Found by Emma at the  Post Tribune
Movie-set stagers scout region for Dillinger film

March 5, 2008
By DIANE KRIEGER SPIVAK Post-Tribune staff writer
 

CROWN POINT -- Do you happen to have a vintage machine gun case lying around the house?

How about a 70-year-old boot knife?

Universal Studios is looking for props for the upcoming Johnny Depp movie, "Public Enemies," about notorious outlaw John Dillinger.

Actually, the studio is looking for photographs of 1930s items with the intention of reproducing the props. Those they can't reproduce they'll buy, lease or borrow, said Rita Ritz of Rita Ritz Enterprizes Inc.

Ritz, of Chesterton, is handling the acquisition of props for a portion of the movie that's being filmed in Crown Point this spring.

Ritz said Universal Studios contacted her about six weeks ago because of research she had done on Dillinger in the past.

She's now the clearing house for a list of props that will be used, or reproduced, for the movie.

Bruce Woods, director of the Lake County Historical Museum, said Universal also contacted him about six weeks ago, and a representative came to the museum and took photos of Dillinger-related items.

"We have a lot of that," Woods said. "He was doing research for the movie."

So far, there are few indications of what's to come. Workers are restoring a portion of the old Lake County Jail from which Dillinger escaped.

"I saw a couple of guys standing across the street a few days ago holding up their hands like this," said Susan Vydra, owner of Antique & Unique Treasures, holding her hands up in front of her face, forming a frame like artists do.

"A lot of people are excited about it," Nancy Levine, an employee of the Antique Mall of Crown Point, said. "The restaurants and shop owners are hoping it brings people to Crown Point to shop. And of course, they're coming to see Johnny Depp," she said.

"I love Johnny Depp," said Mary Lou White of St. John, who stopped to talk about the movie with an employee of the Candy Cove in the Old Lake County Courthouse.

"I thought they were filming at the courthouse," White said. "I didn't know where the old jail was. I'm going to try to keep up with everything. Everybody's excited about it."

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From  WIFR
Actor Depp To Drive Dillinger's Car    Save  Email  Print
Posted: 9:04 PM Mar 4, 2008

Actor Johnny Depp will be making a getaway to Wisconsin in a famous historic car from right here in the stateline. Depp will get behind the wheel of a 1932 Studebaker Commander, later this year in the filming of a movie about gangster John Dillinger. The movie is called "Public Enemies." It is to be shot on location in the Badger State and the car is part of the collection at the historic auto attractions....

"It will be used in the same context in the film as it was in real life which makes it really unique," said museum curator Eric Hoffman.

At that time it was the biggest bank heist ever....about $75 thousand was taken. Not long after that robbery, Dillinger was gunned down by police outside of the Biograph Theater in Chiacgo after being fingered by the infamous "lady in red."

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From The Chicago Sun Times
Most wanted

March 4, 2008
BY STELLA FOSTER Sun-Times Columnist

THE DEPP MAN: SEXY ACTOR Johnny Depp, who is in town to film director Michael Mann's movie "Public Enemies," in which he plays the infamous gangsta' John Dillinger, has been busy getting to know the happening spots in our great town and where to find great Italian food. Depp, who has always made the ladies swoon and was Oscar-nominated for his starring role in "Sweeney Todd," dined at the tasty LaScarola on Grand Saturday with Mann. (Actual filming might start around March 17.)

Depp and Mann, who is a masterful director and known for such films as "Miami Vice," "Ali," "Collateral," and "Heat," were in with a few other actors and dined hearty on pasta, veal chops and steak. I understand from one of the customers, who enjoyed just looking at the gorgeous Depp, that he was very congenial ... but folks were respectful and didn't bother him for autographs. How nice.

Also, around midnight Friday, Depp, wearing his trademark hat, enjoyed hearing Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Kurt Elling at the Green Mill. And once again, patrons allowed Depp to just enjoy the ambience and the music.

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From  JSOnline
Great faces sought for Depp film
Auditions are Friday for extras; no lines to learn
By DUANE DUDEK
Journal Sentinel film critic
Posted: March 3, 2008

The Johnny Depp film "Public Enemies" is looking for a few good extras.

Auditions for nonspeaking roles in the film will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Italian Conference Center, 631 E. Chicago St.

"Public Enemies," which is set in the 1930s, with Depp playing John Dillinger, will begin shooting in Wisconsin in mid-March.

Auditions were held in Madison last month.

The requirements for Friday's audition are specific.

First, the casting directors are looking for "people with great faces."

Men should no taller than 6 feet 1 inch tall, and women no taller than 5 feet 8 inches tall and no larger than a size 12.

Men should wear a dark suit, overcoat and dress shoes. Hair should be kept long. Women should wear a dark dress or skirt and sweater, overcoat and medium heel. Women are advised to set their hair in curlers the night before and come to the audition with their hair brushed out.

Also, you need to bring a recent color photograph of yourself.

For more details, go to the Web site of the casting agency, Joan Philo Casting, www.joanphilocasting.com, and click on the "Public Enemies" icon on the left.

