Finally, Hollywood has titled a movie after a city in Iowa. The film Cedar Rapids premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival.
Though not too many people in Cedar Rapids are going to recognize many locations. The majority of the film Cedar Rapids was shot in tax-incentive friendly Michigan. And actually from the little I know about the film, the title Grand Rapids would have probably been more fitting. (And it is in Michigan.)
The movie Cedar Rapids is centered around an insurance convention and stars Ed Helms (The Office), John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Sigourney Weaver. It’s said to be in the ballpark of The Hangover so don’t look for heart warming stories about the flood of ’08. But one reviewer wrote, “It’s one of the most fun movies of Sundance.”
Phil Johnston wrote the Cedar Rapids script. I haven’t read any interviews yet on why he chose to set his story in Iowa. But his Cedar Rapids script was on the 2009 Black List (ranked 5th in a list of 97 scripts). If you’re not familiar with The Black List, it’s a good resource to show trends in the film industry as Hollywood insiders list their favorite unproduced screenplays of the year. Some of which eventually become movies. Cedar Rapids joins these films from the ’09 Black List which did become films: The Social Network, Buried, Due Date, The King’s Speech, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.
What’s somewhat depressing about The Black List is the majority of the well regarded scripts, the cream of the crop, don’t get produced. Nobody said this was an easy business. Perhaps that’s why The Angry Filmmaker keeps telling people—”Make your own damn film.” Good advice, especially if you live in Cedar Rapids—or Grand Rapids. Or wherever you live.
For the record, there are other Hollywood connections to Cedar Rapids. It’s the town where the older Rose lives in James Cameron’s Titanic. It’s where actor Ashton Kutcher (whose latest film has been at the top of the box office this past week) once swept the floor at the General Mills plant. Actors Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings) and Ron Livingston (Office Space) were born in Cedar Rapids.
[...] Finally, Hollywood has titled a movie after a town in Iowa. The film Cedar Rapids premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival. Though not too many people in Cedar Rapids are going to recognize many locations. The majority of the film Cedar Rapids was shot in tax-incentive friendly Michigan. And actually from the little I [...] Original Source… [...]
From a Sundance interview with director Miguel Arteta:
“Phil Johnston wrote the script. He was a weatherman in Des Moines, and then he was a field reporter, doing pieces about things happening in Iowa. And I think he fell in love with ‘Cedar Rapids,’ and he really stuck to his guns. It’s not the most marketable title in the world. But neither was ‘Fargo,’ right?”
Thanks Eric. I have found a couple interviews with Johnson and will do a post later on his journey from weatherman to screenwriter.