From MTV’s Rupert Grint’s Butt Takes Center Stage In Exclusive ‘CBGB’ Clip:

Essentially, “CBGB” was a place with great music where just about anything could happen. Take this exclusive clip for example. In it, Cheetah Chrome is speaking with Genya Ravan (Stana Katic) at the bar. She comments on his red locks and asks if they are the genuine article or just a dye job.

Cheetah Chrome insists that his hair is, in fact, the real deal, but there’s only one way to really convince her. That’s when he drops trou, and we see a whole lot of Rupert Grint. Not exactly what you expected to see from the former Ron Weasley, huh?

CBGB shot most of its scenes last summer in Savannah — the club’s actual interior was reconstructed at Meddin Studios and many of the exterior shots were done along Congress Street.

I published a lot of images from those outdoor shoots (see here and here), but I’ll be going through some of those pics again soon. I have a fair number that have never been posted and some that could likely use re-editing.

Here’s one that I reposted just recently, with Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, and Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz — The Dead Boys.

Anyway, here’s the clip that MTV has posted:

I’ve written a lot about CBGB over the past year, most recently about the soon-to-be-released soundtrack. You can see some of my photos from the set at that link as well.

Before the movie’s premiere at the CBGB Festival in October, I’ll repost my best shots of the filming, as well as some photos that I’ve never before published.

The USA Today piece seems to have come out at a bit of an odd time — two months out seems just long enough that it will be hard to sustain whatever anticipation the article creates.

Anyway, from that piece:

The film focuses on the early days, when owner and operator Hilly Kristal gave a stage to a mix of new and veteran underground performers such as Iggy Pop, Blondie, The Ramones, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, The Police and Talking Heads.

“It was this iconic place, and it has this kind of history,” says writer/director Randall Miller, who worked on the film with his writer/producer wife, Jody Savin. “But people don’t know how it all began. And that’s what we wanted to tell, the origin of all of this.”

Kristal (Alan Rickman), a classically trained musician and jazz club manager, had planned to open a forum for country, bluegrass and blues performers, hence the CBGB initials on the now-famous logo.

“But that’s not what came to him in New York’s Bowery in the 1970s,” Savin says. “But he understood music enough to know that maybe these young folks didn’t have musicianship, but a voice and something new. And the notion of giving them a stage was heroic.”

UPDATE: Here’s the new trailer. Thoughts?:

And here’s a fresh edit of one of the shots I took on set, with The Dead Boys — Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, and Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz. I haven’t posted one of this size before — click for a larger image.

A friend who attended wasn’t even quite sure who was behind the event, but at least one key player from Meddin Studios, where much of the film was shot, was prominently greeting guests.

“I really liked it,” reported a friend who saw the film, while also acknowledging that it’s possible he/she was being overly generous since he/she had been one of the select few who got invited to the screening. This friend was impressed by the work of Alan Rickman, but said no when I asked if, as CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, the character was “interesting and compelling.”

Some of us had been concerned that the plot would focus too much on Hilly’s daughter Lisa, played in the film by Ashley Greene, but my friend said that the family dynamics did not get in the way of the main story about the founding and early years of the iconic club. My friend was impressed with the music and all the songs that the filmmakers secured rights, as well as with the performances of some of the big names attached to the project, including Rupert Grint as The Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome and Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop.

My source in attendance did note the stark difference every time the shooting location shifted from Savannah to New York City. Now, this is someone who knows Savannah really well, and it’s common knowledge that the filmmakers did not make extreme changes to the streetscapes that were used. I will likely have the same problem when I see the film. Will an unbiased viewer buy into the illusion, even if just for two hours, that the action is really taking place in NYC decades ago?

CBGB has a really active Facebook page these days, filled with photos and interesting updates, including this pic (presented here through the ethically dubious process of the WordPress embed plugin, if it’s working today):

There’s also this funny clip with Justin Bartha on Conan talking about his full body waxing.

Of course, I’ve done zillions of posts here at Savannah Unplugged about the film.

I also posted a fair number of pics from the outdoor sets last summer. I have more shots, actually, that I’m holding off on until nearer the theatrical release date, which is yet to be determined.

Click here for CBGB on IMDB.

UPDATE: There has been some suggestion that a key reason for the screening was to court potential investors in the Gregg Allman biopic that the filmmakers are planning.

Here’s one of the galleries of photos from the CBGB set that I posted last year:

I had a good time talking to this guy.

Relics from New York City’s bygone CBGB club – including “Smithsonian-quality pieces” like its bar, the phone booth, chunks of the walls and those stained toilets, all pulled from storage – will reunite on the big screen next year in CBGB, which indie filmmakers confirmed they finished shooting in August.

Forty years after CBGB opened its doors on the city’s Lower East Side, writer Jody Savin and director Randall Miller of Unclaimed Freight Productions tell Rolling Stone they are now editing the 100-minute feature. It tells the story of how the late Hilly Kristal [Alan Rickman] offered his club’s cramped stage to bands playing original songs, which attracted groups like the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group and Talking Heads. In 1974 Television became the first act to play CBGB, and gigged there every Sunday for years before recording their album Marquee Moon. The club closed in 2006.

Much of the film was shot in Savannah this past summer, as most people reading this already know. The Rolling Stone piece contains a number of details likely to be of interest to those who have followed the project.

But will the film feature the soundtrack that it really should? That’s a question that has been nagging those of us who hope CBGB is both a critical and commercial success.

From Rolling Stone:

Produced for less than $10 million, CBGB will feature more than 40 songs of the period, though Savin admits “the music decisions are not done yet,” because “some bands are more cooperative than others.”

