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Sep24
Secretariat filming Monday and Tuesday at Keeneland; Malkovich joins cast
Filed under: Film, Opera, Secretariat; Tagged as: Diane Lane, Disney, John Malkovich, Keenelend, Leonard Lusky, Lucien Laurin, Penny Chenery, Secretariat, Secretariat.com9 Comments
For "Seabiscuit" filming Nov. 17, 2002, at Keeneland, extras wore Depression-era garb. "Secretariat" will have a 1970s vibe. Photo by Frank Anderson | Herald-Leader.
Secretariat will film Monday and Tuesday at Keenelend, and Central Kentuckians are invited to come out and party like it’s 1973 — minus any Derby Infield-like libations.
A flyer from Leonard Lusky of Secretariat.com touts “Disney’s ‘Secretariat’ 70′s Happening!” and invites all ages and types of people to come out in 1970s clothing (must find my old leisure suit). Sign in is at 8 a.m. Monday and Tuesday. Participants are directed to enter Keeneland at Gate 2 and follow “Chestnut” signs to park and “Win by a mile extras” signs to enter the facility.
The flyer also says to bring snacks and drinks, but no alcohol, and a good book, indicating the hurry up and wait nature of filmmaking that extras experienced when Seabiscuit filmed at Keeneland in 2002.
There is no word yet on what specific scenes will be filmed on Monday and Tuesday and whether film star Diane Lane, who plays Secretariat owner Penny Chenery, will be presented. We’ll keep you posted.
Also, don’t forget Secretariat filmmakers will be at the Bourbon County Secretariat Festival Saturday, and one horse from the festival’s Secretariat look-alike contest could end up in the movie.
UPDATE: John Malkovich has joined the cast as Secretariat’s trainer, Lucien Laurin.
Comments Closed
9 Responses to “Secretariat filming Monday and Tuesday at Keeneland; Malkovich joins cast”
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My friends that did ‘Seabiscuit’ say they’d never ever do it again. I’ll pass. And they don’t even provide anything? Wow — Disney is cheap!
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frank Wallis September 24th, 2009 at 9:39 am
It isn’t worth the time & effort, to be an extra.
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If they need more people, why don’t they film it on the weekend? Some people who’d like to come do work …
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Rick Wayman September 25th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I was an unpaid extra for Seabiscuit and enjoyed it. I even made it into the final cut (for a brief second of fame). Yes it was cold and yes you do hurry up and wait but I would definitely do it again. Not usre about some of the costume suggestions though. Most older men (like myself) would have been attired not much differently from today ina Sports Blazer and Hat (Straw fedora etc). Leisure suit, bell bottoms? Those that could afford to go dressed a little more conservatively.
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Rick, You make a good point. The 70′s Party theme may put people in a Woodstock-ish mindset (though yes, that was late 60s), but the ’70s at a racetrack may be more in how wide the ties and collars are — unless we’re talking infield at the Derby.
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The Louisville phase of filming is now over. Take your pick of phrases; three words: Chinese Fire Drill. Two words: Keystone Cops. From the extras point of view, it was a chaotic mish-mash of disorganization and adlib herding, run by youngish females who definitely & desperately needed bullhorns or megaphones to be heard. If you were lucky enough to make it into a scene that involved the director and/or principal actors, you were silenced into mute conformity by a red-stubbled lifeform appropriately nicknamed Mister Shussh. In addition to basic voice amplification, a touch of Old Hollywood — electric bells and buzzers on the set — would have accelerated the production process by light years.
But … it’s over now. What the finished product looks like … we’ll have to wait and see.
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Savannah Dan October 10th, 2009 at 9:50 am
You are right, Saul! It was hard to hear the herding instructions for the extras, so bullhorns would have been nice. Couldn’t afford those. Yet, they still brought in a catering company from Boston!
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Louie B October 12th, 2009 at 8:11 am
I was in Louisville, too. It was very disorganized. Couldn’t hear the girls. Whole scenes got scrapped. I guess they may be shortening the thing on the fly so they can make space for the commercials when it becomes a made-for-TV movie, LOL. The weather wasn’t exactly agreeable all the time but that’s not anyone’s fault.
For the record: Fast Track Productions received a very healthy, $800,000 “incentive” from the Kentucky Film Commission to shoot in Kentucky. So in a way, the production was “subsidized” by the already struggling Kentucky tax base. With that in the till, you would think they could have spent a little bit of money to make the production go smoother, even for the local yokels.
I looked at the awards roster for Seabiscuit, BTW: 7 Oscar nominations … 4 “other” award wins, and 32 other nominations. Maybe Secretariat will wind up being as lucky.
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Hat Trick Catering of Boston provided the cafeteria/institutional stomach fillers for the locals … and more “customized, lavish” fare for the cast and crew. They are “renowned” as being a “full service motion picture catering company” and they do have some fairly large budget films on their “we fed them” roster. They are also clever enough to have LLCs in nine or ten states [but Kentucky isn't one of them -- not according to their website, at least] so production companies can take advantage of state-offered tax incentives.
No one asked me, of course — but a Boston company getting an LLC is a pretty thin veil of financial camouflage. I wonder if any Louisville or Lexington catering companies were even given the chance to bid on this project.
Considering the fact that Kentucky coughed up $800K in tax incentives in order to attract this film company, you’d think they would have been required to do so.
But … probably not.
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