The casting agency's Web site says the movie's crew will be shooting in Chicago and in "various towns" in Wisconsin. So far, the only Milwaukee-area shooting location that has been announced has been the Milwaukee County Historical Society, 910 N. Old World 3rd St.

Based on Bryan Burrough's book about the FBI's pursuit of crime figures such as Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pretty Boy Floyd, "Public Enemies" is being directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker and University of Wisconsin-Madison alum Michael Mann. Also in the cast are Christian Bale, whose Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" opens this summer; and Marion Cotillard, who won an Academy Award last month for best actress for her performance in "La Vie en Rose."

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From   These Boots Are Made For Stalking
(photo appears to be photo-shopped)

Chi-Town Johnny Depp Sightings

Johnny Depp is in the Windy City and seems to be enjoying some of our finest restaurants. Depp dined at Gibsons on Sunday night in a private room upstairs. “He had a great time,” a source told The Boots Girls.

Depp also dined at Chicago’s famed Italian restaurant La Scarola over the weekend. Yum!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

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From the  South Bend Tribune
Lake County set for Depp visit in Dillinger's role

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Johnny Depp will be in town this spring to recreate gangster John Dillinger's infamous 1934 escape from Lake County Jail for his upcoming film "Public Enemies."

Depp will play Dillinger, and the scene will be shot at the Old Sheriff's House and Jail. No specific dates have been released, but filming will take place from March through June in Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Dillinger, an Indiana native, escaped the heavily guarded northwestern Indiana jail March 3, 1934, while he awaited trial on charges that he killed Officer William Patrick O'Malley during an East Chicago bank robbery.

He then drove away in Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford. A few months later, federal agents fatally shot him outside a Chicago theater.

Work crews started preparing the red-brick jail for its movie close-up last Monday.

"I wish we could say (the restoration) will be complete, but it'll be mostly the entry and upstairs," location scout George Constas said.

The jail's neighbor, the Hall of Justice Bar and Ballroom, will host up to 200 actors, crew members and technicians.

"Hollywood's coming to Crown Point," co-owner Philip Struebig said. "It's going to be a heck of a thing for Crown Point. It will put us back on the map."

Depp is probably best known for starring roles in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, "Finding Neverland" and "Edward Scissorhands."

His co-star in "Public Enemies" will be this year's Oscar-winner for best actress, Marion Cotillard, who is playing Dillinger's moll.

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From Hollywood Today
Hollywood Today
Victims Furious as Oscar Winner said 9/11 Faked, New Depp Movie Targeted
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

First Responder calls comments by Marion Cotillard calling 9/11 a US fake “ignorant and despicable” and would support picketing of her upcoming movie with Johnny Depp

By Jeffrey Jolson

marion-cotillard.jpg

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/2/08 — Oscar 2008 Best Actress Marion Cotillard, set to co-star with Johnny Depp in a film shooting in Chicago next week, is making headlines not with that movie “Public Enemies,” but by becoming one in America with her comments that the United States fabricated the 9/11 attacks for financial and political reasons.

“This could be a powder keg issue for thousands of firefighters and the families of victims who may picket her next film with my full support,” said 9/11 first responder/fireman Mike Lennon who later made a documentary on the events surrounding the horrific disaster. “Having human remains in my hands on a dozen occasions makes her ignorant statements despicable.”

Cottilard, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress last Sunday for playing singer Edith Piaf in “Le Vie en Rose”is in the news for comments she made a year ago to French TV that have surfaced with a vengeance. She contends the U.S. destroyed the World Trade Center buildings and killed its 5,000 occupants because the towers needed costly rebuilding.

Speaking to French TV, she questions if everything about 9/11 was a fake. “It was a money-sucker because they were finished, it seems to me, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them.”

It gets more bizarre: “I think we’re lied to about a number of things,” said the 32-year-old actress. “We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes. Are they burned? They [sic] was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burnt for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.”

She is set to play Depp’s girlfriend in the major US studio shoot starting next Monday, which brings up the question of should Universal Pictures stick with a contracted co-star that may draw picketing by 9/11 victim’s families to its premiere and showings everywhere?

That is suddenly a very real prospect, and not one Uni is likely to bet $100 million dollar-plus on. Depp, who gets $20 million per film, plays 30s gangster John Dillinger in “Public Enemies,” and Cotillard is scheduled to play his belle Billie Frechette.

“She has a fundamental right to come over here and film a movie, but for her to say 9/11 was a government conspiracy, you have to ask, why does she want to come here and shoot a movie?” said Lennon, who made a firefighter perspective doc called “Brothers on Holy Ground.” There will be backlash and she will suffer the consequences of what she said.”

Apparently feeling she had not sufficiently torpedoed her budding career as a Hollywood leading lady, she went on to explain in the interview that the moon landings in 1969 were another US hoax. She said: “Did a man really walk on the Moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don’t believe all they tell me, that’s for sure.”

Expect her to do some emergency back-pedaling this week. Cotillard, who is very popular in France and born and raised in Paris, made the comments on TV show Paris Première - Paris Dernière, in a program broadcast a year ago.