40 songs = good
uncertainty about which songs = bad

The Dead Boys (l-r): Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz

The piece notes that the filmmakers have been consulting with both Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, so one could reasonably expect that Television songs might be in the final cut. Ditto for The Dead Boys, since Cheetah Chrome (played in the film by Rupert Grint) even had a brief role as a cab driver picking up Hilly Kristal’s mom (Estella Parsons). I’m betting songs by The Shirts will be available too — the film is a great chance to boost sales and visibility for some bands that have largely faded from public consciousness.

Given Patti Smith’s reaction to the film, I don’t expect to hear any of her music, but what about the Ramones? What about Talking Heads? What about Blondie?

Click here for a previous post with 16 photos from the CBGB set.

Click here to scroll through all my posts about CBGB.

As I said before, I spent a good bit of an afternoon and evening this week watching the CBGB filming on Congress Street here in Savannah.

In this post, I have some additional shots of the scene in which The Dead Boys (Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, and Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz) storm out of CBGB into the street. Once they exist the shot, it continues with some sort of animated discussion between Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman) and Merv Ferguson (Donal Logue).

There are also a few shots — pretty distant ones — of Cheetah Chrome giving something to a bum on the street and interacting with a couple of nuns. I’m pretty sure that Cheetah flips the nuns off, but I didn’t catch that on film.

I also included a few shots here to give a broader sense of the set.

And, in a nice surprise, you’ll see pics below of the real Cheetah Chrome, Estelle Harris (George Costanza’s mother!), and Savannah native Stratton Leopold, a successful movie producer and owner of Leopold’s Ice Cream. Stratton is not working on this picture, but it was sure nice to see him out on the set. Apparently, Leopold’s is one of Mr. Rickman’s favorite spots in Savannah.

A simple request: please do not copy all of these photos for your own websites. If you’d like to post one, two, or even three of them with a link back to this post, that would be cool with me.

I’ll take another look at the pics I took Wednesday and might follow up with another post if any seem of interest. For the most part, they would just be redundant.

Other questions or requests for permission can be directed to me at billdawers[at]comcast.net.

That’s Alan Rickman and Donal Logue in the lower left, but I’m including this because of the ironies of the Paula Deen Store sign.

The bystanders in Ellis Square sure couldn’t see much during these takes, but people are fascinated by movies.

Between takes

A brief technical problem, quickly fixed

Savannah, Palace Hotel, CBGB, National Leather, Sapphire Grill, The Lady & Sons

Extras waiting for their scene

Savannah-based producer Stratton Leopold and Alan Rickman chat on set

I should have gotten a better shot of Cheetah Chrome, but that’s he standing up. He has a small part as a cab driver, if my information is correct.

Estelle Harris, who plays Hilly Kristal’s mother

Click here to scroll through all my posts about CBGB.

Click here for another post with a couple of dozen photos from the CBGB set.

I spent a good bit of Wednesday afternoon watching some of the exterior shoot for CBGB from a pretty fair distance away. I don’t have a great zoom lens and I don’t use it much either; so my apologies that these shots aren’t even better. Most have been edited more than I like to do.

The scene you’re seeing here appears to be one in which The Dead Boys (Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, and Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz) storm out of CBGB into the street. Once they exist the shot, it continues with some sort of animated discussion between Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman) and Mad Mountain Merv Ferguson (Donal Logue Ryan Hurst Donal Logue). [I am obviously having trouble telling which character and actor this is. Mr. Logue and and Mr. Hurst have very similar beards and hair in pics of I’ve seen. My apologies to both if I’ve got it wrong again.]

A simple request: please do not copy all of these photos for your own websites. If you’d like to post one, two, or even three of them with a link back to this post, that would be cool with me.

I will post some additional pics soon. Other questions can be directed to me at billdawers[at]comcast.net.

I had a good time talking to this guy.

Click here for another couple dozen photos from the CBGB set.

Click here for all of my posts about CBGB.

ORIGINAL POST:

I hung out in downtown Savannah much of Wednesday evening near the CBGB set on Congress Street.

What a great time.

The highlight was definitely seeing the real Cheetah Chrome, who has a small role in the movie. Rather idiotically, when I spotted him from my barstool at The Jinx, I ran out onto the sidewalk and got his attention by saying, “Mr. Chrome!”

Really, who calls an icon of punk “Mr.”?

Anyway, he seemed very nice.

The security and other crew were doing a good job of shooing bystanders as far away as possible, but I did manage to get a few photos. I apologize in advance, however, for the lack of resolution. I really don’t have the right equipment to do photography at that distance, looking into the sunset.

I’ll post more tomorrow, but for now here’s one of Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys. He looks appropriately decadent in a dog collar. To the left is Justin Bartha as the ill-fated Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys. And I guess that’s Bronson Adams as Johnny Blitz on the right, but I’m not 100% certain.

The scene appeared to be one where the trio left CBGB in a rush of anger and stormed down the street.

Now there’s this commentary by Jenni Miller at Film.com: Will the CBGBâ€s Biopic Actually Work? A New Yorker Breaks It Down

The piece has the predictable angst about CBGB being filmed primarily in Savannah rather than in New York. That’s in keeping with a number of other articles, none of which seem fully in touch with the illusions of film . . .

But anyway, from the piece:

Kristalâ€s daughter Lisa Kristal Burgman is also one of the producers, and since sheâ€s also the controller of his estate, writers Miller and Savin will probably have a great insight into the time, as well as access to the people portrayed in the film.

On the other hand, building an indoor set in Savannah, GA, that uses the actual bar and toilets from the club will definitely not curry favor with people who actually used those toilets back in the day. Perhaps itâ€s not that important where the indoor set will be built — obviously, financial concerns play a big part in this — but it undercuts the attempts at authenticity that the movie seems to be reaching for. At least they could have shot it in Brooklyn or Queens.

Stiv Bators and Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys in live footage from CBGB in 1977.