Friday, April 03, 2009

The Exorcist Stairs ruined it for everyone

If you’re a movie maker filming in DC and want a seedy looking backdrop but don’t want to make you studio-insured actors travel to a part of the city with a NE, SW or SE in its address, you could do worse than sending them to where K Street dead ends under the Whitehurst freeway. It’s dingy, there’s graffiti about and the road kind of peters out under Key Bridge and turns into the Capital Crescent Trail. If you throw some crate palates around and maybe a shopping cart or two you’ve got yourself a hobo’s paradise right there in lowest Georgetown.

I know that No Way Out was filmed there. As was an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs King, for all you old-timers. Several others, too, which I’ll have to look up. True Lies, maybe? The filming equipment for the stupid boat explosion was staged there since it’s also the parking lot for the Potomac Boat Club. It’s practically the Vasquez Rock formation of the East Coast.

And then there’s the trailer for State of Play. It looks like the whole movie was shot there.



Murder! Intrigue! Parking Garage! Looks like that poor girl got killed in a pretty scary part of DC. Except it’s ten feet from a rowing club that has a 3 year waiting list and requires a $50 deposit to apply. Also, you’re in Georgetown, during the day and Booeymongers is catering. (To save money, the movie makers even flipped the shot for the night scenes so you can’t tell there are million dollar townhouses just off frame.)



Clearly the message to visitors is don’t come to Washington unless you want to get executed is some alley-looking place. You know, we were once the murder capital of the world until we outsourced our killings to Baltimore and Richmond. All we need to reclaim the top spot is more dead tourists. Like you.

But this post isn’t about DC movie set locations.

The post is about this.



That’s obviously Reindeer Games on the right. But th eguy on the left is none other than the former voice of the Washington Redskins Frank Herzog. IMDB says he played a judge in one of those teen dancing movies and “Frank” in National Treasure 2: Watch Us Ruin Dan Brown’s Newest Book. It looks like he’s developing a nice little film career in the days since he was unjustly kicked out of the radio booth. For all those casting directors out there, Frank is especially effective as “generic person of authority.” Or in this case, “Larry Craig.”

Just saying. Dude looks like Larry Craig.

6 comments:

Ben G said...

Well, it turns out it is fairly seedy. I was beat up and robbed before midnight in December 2007, and there had been a string of similar attacks in the area in the weeks before and after.

Anonymous said...

FYI SW has the least crime of any quadrant in the city.

Anonymous said...

I think this season of 24 included it, when the FBI chick was running away from the Sangali teenager who was trying to shoot her -- the scene where she jumped off a boat near Maine Avenue, swam to shore, ran to the canal up by Chain Bridge, got a park ranger shot, and then ended up in this tunnel before smacking the bad guy with a shovel.

Then they shot him.

Anonymous said...

that is the gspot.

I have seen people screwing there.

I have smoked illicit substnces there. I've gotten drunk underage.

In my early days I tagged one of those walls.

that said. no, not that dangerous. it's a safe place to do dirty, dangerous, illegal things.

Anonymous said...

I totally rode my bike through there while they were filming.

Fletch said...

Growing up, that bridge saw a lot activity that in rural high schools takes place in fields or on MTV specials.

Also, SW has the lowest levels of crime because it only has 1/10th of the population.