Let’s Go Gotham, Let’s Go!
Saturday October 19th marked the first day of filming for Zach Snyder’s next installment of the Superman franchise. As is widely known, the next film includes a match up with Batman. My son and I were in for a real treat when we were invited to an open shoot at East LA College that was transformed to Gotham City University for an all-American game of football.
Tickets were only $5 to see the East LA College Huskies take on Victor Valley at Weingart stadium. Included with the price of admission was a raffle ticket, a free shirt or hoodie (five or six different designs, one size fits all, we took what we were handed) and a halftime show that featured Zach Snyder directing booked background and extras.
After the first quarter of the real football game, a representative from Warner Brothers welcomed the crowd and explained how things would work. There were three scenes filmed. Two that included Gotham City University making favorable plays and one where Metropolis State University caught a hail Mary touchdown pass, much to the fans chagrin, causing the players to end up in a dog pile brawl. The crowd had a lot of fun getting into the fake game, we shouted all the standard sports chants including “WE WANT BEER!”
Gotham’s colors were black and gold as seen below while Metropolis sported gray and red jerseys with incredibly shiny silver helmets (men of steel for sure!).
Mr Snyder apparently selected East LA College as a way to contribute to an impoverished community. I think it helped the local football team as well to have an additional thousand or so fans cheering them on during the normal game. They were up 14 to 0 by half time. Kudos to the college on the concessions as well: cheeseburgers and bacon wrapped hot dogs only $3, sodas $1 a pop.
Here’s some exclusive footage I took while on location:
No, we unfortunately did not see Ben Affleck or Henry Cavill. Rumors ran rampant that Ben filmed a scene earlier in the locker room giving a pep talk to the GCU team, however reading more about the event online I find that unlikely. Principal filming is supposed to kick off in February 2014.
So why a football game? Was it a flashback scene? Was it about philanthropy or supporting alma maters? I guess we’ll have to wait until the movie’s finished or something leaks. But in the meantime, let the speculation begin in the comments!
