Following on the wheels of the Cadillac commercial that filmed here for the Chinese market a few weeks ago, was a Chinese crew over the Thanksgiving weekend that shot opening scenes for a feature vignette that winds along the 2,450 mile Chicago-LA Historic Route 66.
The movie, “Nothing like Romance,” produced by China’s AMG Exodus, consists of four romantic vignettes, each one helmed by a different director. The US vignette was directed by Meng Zhang, who flew in with a crew of an estimated 30-35, says Bennett Grossman, general manager of Product Productions which rented equipment for the three week shoot.
The story, set in the late ‘60s, is about a Chinese couple who meet here, fall in love, get married, and head out to Los Angeles along Route 66 in their classic late ‘60s Buick LeSabre convertible, presumably with the top down.
The female star, Guan Yue, was the winner of “The Chinese Voice,” their version of NBC’s “The Voice.” She and the male co-star will be joined in LA for filming scenes with Caucasian actors playing immigration officers and doctors.
“Nothing like Romance” shot Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday and Saturday on Michigan Avenue, the Wabash Avenue bridge and the LaSalle Street Church at LaSalle near Division, where the couple marries.
It was the production company’s search for a process trailer that connected the Chinese and American filmmakers. “Their Chinese coordinator was a Columbia College student who found us on the internet,” Grossman explains. “About a week later the producer phoned us from China and we were hired to join them on the road.”
The crew started their southwest trek along the Main Street of America early Sunday morning, stopping to shoot at a small Downstate town along Route 66.
Key grip Randy Maldonado is driving the grip//lighting truck while Phil Contursi, Product Productions founder, drives the camera car/rig. They will be getting their kicks on Route 66 until they arrive in LA around Dec. 12 and wrap a few days later.
The cameras provided by Daufenbach Camera, incidentally, were Red Dragons.
