A few years ago, Jason Handelsman wrote: "The outskirts of Miami's Overtown hood are becoming a gentrified version of the Sunset Strip in LA." And now it's actually happened.
New Line Cinema is shooting the film adaptation of a hit Broadway musical called Rock Of Ages entirely in South Florida, and the producers have turned NE 14th Street at North Miami Avenue into a movie set centering around Eve, Bar, and the Vagabond. They built the Roxy Theatre, the Bam and Jazzari, the Sun Bee, a tattoo shop, a gas station, and a couple more locations out of the old warehouses that line the corridor.
Here are some more pics and production details about the motherfuckin' musical.
The film stars Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta Jones, Paul Giamatti, Mary J.
Blige, Bryan Cranston, Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, and Julianne Hough. And we're pretty sure most of them like to get fucked up and listen to music. So if you see them around, you already know.
The film is directed by Adam Shankman, who did the musical version of John Waters's cult favorite Hairspray.
The movie tells the story of a small-town girl and a city slicker who meet in Hollywood while pursuing dreams of fame and glory.
The crew has been shooting up in Broward, shutting down the Boulevard, and casting extras off the street, and in a cattle call at America's Backyard.
Supposedly filming in Downtown Miami starts in July and the producers will be shutting down the whole block for it.
We can only hope there will be plenty of sex and drugs in this movie.
If we get a chance to drink a tall can of Natural Ice with Catherine Zeta Jones and smoke some downtown brown, that would be cool too.
Hey, "The Movies," thanks for coming to the city. Our sunlight is better than LA's anyway. We heard you're spending more money on this production than anybody ever has in Miami. That's cool, we need that type of shit. See you in the streets.
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