Public Enemies to be Filmed in Columbus, Wi

The rumors of a movie being filmed in Madison and other Wisconsin areas are true. And yes, Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are going to be in it, along with other actors such as Channing Tatum (Step Up, Step Up 2) and Marion Cotillard (Big Fish, A Good Year). This movie is called Public Enemies, a film following the life and famous bank robberies of John Dillinger, a notorious gangster from the 1930s. Depp will be playing Dillinger and Bale will play Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent trying to catch “public enemies” such as Dillinger and his accomplices, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Cotillard is the sometimes-girlfriend of Dillinger, Billie Frechette.

To give you a little background on Dillinger, he actually learned how to rob banks while he was in jail. Dillinger often used his natural charm and charisma while robbing banks. He would pose as a salesman selling security systems for banks to see how well the banks’ actually security systems were and then robbed them after assessing them. Dillinger was also famous for being a gentleman-he often held the doors of banks open for women politely before robbing the bank.

Universal Studios is using Columbus for the historical bank downtown, which is now the building for the West James Gallery, which features art from local area artists. The film will show Depp leaving the building after “robbing” it. Madison is also going to be used in the film.

When asked about her reaction to the film, Nancy Osterhaus, Mayor of Columbus and owner of the Columbus Carriage House Bed and Breakfast, enthusiastically replied, “I’m really excited! It’s a huge economic impact for our city. The people are here and there’s a crew right now constructing the town, 7 days a week, 14 hours a day. They’re buying coffee at the coffee shop, buying gas at the gas stations, and lumber at the lumber mill. They’re just spending money here in Columbus, which is awesome.”

Osterhaus was first approached about the movie tentatively being filmed in Columbus between the second and third weeks of January. In the beginning, location scouts were only in Columbus to check out the historical bank in downtown Columbus, but when Michael Mann, the director of the film, came into Columbus the decision was made. “He loved the downtown right away,” Osterhaus noted.

So, why Wisconsin? “They scouted the whole Midwest, so they scouted Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. They had a lot of cities they were looking at initially and then they kind of kept condensing it down and we ended up being one of the ones they stayed with,” Osterhaus said. “We could have been dropped anytime,” she concedes.

The main reason the Midwest was scouted rather than any other area in the United States was because a lot of the movie is filmed in Chicago. “There’s some filming in Madison, and I think they’re going to use the capitol for D.C. They’re doing the Roger’s Hotel in Beaver Dam, and they’ve been looking at the air field in Oshkosh. They’re using Little Bohemia, which is still the same as it was in the 1930s,” according to Osterhaus. Little Bohemia is the former hideout of Dillinger.

“They’ve committed to spending 2 million dollars in Wisconsin filming this movie. They had casting calls for extras about 3 weeks ago in Madison and they had about 1000 people come and they’ve chosen about 100,” Osterhaus informed.

What happens to Columbus when the filming starts? Roads closed to out of town traffic on March 10th, but people can still go downtown and shop around the construction. However, on Friday, the 14th, roads will be completely closed-there will be fake cobblestone being laid down on the roads.

Finally, the question everyone wants the answer to: Where are the actors staying, and better yet, can we meet any of them? “Universal has a contract with specific hotels and most of the actors are staying in Madison,” Osterhaus said. When asked if anyone associated with the movie is staying in her Bed and Breakfast, Osterhaus laughs, “I’m not saying anything!”

Public Enemies is set to come out sometime in 2009; look for it in theaters near you and take pride in one of our small Wisconsin towns being featured in a Johnny Depp film.

If you want to know more information on the movie, call the West James Gallery at (920) 623-9096.