Central School on the Big Screen

Sometimes I feel like living in Wilmette is like living on a movie set.  Its quaint lampposts, brick streets, and quintessential  'all American' homes seem to beg a movie crew to set up its cameras on somebody's front porch.  Maybe that's because Home Alone and Ferris Bueller's Day Off were both filmed in this area.  But today's email from the girls' principal solidified my first impression.

She writes,

Hi Parents,

I am sending this email separately from the usual Friday email with the Scoop.  

Central School has been selected as one of the sites for a Steven Soderbergh movie that is being filmed in November. The film, "Contagion," will feature Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, and Kate Winslet.  The movie is an action/drama/thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak. The filming at Central involves scenes where Matt Damon retrieves his son from school due to the outbreak, and the school is evacuated.  Although I do not have a movie rating as yet, I think it is safe to say that this movie will not receive a "G" rating.

The Village of Wilmette is also cooperating with Warner Brothers, and filming will also be occurring in other North Shore locations.  Most of the filming at Central will occur during Thanksgiving week when our students are not in school (November 23 and 24), with a brief session on the Monday we return from Thanksgiving break.  We do not anticipate disruption to our educational programming.

Because we are hosting the filming of a particular segment of the movie, Warner Brothers is inviting Central School students to work in the film as "extras".  To employ children under sixteen years of age, Illinois requires an employment certificate prior to employment as a first step for a minor to appear in a motion picture....

I am sending a second separate email to parents who would also like to serve as "extras" for the film.  If you want your child to participate, you may also want to apply for the chance to participate yourself.

 My favorite part of this email..."We do not anticipate disruption to our educational programming."  So efficiently and duly unimpressed.