Brad Pitt Brings Hollywood to Matagorda County, Texas
The Bay City Tribune, the local newspaper for Matagorda County, Texas, has an article up about the excitement in the area over having Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in town to film Tree of Life.
It seems that the security is pretty tight around the filming location though, to keep things under wraps and under control.
Some of the brightest stars of modern-day Hollywood are shining in Matagorda County, and have been since filming of the major motion picture, “Tree of Life,” began on Monday, March 24.
Those looking for a star-sighting, however, are not welcome and will be blocked from gaining access to the film set.
That might explain why we haven’t had any on set photos like we usually do. We got to see photos of Angelina Jolie and the kids visiting Brad Pitt on the set when he was filming Burn After Reading and we saw some candid shots of Angie on the set when she was doing Wanted, but if they’ve closed off access to the set this time, it will be pretty difficult unless someone manages to be in the right place at the right time when the Jolie-Pitt family is out and about again.
The article also states that no one has officially stated that Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are two of the stars filming, they didn’t disguise the name of the movie (sometimes film crews will use fake titles on the signs to avoid pandemonium; I know they had to do that for the Harry Potter movies), so it was easy for locals to find out who was in town.
However, although fans can’t rush the set, those who were chosen to be extras got to film scenes with the two actors:
“There was certainly some chit chat going on between our guys and the actors.”
Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald discussed a personal encounter with one of the actors, though he didn’t name names, so there’s no way to know if it was Brad or Sean.
McDonald said that he was able to visit with one of the actors over dinner at an area restaurant and was even glad to offer a little Texas hospitality by providing directions and leading one of them to their temporary residence.
You can read the full article over here.
There is also an article describing a bit about the casting call for locals to be extras in the film.
(Thank you to reader Jeannie for sending the info my way!)
Technorati Tags: brad pitt, sean penn, tree of life, brad pitt filming, matagorda county
8 opinions for Brad Pitt Brings Hollywood to Matagorda County, Texas
Media Districts Entertainment Blog » Brad Pitt Brings Hollywood to Matagorda County, Texas
Mar 28, 2008 at 8:56 am
[…] Pittwatch.com: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Gossip placed an observative post today on Brad Pitt Brings Hollywood to Matagorda County, TexasHere’s a quick excerpt […]
Brangelina Groupie
Mar 28, 2008 at 9:07 am
I called my sister in law and asked if we had any movie stars in the family. The studio called my husband’s brother, who has a big wrecker service in Bay City, to take his wrecker and sit for 24 hrs in the Matagorda area. He did not see anyone. The Bay City paper was saying that Brad and Angelina was spotted but the guy from The Victoria Advocate drove down and saw no one. I wished they would have called me. I would have driven the 70 miles to try and get a part. Any way that was Monday thru Wednesday and it’s all over now. the trail drive for the cattle is a annual thing they do twice a year and is not part of the movie. This is big stuff for Matagorda or Bay City considering they are such small towns. I know someone who has a weekend place in matagorda, I will try and get a hold of them and see if they were privey to the action.
Jessica Wooten
Mar 29, 2008 at 9:42 am
I was one of the extra’s in the movie. Just wanted to see some of the pictures.
J
Mar 31, 2008 at 10:31 am
Unofficial cop talk says they didn’t like the Best Western so they rented the condos in Matagorda last Monday -Wednesday with cops at the doors. Now they are headed back to Smithville according to general small town gossip. I heard Brad was very friendly and talked to the cops that were on patrol but Sean Penn wasn’t very friendly. I’ll keep you posted if I hear of their return to Matagorda County.
Sherry
Mar 31, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks J!
I don’t know how true it is, but that’s not the first time I’ve heard that about Sean Penn. He’s a fantastic actor but seems like he’s not too keen on being in the public eye. I’ll bet that he and Brad are going to make a great team in this film though!
If the story about moving from the hotel to condos is true, that makes sense; a condo would provide a lot more privacy for such a high profile family than a hotel would.
m
Apr 2, 2008 at 9:13 am
The Best Western was never an option. Too far from the set.
Jon
Apr 5, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I found the following article on the net:
It would be weird to start a post with “Brad Pitt” except we saw him today (Saturday, March 28, 2008) at the Texas State Capital!
My cohort had a field trip today to Austin, to visit the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (in the AM) and the Director of Research for the Speaker of the House (in the PM). In between we had lunch at a great place near the Capital called “Serranos.”
Anyway, when our van got to the capital we walked over and while we were trying to figure out how to get in, some guy with a walkie talkie asked us to walk away a bit, about 20 feet from the entrance. We weren’t sure what was going on, but soon a couple people and some sheriff’s deputies were walking into the building. Katie T. said she thought one of them looked like a movie star, but I poo-pooed her. Well, I was wrong. We found out immediately after that, that it was Brad Pitt.
Brad (as I call him, though I don’t know him…) is in Austin right now filming a movie called, “Tree of Life” and apparently part of it takes place at the state capital. When we got inside we got to stand around (because we had to - they wouldn’t let us walk through until they were done with their shots, but overall the crew was polite) and watch them shoot the scenes which mostly looked like Brad walking - we couldn’t see them filming any dialogue.
It will be interesting to see what those shots look like when the film comes out.
Later we got into our meeting and Al asked me to round up the girls (who were using the rest room) and Carrie and I got stuck as they were filming in the hallway right outside our meeting. That was fun because we got to see him even closer. But alas, no photos (well, we are working on one, but it remains to be seen if we can get it to look good) and no interactions other than watching. Interesting, though! What a fun day!
http://tiffslifeinwaco.blogspot.com/
hii
May 5, 2008 at 9:00 pm
my family has a beach house in matagorda and it was rented out by somebody on the set brad also had rented a house somewhere on the street
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