An Encounter with Kerouac and a Bevvy of Classic Cars

While shuttling our Junior Executive to preschool today, Telstar Logistics encountered a motion picture shoot taking place in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. Turns out, I'd stumbled onto the set of "On the Road," a new motion picture adaptation of the classic novel by Jack Kerouac.

Kirsten Dunst is in the film, and she may have been hanging out nearby, but we wouldn't have noticed -- we were too transfixed by the visual time-warp, thanks to the fantastic inventory of period-perfect cars on hand to create a scene set in 1949.

Says the San Francisco Examiner:

The production is shooting this week at 23rd and Carolina streets, the Bay Bridge, and Filbert and Leavenworth streets. Filming wraps up Friday.

Even though Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” is rich with San Francisco scenes, most of the film was actually shot in Canada, where many productions opt to film to the detriment of San Francisco’s film industry. In recent years, The City has attempted to try and revive the industry with incentives.

But just the few days of shooting is seen as a positive. And a driving-away scene being shot this week in San Francisco is said to likely end up as the final scene in the film, which is set for release in 2011.

Lots more photos, here:

Photos: Telstar Logistics

Comments

[Njudah]

it's unfortunate that they chose to film in Canada but not surprising. Why? even with the dollar not as strong as it used to be, if you film in Canada costs are lower because....you don't have to pay for health care for the cast - they have national health care (with all its pluses and minuses).

The first "Tales of the City" movie was filmed almost exclusively in SF, except for the interiors and the set of 28 Barbary lane, which was on a soundstage in LA. Subsquent ones made by Showtime, however, were filmed in Montreal.

Still, any time we can get some cool old cars out there on the road is fine with me!