{"id":2138,"date":"2010-09-17T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=2138"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:55:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:55:53","slug":"for-the-informant-eyes-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=2138","title":{"rendered":"For THE INFORMANT! eyes only"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago this week, Warner Bros.<\/strong>\u2019 THE INFORMANT!<\/strong> opened nationwide and did brisk business before finding its home video groove<\/a> in February. C-U Blogfidential<\/strong> had intended to dissect the project, a real life Decatur<\/strong>-centric tale of corporate bungling filmed primarily in the Decatur area, a few posts further than we managed<\/a>. One idea pursued and ultimately rendered moot by a lack of response involved interweaving anecdotes from people on the scene during production in the Soy Capital, although one hardy soul did <\/em>manage to pull together some words for us \u2013 Decatur Herald & Review<\/strong><\/span> entertainment editor Tim Cain<\/strong>. Sorry it took us non-professionals so long, Tim, to pass this along to our dearest readers.<\/p>\n

I first asked Cain about how the presence of Hollywood <\/strong>production possibly affected Decatur, central Illinois<\/strong>, and local businesses which could legitimately get in on the action. \u201cI imagine some people benefitted, but I don\u2019t know that it was a large benefit,\u201d he told CUBlog <\/strong>last October. \u201cThe film [production] essentially did what I thought they\u2019d do \u2013 come in, film for three weeks, and leave us all with stories to tell. That\u2019s plenty.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people in town have been disappointed that their seconds on film didn\u2019t make the final cut,\u201d he continued. \u201cI keep telling them to look on the DVD when that comes [available]. It is <\/em>great to come across people who have seen themselves on-screen. They\u2019re so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I then asked him what he thought about the final product, directed by the prolific Steven Soderbergh<\/strong> and starring Mark Damon<\/strong> as former Archer Daniels Midland<\/strong> executive Mark Whitacre<\/strong>. \u201cI liked it, but I think the only Soderbergh film that I haven\u2019t<\/em> liked was OCEAN\u2019S TWELVE<\/strong>,\u201d said Cain, who admitted to not having seen the filmmaker\u2019s two-part epic CHE <\/strong>at the time. \u201cDamon was great, but I thought [Scott<\/strong>] Bakula <\/strong>was fantastic. His performance was the heart of the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there was some unneeded confusion at the end when they were tracking down the embezzled funds, but I think that\u2019s probably because of what needed to be cut to keep it moving,\u201d he reasoned, with hearsay timing an early cut at nearly three hours long. \u201cBut I still didn\u2019t think it was as long as it was. Soderbergh and [screenwriter Scott Z.<\/strong>] Burns <\/strong>did a good job telling a complex story and keeping the film entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

The production had infiltrated Cain\u2019s consciousness for the several years leading up to its September 2009 release, starting with the rights purchase of the same-named Kurt Eichenwald<\/strong> book by Soderbergh and George Clooney<\/strong>\u2019s company, Section 8<\/strong>. Apart from filing regular progress reports and watching over a truth-and-rumors page hosted by the Herald & Review<\/span>, Cain visited the set and appeared briefly as a beat reporter who questions Whitacre during a public press conference. (Cannily, Cain has interviewed Whitacre himself several times for the newspaper, starting in the mid-Nineties when the ADM fracas originally occurred<\/span>.) I was curious as to what THE INFORMANT!<\/strong> meant to him personally.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience with the whole thing was bizarre,\u201d he replied frankly. \u201cThe strangest day was the Tuesday after it opened [in theaters]. I was going to take my wife so she could see it. We went to the Hickory Point Cinemas<\/strong> and sat in the theater where they filmed Damon\u2019s scene watching THE FIRM<\/strong>. Earlier that day, I\u2019d talked to the real-life Brian Shepard<\/strong> (Scott Bakula\u2019s character), Dean Paisley<\/strong> (played by Allan Havey<\/strong>), and Whitacre on the phone. Then I see myself on screen. Odd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, all in all, a great experience for me,\u201d continued Cain. \u201cAfter they were here for a couple of weeks filming, I got sick of \u2018friends\u2019 asking me where they were filming and some members of an on-line Scott Bakula fan club were sending me testy e-mails, accusing me and the paper of ignoring Bakula. But other than those bumps, it was a real kick.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the set for two days was an education I treasure,\u201d he also admitted. \u201cI met so many people behind the scenes who seemed happy (or at least not irritated) to talk about their jobs. I learned more in two days there than I would have learned in a year of classes. It was a fascinating experience. And, I talked to Soderbergh briefly and didn\u2019t go all fanboy on him, so that was nice, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cain continued to follow the life of THE INFORMANT!<\/strong> through the winter and concluded his remembrance for CUBlog <\/strong>by extending a cautiously optimistic olive branch to the business that we call show. \u201cI\u2019d welcome anybody back, as long as they only did it every other year or so,\u201d he said. \u201cIt got to the point where it felt like that was all I was writing about, and some people would say it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Tim Cain for sharing about the time Hollywood came knocking locally to film the intrigue and cornfields of Illinois.<\/p>\n

~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/p>\n

All graphics \u00a9 2009-2010 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
\n<\/a>Courtesy Participant Media<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/p>\n

p.s.<\/em> Cain\u2019s observations on local and popular culture are always worth a read. Make sure to keep tabs on his Weblog<\/a> and watch for additional editorials and articles in the Herald & Review<\/span>.<\/p>\n

p.s.2<\/em> Whoops! According to a post on Cain\u2019s Weblog dated Friday, September 24, he did not <\/em>interview Whitacre in the Nineties; the job went primarily to Bill Ruminski<\/strong>, \u201ca reporter whose shoes I am barely fit to lick,\u201d per Cain. Apologies.<\/p>\n

[Updated 9\/26\/10, 1 p.m. CST]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From out of the archives, veteran Decatur Herald & Review entertainment editor Tim Cain talks about when Hollywood descended upon Decatur for THE INFORMANT! location filming in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,376],"tags":[261,452,262,375,287,134,451],"class_list":["post-2138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-du-c-u","category-gone-hollywood","tag-archer-daniels-midland","tag-decatur-herald-review","tag-mark-whitacre","tag-matt-damon","tag-steven-soderbergh","tag-the-informant","tag-tim-cain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}