Bat crazy
January 20, 2022, 4:10 pm , by Movie news
Richard Lutz walks around his city and stumbles into a landscape of the imagination
I look up and I’m greeted by a smiling cup of coffee. There’s something wrong with that cup of coffee. Something eerie.
Yes, it’s beaming out goodwill like there’s no tomorrow. But still, it’s a bit creepy. Maybe, I don’t know, a tad malevolent now that I think about it. A hint of nightmare. Something of the night.
And the brand- Sundollar? Nescafé, yes. Lavazza, yes. Maxwell House, yes. But Sundollar…with that perky emptyheaded grin pouring out from the city billboard? And by the way, what exactly does XTO mean anyway?
And wait a minute. There’s the police car:
A bit strange too, it’s American as a three dollar bill. But this is Glasgow….in Scotland…in Britain and then there’s this yellow cab with Gotham Taxis scrawled on the side:
It’s outside a liquor store. Not a British ‘off licence’ booze shop… but a dowdy frumpy liquor store. And down the road a Korean corner shop. And dotted along the road are weird looking fire hydrants too.
And on and on it goes overlooked by that chirpy coffee cup, that strange cartoon cup of coffee. I don’t feel I’m in my own town. I feel as if I’m travelling through a film set. And guess what? I am.
The streets near me have been transformed into a Hollywood location, you see, and that uneasy nighttime feel is because they’re filming for Batgirl, so you get that DC comics nocturnal edge to everything they’ve created.
Movie stars are around too. They’ve been seen in my local park, sitting on my park bench, at a Celtic football match and in a bar down the road doing selfies for the fans. And, get this, a train station has suddenly popped up overnight fully formed in the genteel environs of the city’s Botanic Gardens amid the roses, exotic trees and the glasshouses.
I walk through this Batgirl landscape and take a right and a left and then another right. There’s a bus, a nighttime bus run by Gotham City Transit. There’s a left hand drive Mustang, a gloomy comic book store (naturally, this is DC Comics territory) and the liquor store prices are in dollars and cents: in this new fangled Glasgow with American currency you can grab a 70cl bottle of Kilchoman whisky for $8.99…that’s £6.60 for an island-malt. Not bad prices in Batville.
It’s the geography of make believe…a landscape that doesn’t exist
So, my town is transformed, and walking round my city transformed is an odd experience.
Most of the shoot is nighttime-it’s part of the Dark Crusader franchise- so the daytime streets of Hollywood fiction are quiet. Movie nerds and amateur snappers cruise the altered neighbourhood as do random techies and security patrols on the tricked out streets to ensure the odd Mustang, squad car or expensive piece of film gear isn’t manhandled or suddenly borrowed.
My city right now belongs to Batgirl, Bruce Wayne, lighting directors and the villainous Penguin.
My town is a city of the night. It’s terrain that doesn’t exist except in a script. It’s the geography of the imagination. And it will be just that for the next two weeks as I walk through a landscape that will be all around me one minute and then evaporated, disappeared, gone the next.
*Photos by Janepix Inc
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Buzz Kristofferson, cameraman
I like the fact that Glasgow always stays open when they build these sets and let people walk around. It’s really unusual.
PG
🦇🦇🦇🦇
Val Sedburgh
Whoa that is weird! You’re not in Kansas anymore!
Lutz the younger
Almost as odd as a guy from Brooklyn taking up residence in Glasgow or Birmingham, or for that matter turning the corner in a wee coastal village and there’s the same Jewish guy AGAIN!
Lee Singer
I’ve missed all the Batman stuff- it’s too dark
Joel
Believe it or not this happens in Kingston New York a lot. A year ago our block had a sign welcoming us to a small town in middle America.
There was an elaborate set-up. We hear banging at 4 in the morning By 6 the place was transformed and by 8,. back to normal. Not as creepy as having it stay that way for a few days,
but extremely eerie
Jess harris
You convinced me to see the film just for the location
Al Gardner
Agree that Batman is too dark, both the films and comics
Council watch
This from the city council:
You will no doubt be aware that American Night Productions Ltd are currently filming across the City of Glasgow in 2022. This major film is entirely shot within Glasgow and is one of a number of film productions successfully attracted to the City in recent years.
As part of the process, American Night Productions Ltd have gained permission from National Highways to film within the disused railway tunnels between Kelvingrove Park and Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
To enable filming at these locations, the safety fencing has been removed at a number of sites within the Botanic Gardens. As a result of increased public and media interest in the activity surrounding the filming, and due to the removal of the safety fencing, the production company is installing temporary fencing and providing 24hr security. This will cover the construction of the sets and filming to ensure public safety.
The closure will be in place initially until 24th February for the set construction and primary filming dates, with the probability of further closures until mid-March. Diversion signage and notices will be installed as soon as possible, advising of what is taking place and how long the restrictions are scheduled to be in place.
In addition the agreement between the production company and Glasgow City Council includes a bond to cover any damage. No access points to the Botanic Gardens will be affected. Any memorial benches within the affected closure area will be moved into the public area.
Botanic Gardens management are in close contact with the production company and any alteration to the schedule will be relayed to Elected Members as soon as possible.
Vicky Gibbons
Happy Burns Night, so just go batshit crazy.
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