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

Update!

From the New Haven Register

Indy' producer a hands-on kind of guy
Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
07/04/2007

NEW HAVEN ? While Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford are the household names, not much about "Indiana Jones" would happen without producer Frank Marshall.

He's brought to the big screen some of the biggest movies of the last 35 years, including the three "Back to the Future" films, "The Sixth Sense," the "Bourne" series ("The Bourne Ultimatum" comes out next month) and "Seabiscuit."

For the last week, he's been working on his fourth "Indiana Jones" movie, and as the crew wrapped up the New Haven segment Tuesday, Marshall said the city was a terrific host.

"It's been fantastic. We have a very tight schedule and we've been able to pull it off, and that's a great testament to the organization and help we've had.

"We're like a giant circus army that descends on a location," he said, recognizing that closing major downtown arteries and moving bus stops for days at a time has inconvenienced many.

"We like to try to make it as easy as we can, and everybody here has been ? amenable to things we've had to do."

The producer's job is to secure financing, hire the crew and in myriad ways "help the director get their vision up on the screen." Marshall said that while he's enjoyed being in New Haven, most of his tasks have been concerned with looking ahead. After shooting a scene Thursday at the Essex Steam Train, the production will move to Hawaii.

But if something unexpected were to come up, such as a rainy day, Marshall has to come up with a plan. "That's why I like to be on the set," he said. "A lot of producers never leave the office."

Marshall's wife, Kathleen Kennedy, who is also a producer and whose professional relationship with director Steven Spielberg goes back to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" in 1982, is executive producer for "Indiana Jones 4" and has been in New Haven, too.

Marshall said the state's 30 percent business tax credit had a lot to do with locating the film's chase scene in New Haven, but there were other factors.

"Yale really fit into the requirements we had for the story ? and Steven was very familiar with the area," Marshall said.

The juxtaposition of Chapel Street and Old Campus helped, too. "We can run cars here and look up and down the streets and it's period and that's fantastic," he said.

Marshall and Spielberg wanted to shoot the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie in the same style as the first three.

"Steven is very aware of the process and we're not cheating with CG (computer graphics) at all," Marshall said. "It keeps the B movie feel."

New Haven has other advantages locals may not realize, such as the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale being a short walk from the set, which is not the norm.

Marshall said the privacy surrounding the set is "pretty typical." People shooting pictures may not realize that they're capturing a significant plot point. "It's more wanting not to spoil the fun of the movie and surprises in the movie or the look of a person," he said.

But he said he regretted the occasional rough handling of curious onlookers. "I would apologize to anybody who is treated rudely ? because that's not how it should be done."

He said he enjoyed the city and was surprised by the variety of cuisines. "We've found there's a lot of great restaurants and (many) seem to be Spanish ? a lot of paella, a lot of tapas."

But Marshall and crew didn't eat all their meals at bistros like Barcelona. He also got to try Pepe's pizza.

 

Umm, Frank, does George know about that .

Not that I ever doubted it but it's nice to see it "confirmed"... This isn't some anti-CG rant, but I'm just glad that they are going to eschew the fancy-schmancy stuff and shoot stuff practically where possible. Real is always best... even if it's fake .

 

That's not Winstone as we originally believed, aedison4344 over at TheRaven has identified that actor as Dimitri Diatchenko.

Actor on the Indy 4 set
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2815/image1eb4.gif

Dimitri Diatchenko
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6820/10fou7.jpg

Here's Ray Winstone in costume
http://www.hfm2.com/photopost1/data/937/indyiv1.jpg