Priest
Action/Thriller
Starring:
Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code)
Karl Urban (Lord Of The Rings, Chronicles Of Riddick, Star Trek)
Release Date: 10.1.2010
The Cathedral Scene:
While I'm told that shooting for "Priest" will continue through December 09, the scenes with background are now all finished with this last scene that they're calling "The Cathedral Scene." In fact, it's the finale of the movie.
I was imagining it being shot inside a soundstage with a set that would be burnt and bombed-out looking; or perhaps, a surreal look to it. But, checking the info line the night before the shoot (they don't update the line until the night before) I hear it's going to be on location in downtown Los Angeles and my call time is 7:30am.
Downtown Los Angeles:
5:50am my alarm goes off. It's a little unsettling to me to wake up while it's still dark out. But, I'm in good company and I've got to get ahead of the wave of commuters to be on time. With a few splashes of water on my face and a meal bar in hand I'm off. Remarkably, my timing worked! I'm cruising effortlessly though L.A.. Sure there's plenty of cars on the road but no bumper to bumper --- until I hit the 110! It took about 15-minutes to get 60% the way there but it would be another 45-minutes to finish the 15 mile commute. But, I was indeed on time.
Base Camp:
In a parking lot at 4th and Spring Street, Screen Gems had set up our base camp. With it's tents and trailers to accommodate around 150 of us background and with the dark grey rags everyone's wearing as costumes, it looked like some sort of refugee camp. In the makeup chair all of us got properly smudged and smeared. Many got prosthetic wounds put on; cuts and burn marks. I primarily got dark powder brushed on and grease and dust in my hair. I looked like photos I've seen of coal minors.
The Set:
I never did find out what our set location was. It was a building halfway between 4th and 5th street on the west side of Spring. It looked like an old 10-story 1930's-1940's bank building walking in. Our set was on the second level and as I walked in - things got echoey as footsteps bounced off marble floors, Greek columns, backless benches that looked like chiselled stone.
In Holding:
While waiting to be called to the set, we waited in a large room on the first floor. While cruising around down there I came across an actor I've seen on the History Channel -- Mr. Bill Oberst Jr.. I've seen him in a movie on the History Channel called "Sherman's March" and thoroughly enjoyed him in his role as General William Sherman. He's a busy man; be on the lookout for his future movies. He seems to get cast alot as a villain and I wonder if some iconic role may be in his future... some as yet unimagined demon along the lines of Freddy Krueger.
Finale Scene With A Film Icon:
After we all got settled onto the set one of the PA's addressed everyone and told us all about what was happening in this scene and what kinds of reactions we were to come up with. Then, she announced that an additional celebrity actor had accepted the role of Monsignor for this scene - Christopher Plummer! You'll all know him from various roles in movies over the past 60 years including: "The Sound Of Music;" "The Fall Of The Roman Empire;" "Hamlet;" "Star Trek VI;" "Somewhere In Time," "A Beautiful Mind;" "National Treasure;" currently "9;" and next year "Priest!"
Now, I'm not only pleased to be doing this scene but thrilled! I don't want to give the scene away -- so you can all enjoy it when you see it. But, I can say that for this scene all of us there are not just filling space - we're reacting to the actions of Paul Bettany (the Priest) and Christopher Plummer. At one point Christopher Plummer's character walks right by me and I'm angrily scowling at him.
They shuffled some of us around for this shot. At one point they had me sit on the main aisle on the very last row closest to the big doors. You might spot me when - the Priest - first enters the church. I'm one of the first to turn in surprise at seeing him. But, it all depends on which camera angle and which take they choose.
I sure loved being a part of it. I love these bigger than life graphic novel stories!
-- Cole --