An entire four- or five-block area of downtown Detroit was cordoned off Monday as filming of ‘Red Dawn’ continued. Watching it happen was pretty cool. A parking garage across from American Coney Island was transformed into a Police headquarters. A stage in front of the garage was built to host a fictional political speech. And the intersection of Michigan-Griswold-Lafayette was the gathering place for hundreds of working-class citizens who flocked to hear the speech.
Around the corner on Lafayette, a school bus was being loaded with extras dressed in bright orange jumpsuits. Suddenly a military jeep wheeled around the corner and shot down Griswold, another cornered onto Lafayette, and a tank rolled into the parting crowd. Along with hundreds of other people who gathered, I watched them do a few takes.
I’ve heard that the entire script for the new ‘Red Dawn’ was re-written, which makes me wonder why they called it ‘Red Dawn’. Still, I’m already looking forward to seeing the movie and looking for different parts of Detroit in the background.
(I would promise that this is the last I will say about the filming of ‘Red Dawn’, but I might go down this afternoon and try to sneak on as an extra, and I figure there might be something worth mentioning about that.)
