Bill Zwecker

Chicago Rolls Out ‘Gone Baby Gone’ Red Carpet For Ben, Casey Affleck

HollywoodChicago.com — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:38:08 -0600

CHICAGO – On a frigid Chicago night, the Chicago International Film Festival on Wednesday rolled out the red carpet for Ben Affleck and brother Casey Affleck to pump Ben’s directorial debut film “Gone Baby Gone”.

Press began arriving at 5 p.m. to set up cameras. Casey arrived first at about 6:40 p.m. sporting eccentricity with his stylish brown hat. Ben arrived at about 6:50 p.m. to a barricaded crowd of enthusiasts.

Both gravitated like magnets to WGN-TV entertainment reporter and film critic Dean Richards and then entertainment reporter and film critic Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times and CBS 2 Chicago.

A devout fan (above) flaunted her life-sized human poster. At first, Ben didn’t pay it any attention. Even though his face was plastered on someone else’s body, I pointed out that the body was James Dean. Flattered, he responded: “It could have been much worse.”

See below for a video I shot of an animated Ben Affleck in a TV interview. Below the video, you’ll find more photos to help you capture the scene.

11:51 p.m. update: Metromix film critic Matt Pais just posted his video footage from the event with brief Ben and Casey Affleck interviews.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Homer Simpson Voice Dan Castellaneta Coming to Chicago For Sketch Comedy

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:11:51 -0600

CHICAGO – Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times and CBS 2 Chicago has the scoop on Thursday that Oak Park, Ill. native Dan Castellaneta – the voice of Homer Simpson in “The Simpsons” – will be coming back to Chicago.

Dan Castellaneta will be back home this winter [to join] original cast members Joe Liss, Mark Nutter and John Rubano to restage their hilarious “The Bicycle Men” sketch comedy show from Dec. 12 to 16 at the Lake Shore Theater.

The Dec. 16 performance will benefit the early detection ovarian cancer program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Scoop: Four-Story Building to Be Imploded in ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:49:23 -0600

At 4:36 p.m. on Tuesday, I received a report with loads of juicy information about upcoming “The Dark Knight” filming. This exclusive information comes from a person with the alias “Secret Scoop”.

Warning: The following can be considered spoiler information.

Hi, Adam. “Secret Scoop” here with more “The Dark Knight” filming information.

They are currently filming in the IBM building downtown, which is the HQ of Wayne Enterprises. They will be there for a week.

Production is running a little behind (so my source says) and they might be filming here a bit longer than planned.

A CTA bus crash on Wacker Drive might be re-staged.

Here is the biggest information of all. Mark Aug. 29, 2007 down on your calendars. They will implode a four-story building on the former Brach Candy factory site.

I have been told this will be a day shoot. A typical building implosion does not have any flames. This will be different.

They will load the building with large amounts of gasoline and other flammable material for a huge explosion and ultimate implosion of the building.

This explosion/implosion will then be added to a CGI building for the film.

Also, the Angelina Jolie movie (“Wanted”) will be shooting on Lower Wacker for the next several days (at least). There will be a high-speed chase scene.

As for the veracity of this information, “Secret Scoop” is the same person who I published on July 24, 2007. The scooper correctly predicted the semi truck flip.

9:29 a.m. update on 8/15/07: A reader wrote it after having done some more research. First, here is an image of the Brach Candy site as captured by Microsoft Virtual Earth:

Also, the reader found a story by ABC 7 Chicago published on Oct. 19, 2005 about the Chicago Fire Department investigating an extra-alarm fire at the plant on Chicago’s west side.

“The building was abandoned since 2001 when the Brach Co. closed after 76 years of business,” the story said.

4:06 p.m. update on 8/15/07: Jason in Chicago has submitted to me another angle of the Brach site.

4:35 p.m. update on 8/15/07: I am in conversations with FOX Chicago about this report. They plan to pool resources together to shoot professional footage when this goes down. Stay tuned.

8:56 a.m. update on 8/16/07: On Thursday, Chicago Sun-Times entertainment columnist Bill Zwecker cited this site and report. On Thursday, this also appeared on CBS 2 Chicago.