Well, my sons and I might not have been picked to be some of the 500 extras for the New Haven shoot - but everyone was part of Indy IV on Tuesday night!

The excitement was building, dozens of tractor trailer trucks bearing the name Paramount Pictures, New Haven, CT lined the streets of New Haven, signs and pamphlets from Genre Productions on every lamp post telling about an upcoming chase scene and do not leave bicycles unattended this Thursday, Friday and Saturday as they will be removed, carpenters and painters are working overtime, lamp posts and fire hydrants being repainted, shop windows taking a trip back in time, why? Because Indiana Jones is coming to New Haven!

But before that … it’s Indiana Jones Day in the Elm City and tons of fans, and city residents turned out to take part in the fun all compliments of the New Haven Cultural Events Committee and a little company called, Lucasfilm! For the kids there were face painters, sidewalk drawings, balloon animals, carousel rides, moon bounces, rock climbing walls, and more – all free! And for the adults, food and drink specials, music, entertainment, and contests from the “We Named the Dog, Indiana” (which we won – as that IS my dog’s name – for real) and everywhere you heard John Williams “Raiders” theme echoing all around. We were entertained by the bull-whipping, fire eating and aerial acrobatics of the Aerial Angels!

The local symphonies had a salute to John Williams and played music from the Indy trilogy – and it was capped by what else – a free outdoor showing of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. The crowd gathered applauded, after Mayor of New Haven, John DeStefano thanked everyone for coming to New Haven and then the movie started - as the credits appeared, (it was on the screen backwards – but fixed in seconds) and REALLY wild as Indiana Jones entered the screen, after whipping the gun from his turncoat guide. Indiana Jones was back in action once again and the crowd loved it! Across the streets at the offices at Genre Productions, the lights were on and the door open as staff members busily prepared for the upcoming shoot.

I met tons of fans including the fellow who was first in line at the casting call, who was also not picked, but we had a great time and promised to meet up on Thursday and watch the chase scene down College and Chapel Street!

The new “old” buildings and what really happened to Marcus Brody! I added new photos of the store fronts on MySpace (shots can also be seen here and local news reports here)

Adding to the Woolworths, news-stand, and men’s clothing store was now a pawn shop (that had a tenor sax in the window – maybe Indy sold his old music instrument to buy a new fedora – fans of the Young Indy Chronicles, may remember last time Harrison Ford played Indy in 1993 – he played one), a bridal/groom shop, a bakery, and more – but the best is Brody’s Barber Shop – is that a nod to the dearly missed friend, Marcus Brody (played by the late, great Denholm Elliot or Sheriff Brody from Jaws). It was nice to see it – maybe Marcus gave up the museum and started cutting hair!

I spoke with a fellow painting the lamp posts with grey wall paper paste – (it looks clean on film and washes away with plain water). He pointed out all the parking meters were down, and hydrants painted grey and black – the Yale doors were being finished before they are wrecked by a truck, too. More construction is going on all night with doors open to old buildings filled with carpenters and craftsman.

Filming on York Street tonight

We were excited to see a sign on a Yale building and a production assistants asking folks to be quiet – it was a film – but we were told it was a Leonardo DeCaprio film shooting and not Indy IV – but they did a chase scene last night according to my “inside” friends.

More to come. Check out the sites and scenes for the great night in New Haven on myspace.com/mitchellhallock and look for more reports this week as me and my kids go down and watch the action!

That’s all for now –