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.

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.

The old CBGB is ready for its close-up, and The Local was on hand as a section of the bar, the phone booth, a urinal, pieces of wall and founder Hilly Kristalâ€s desk hit the road yesterday for Savannah, Georgia, where they will be used in the upcoming CBGB movie.

The assorted items still have hints of the glory days at 315 Bowery. The beat-up old desk has a list taped to it of phone numbers for old staffers at the club that closed in 2006. The toilets are still filthy and showed no signs of scrubbing (a latrine and a urinal from the womenâ€s room are shown in our slideshow). Most surfaces are covered in band stickers, and the cash register still has a cut-out image of Mr. Kristal alongside a photo of Shakira.

Check out the article for a great slideshow.

From Deadline Hollywood:

Justin Bartha has joined the cast of CBGB. The Hangover star will play Stiv Bators, lead singer of the Dead Boys. CBGB was the club in New Yorkâ€s Bowery district that saw the birth of punk with bands like the Dead Boys, the Ramones, Blondie, and Television. Bators died in 1990.

Bators’ Dead Boys-bandmate Cheetah Chrome will be played by Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame.

Bators died in 1990 on the night after he was struck by a car as he stood on a Paris sidewalk. Apparently, he sought medical attention but left the hospital after a long wait and with no apparent serious problems. His ashes were allegedly scattered on Jim Morrison’s grave.

I’ll repost this great video of the Dead Boys live at CBGB:

Click here for the Savannah Morning News’ latest coverage of yesterday’s casting for extras.

Click here for all my posts about CBGB.