Lights, camera, finished

It's been a fun Hollywood ride for Chicago and our region.

But director Michael Mann's film "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger is near completion.

And true to the usual scenario, the $80-million film about the Feds trying to take down notorious American gangsters Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s, has gone both over-budget and is soon to go over the amount of designated script shooting days.

The film officially began shooting March 17 up in Madison, Wis., before the cast and crew made their way to Crown Point to shoot for the full week following Easter Sunday.

And so, even though the project was only scheduled for 69 shooting days, according to Depp's contract, the film will end up wrapping all of its Midwest on-location shooting at the end of this month, according to David Kelly, one of the assistant directors for the Universal Pictures movie, which is set to open in theaters in July 2009.

How pinched are they to complete this process before June 30?

They've already started to schedule scenes to be filmed on Saturdays.

Last week, Mann captured some great "late night" scenes at our own Indiana Dunes, featuring Depp and recent Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard, who plays girlfriend Billie Frechette, with their scene unfolding with the two parked in a vintage car and discussing the gangster's future plans.

And even more spectacular were scenes shot with Depp and Cotillard at Chicago's famed Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence Ave., the historic structure built in 1926 and still used as a concert venue.

Requiring hundreds of extras, all required to be fitted in vintage formal attire, casting call times were at 6 p.m. each night and the shooting didn't begin until 10 p.m. and lasted all through the night until 7 a.m..

But, as a bonus, not only did the extras get to watch Depp do his thing in front of the cameras, but they also got to watch some free entertainment, well, at least in part.

Singer Elvis Costello's wife, torch singer Diane Krall, was featured on stage performing with a full orchestra.

Unfortunately, according to the extras I talked to, Krall was made to keep repeating the same short song verse over and over as the scene was re-lit, re-shot and re-created for multiple takes.

At least Krall is used to this drill when it comes to filming a movie.

She gave a similar stellar performance before the cameras in retro style in the same capacity for the 2004 big screen MGM feature film "De-Lovely," about the life of Indiana's own Cole Porter, starring Kevin Kline as Hoosier music man.

For that go-round, she sang "It Was Just One of Those Things" and "I Get a Kick Out of You."

Up next

Here are a couple of film firsts reported in Daily Variety.

Sony Pictures Entertainment captured the high bid from King Features and Hearst Newspaper Syndicate for the big screen rights to the comics page futuristic hero Flash Gordon.

In case this guy is a little before your time, he began as a popular comic strip created in 1934 by artist Alex Raymond and a favorite of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. As the story goes, Flash was a handsome polo player, kidnapped and taken to planet Mongo to battle an evil ruler named Ming the Merciless.

The unbelievable success of Paramount Studio's "Iron Man" now has all of the other studios scrambling for similar "lesser known" hero types to re-introduce to a new generation of movie-goers.

Last month, Nu Image/Millennium Films production companies banded together to snap up the rights to Buck Rogers, who, with helmet in tow, will being showing up onscreen at a movie theater near you very soon.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at ppotempa@nwitimes.com or 219.852.4327.

celebBirthdays

Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo is 76. Baseball great Billy Williams is 70. Bassist Lee Dorman of Iron Butterfly is 66. Singer Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply is 59. Singer Steve Walsh of Kansas is 57. Country singer Terri Gibbs and actor Jim Belushi are 54. Actress Julie Hagerty ("Airplane") is 53. Guitarist Brad Gillis of Night Ranger is 51. Drummer Scott Rockenfield of Queensryche and actress Helen Hunt are 45. Actress Courteney Cox ("Friends") and guitarist Tony Ardoin of River Road are 44. Guitarist Michael Britt of Lonestar and drummer Rob Mitchell (Sixpence None The Richer) are 42. Rapper-actor Ice Cube is 39. Actress Leah Remini ("King of Queens") is 38. Trombone player T-Bone Willy of Save Ferris is 36. Actor Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother," "Doogie Howser, M.D.") is 35. Singer Dryden Mitchell of Alien Ant Farm is 32.

Guitarist Billy Martin of Good Charlotte is 27.