For filming, Downtown to change from Golden to Gotham
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Holy detours! A diabolical plot to shut down the Steel City?
Nope.
Just another movie being filmed here in Hollywood on the Mon.
But this might be the city's biggest and most visible shoot ever, as Batman and his villainous rivals turn the Golden Triangle into their battleground next month.
From Aug. 10 to 21, streets will close, parking will be restricted and sidewalks will be blocked at various places throughout the Golden Triangle. Explosions and gunfire will erupt. High-speed chases will occur.
It will snow.
"It's going to be really cool," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.
A letter went out to Downtown property owners, residents and merchants this month foretelling some of the mayhem.
"Our scenes include daytime exterior dialogue with precision driving and special effects. Our special effects include but are not limited to gunfire, sparks, squib hits, smoke, debris, air mortars and controlled pyrotechnic blasts," the movie's location managers wrote, in five pages of details about various street closures and other restrictions.
When the filming begins on Aug. 10 on Oliver Avenue, there won't be any pyrotechnics, they said, but "we will be covering Oliver Ave. and Smithfield St. with snow."
The set moves to Cherry Way on Aug. 12; Smithfield Street on Aug. 13 and 14; Smithfield, Third Avenue, Wood Street and Fourth Avenue on Aug. 17 and 18; and Strawberry Way, Seventh Avenue and William Penn Place on Aug. 20. The last traffic restriction is scheduled to be lifted at 10 p.m. Aug. 21.
All of it will be hard to miss, and getting around will be a chore unless you have access to the Batcopter.
Parts of Forbes, Oliver, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues, Smithfield and Wood streets, William Penn Place and Cherry and Strawberry ways will be closed at various times. On-street parking will be restricted, as will access to some garages. Police will have to stop traffic for brief periods.
First Published July 20, 2011 12:00 am
