingers ? no, it couldn?t be? but it is, the one and only Steven Spielberg! There he was walking down the road, seeing how the forthcoming chase scene will look in his mind.

Now after they cleared the real local traffic, and washed down the streets, and waited for local traffic, again. The scene started. After a few practice runs, and now that the street was ?lockeddown?.. here it was?ready?., lights, ?camera, ?.ACTION! If you didn?t think Hollywood hadn?t arrived to the Elm City, the black sedans, being pursued by a motorcycle being driven by a 50?s hipster, with an older, scholarly looking professor hanging on for dear life was the clincher! Yes, Indiana Jones was here! Well, his stunts double anyway.

Now, amongst the spectators were cheering fans from around the area, locals who were just trying to get to work around the closed streets, and being the mini-New York it is, a lot of ticked off, New Haveners who could care less! NOTE TO GENRE PRODUCTIONS ? When hiring Production Assistants and Day Laborers, get ones who know the area ? I helped give directions over three dozen times to lost pedestrians and confused production personnel, and in one somewhat scary situation, calmed a very irate bicyclist who was a little ?angrier than normal? when told he couldn?t cross College, due to the filming.

Anyway, watching the chase scene, again, and again, and again, and again? you realize movie making is done by folks with the patience of Saints! A lot of standing by to stand by. Oh well, there is only so much the boys could take. We walked around, had a bite at the Yankee Doodle Diner - great cheeseburgers -- and looked around the familiar streets where I grew up, to see what else was going on. Going by Naples Pizza on High Street, we bumped into a few extras and readers of these ?Raiders Rambl

 

I would so love to be there. Sounds like Indy catches a ride on the back of Shia LaBeouf's motorcycle.

 

Major Update: Filming Day One! June 28th, 2007

From The New Haven Register

Star Harrison Ford arrives for 'Indiana Jones' shoot
Michael Gannon, Register Staff
06/28/2007

NEW HAVEN ? Indiana Jones rode into town Wednesday night as the filming for the fourth installment of the classic series gets under way in New Haven today.

Harrison Ford, who first played the swashbuckling archaeology professor 26 years ago in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," arrived Wednesday night, according to the production team. Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is due to arrive today.

The Yale University campus will play a prominent role as fictional Marshall College circa 1957 in the yet to be named film.

"Maybe if my name had been different ..." said producer Frank Marshall, who along his wife, executive producer Kathleen Kennedy, met with the press Wednesday night with location manager Mike Fantasia.

Marshall said the decision to look at Yale was based on brief exterior scenes shot for "Raiders" at the University of the Pacific in California, a school often chosen for its resemblance to Ivy League schools.

Fantasia said Yale's classic architecture made it Spielberg's first choice for filming that will require 10 to 15 minutes of Ivy League-looking footage.

"Steven always said Yale is the most iconic-looking Ivy League college," Kennedy said. "It was his first choice."

Marshall and Fantasia said Connecticut's tax breaks for the film industry have been a definite incentive.

Marshall said an advance team has spent the last six or seven weeks dressing the more modern aspects of the neighborhood to look like 1957. He said the cast and crew had just arrived from extensive shooting in New Mexico.

"Then to Hawaii, and back to Los Angeles," he said.

Marshall estimates that they will have spent between $8 million and $9 million in the Greater New Haven economy before they are done.

"And that money gets recycled in the area," Fantasia said. "Some estimates say it gets passed around three or four times. Others say seven or eight."

Signs and street lights have been taken down. Countless windows have been dressed to fit the period, and vintage automobiles ("with the proper license plates," said Fantasia) had to be lined up.

There will be classroom shots, exterior shots and the prerequisite chase scene that includes the Old Campus, Phelps Gate and Yale's library.

"They have a lot of great old books that we didn't want to expose to fumes," Fantasia said. "I came up with the idea that we could build a tunnel to keep the fumes and the noise out of the building. The people from Yale and New Haven ... may look at us cockeyed and scratch their heads, but they've pretty much given us what we want."

The shooting schedule allows two days for rain, scenes Kennedy said will be the last to be shot if the weather holds.

Kennedy said the impetus for a fourth movie came in 2000 at the American Film Instutue tribute to Ford.

"We were all backstage, the entire family," she said. "Somebody said, ?Wouldn't it be great to do this again?'"

And Marshall acknowledged that they were unsuccessful at coaxing Sean Connery, who played Ford's father, Dr. Henry Jones in the last movie, out of retirement. And unlike the James Bond series, which has been handed off to a succession of five actors since Connery originated the role, they believe Indiana Jones will pass into cinema history once Ford decides to hang up the bullwhip and tattered fedora for good.

"We rode off into the sunset last time, and now we're back," Marshall said.

Kennedy concurred.

"I think Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones," she said.

===============================================

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From The [link=http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/06/indiana_jones_s.php#005565more] New Haven Independent[/link]

[b]Indiana Jones Begins The Chase
by Melissa Bailey | June 28, 2007 2:26 PM

Updated: 5:20 p.m.) On his first day f

 

Video of Indiana Jones jumping onto Shia Labeouf's bike:

http://wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=6730021

 

Saw it loved it. There's so much info coming out of New Haven I cannot keep up.

 

Alot of news alll arounf
I hear you! I have been keeping an eye on the various ites posting news today. I fell for you bro. You got CHUD posting storie off and on. Then a bunch of other movie sites and local news sites posting pics and videos.

 

Pics of Ray Winstone, and a brief description of his actions on the set, mild spoiler warning.

 

Cool...He does look different then what I am used to seeing him like. I guess it's the hair or something.

 

From IGN

An Indy Wedding?
More news from New Haven.
by IGN Staff
July 3, 2007 - Warning: this article contains spoilers relating to Indiana Jones IV.

With production on the new Indy flick kicking off in New Haven, Connecticut, numerous sources on the scene are pitching in with set reports, action descriptions of scenes with Harrison Ford and co-star Shia LaBeouf. Garnering some of the most attention and talk is Shia's pompadour hairdo ? a nice touch that places the characters and story squarely in the Fifties.

The New Haven Register has also managed to find out more on where more filming would take place. "There will be classroom shots, exterior shots and the prerequisite chase scene that includes the Old Campus, Phelps Gate and Yale's library," stated the paper. As a side note, special measures were taken to make sure exhaust fumes from the vehicles involved (presumably including Shia's motorbike) didn't come into contact with Yale's rare book collection.

Meanwhile, on a transformed Chapel Street, dozens of extras walked around in in authentic fifties garb, even carrying authentic-looking period newspapers as Spielberg and his crew set up the big chase scenes.

The paper also tips that word has spread among crew members that a nearby tourist attraction, the Essex Steam Train, a vintage locomotive, may be featured in the film.

There are also new hints about a possible wedding scene that may appear in the film. Could Indy be tying the knot after all of these years? We don't know, but filming for the rumored on-screen nuptials is taking place outside the First Congregational Church. A New Haven Public Works employee told the Register, "It's my understanding there is supposed to be some kind of wedding inside the church." The actual wedding scene, whoever it includes, will reportedly be shot in Hollywood.

Filming seems to be coming smoothly, but the production hasn't been without minor hiccups. The New Haven Independent reports that on Thursday after a long series of motorcycle chase scene takes, a stunt driver fell off his bike and required hospitalization for his injuries.

Spielberg and his crew are expected to continue filming in New Haven until July 6th.