Monday, March 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
SHOOTING STARS: 'The O.C.' team prepares for local work
Fox's "The O.C." in L.V.? Bet on it.
To spell it out, Fox's hit drama about upscale Southern California teens hits Las Vegas for some road-trip action this week.
Cast members Benjamin McKenzie (who plays troubled teen Ryan Atwood), Adam Brody (alias Seth Cohen, whose wealthy family takes Ryan into their home) and Rachel Bilson (Summer Roberts, Seth's flirty flame) are expected to make the trek to Vegas, along with Peter Gallagher (who plays Seth's attorney father, Sandy).
The Hard Rock Hotel serves as the show's primary location, with the pool, a penthouse suite and The Joint to be featured. (Considering the fact that the show's central characters are supposed to be under 21, casino scenes seem a trifle dicey.)
A stroll down the Strip, near The Venetian, also is expected on "The O.C." itinerary.
The episode reportedly centers on the teens' adventures in Neon Nirvana, which inevitably get them into to trouble -- requiring father Sandy's presence to extricate the kids from same.
Wild Streak Talent needs 400 extras for background work during "The O.C.'s" visit; contact Wild Streak's Frankie Mason at 252-8382 for more information.
And aspiring extras needn't worry if they miss out on an "O.C." gig; Wild Streak also will cast hundreds of extras for the next "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" visit, scheduled April 5-8, and the monthlong "Miss Congeniality 2" shoot, which begins April 12.
An open call will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Wild Streak, 3355 W. Spring Mountain Road, Suite 264. (Bring two snapshots or Polaroid photos of yourself, plus a resumé -- if you have them.) And contact Wild Streak for alternate audition dates if you can't make the open calls, which will continue for the next few weekends, Mason says.
April promises to be a rip-roaring time for location work; in addition to the aforementioned productions, CBS' "Dr. Vegas" pilot and an episode of NBC's hit sitcom "Will & Grace" also are on the April horizon.
Back on the beat this week, Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," which returned to the Palms over the weekend, continues two-a-day tapings at noon and 6 p.m. today, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Free tickets to the tapings are available at the casino's Club Palms booth.
Dave Foley (currently featured on "Will &Grace") takes over from Kevin Pollak as host; poker champ Phil Gordon returns as co-host and commentator.
This season's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" features two separate no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournaments, with 25 players competing for a piece of a $250,000 prize pool -- for the charity of their choice.
Famous poker faces expected during the show's two-weekend run at the Palms include Hank Azaria, Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, Matthew Perry, Bobby Flay, Willie Garson, Jennie Garth, Star Jones, Richard Kind, Norm Macdonald, Camryn Manheim, Kathy Najimy, Dave Navarro and Tom Everett Scott.
Moving down the cable dial, Spike TV's weekly "The John Henson Project" visits Wednesday -- but not with John Henson. Instead, Matt Kennedy Gould will oversee "a field piece on doing Vegas in a day," explains location coordinator Jeff Wagar.
The segment, expected to air in April, will spotlight "deals around town" and various free diversions, from Bellagio's dancing fountains to Treasure Island's dancing pirate sirens.
Shifting from the small screen to the big, the independent feature "Wild Cards" continues a five-day shoot through Thursday.
Locations range from the Fremont Street Experience to the Nevada Palace and Lady Luck casinos, according to writer-director Michael Kinney.
Kinney describes "Wild Cards" as a noir thriller about a femme fatale (played by Camden Brady) who recruits a math whiz (Mac Herholz) to learn how to count cards in blackjack.
That scenario requires a full-fledged casino, and "it was either Atlantic City or Las Vegas," he explains. "But Atlantic City doesn't have the glitz of Las Vegas."
About halfway through production, "Wild Cards" has been shooting -- and will return for more shooting -- in Southern California.
"We're going for the glitzy side of Vegas -- and the really run-down side of L.A.," Kinney says.
"Wild Cards" already has a television deal in Europe and a North American home video release planned, but Kinney hopes to take the movie on the festival circuit as well.
A trio of reality TV shows also continue extended Southern Nevada shoots, from Discovery Channel's "American Casino" at Green Valley Ranch Station to the all-Vegas VTV satellite channel's "The Night Club," scheduled to wrap this weekend at OPM, above Chinois at the Forum Shops at Caesars.
And Fox's "Cops" keeps rolling with Metropolitan Police officers through mid-April.
Speaking of "Cops," officials from Langley Productions, which produces the show, visited the Riviera last week to scout locations for a spinoff, "Cops/Las Vegas Metro."
The new Vegas-set show reportedly will go beyond the original's on-patrol format to follow the entire law-enforcement process.
Rounding out a busy week: a fashion shoot for the German weekly magazine Gala, with locations from Bonnie Springs to Bellagio. The MGM Grand, Luxor, The Mirage, the Fremont Street Experience and the Little White Chapel also will serve as backdrops for photos to accompany four separate stories, according to production coordinator Christin Mross.
