It looks like the cast and crew of HBO’s Girls might be coming to Iowa City after all. Although the University of Iowa declined HBO’s request to film on campus, Girls director Jesse Peretz told Vulture last night, “We are going to definitely go to Iowa City and we will be shooting some there.”
According to Vulture:
“Even if we can’t shoot on campus, we will shoot around campus. Most of the scenes don’t even take place on campus. So we’ll probably cheat some other campus for the campus. Some of it will be Iowa. A little more than a smidge.” Peretz said.
The University of Iowa’s decision to deny HBO’s filming request has come under a great amount of scrutiny, prompting a column from The Gazette that argued the university is acting less like a learning institution and more like a corporate brand. Little Village hasn’t been too happy, either.
Fortunately, Girls seems to have found a loophole, which essentially boils down to, “Okay, we’ll just go across the street I guess?”
high ground cafe
As a film student here at the University of Iowa, I was outraged at the higher ups decision to not shoot here. NOT ONE person or faculty member from the cinema department was consulted on the decision. It could have been an excellent opportunity for the university to shell out internships for us students and help us get on-set experience, but they chose to deny us that opportunity because they were worried the university would look bad. Just because they rejected the script, it doesn’t mean that the writers will change it any. They will just shoot at a fake campus and make Iowa look just as supposedly bad as it was in the script. In the end all they have done is denied us students a chance to be a part of something great.
Marc- I agree! I wrote letters to many on the U of I campus…expressing exactly what you wrote. My son is a cinema major too. I sure hope you all get to do something on this in the form of internships…..this is awesome news!
As a graduate of the film program, I found the University’s decision to be downright reprehensible and short sighted in the extreme.
Let’s hope they’re going be in town for more than just a single episode and some locals can get on the crew!
Hannah Horvath would totally be suckered in by the craigslist ads for the gaslight village and then, after a week, move into the Plaza towers. There you go, Judd Apatow/Lena Dunham, in case you were looking for a C-plot.
What if they make the UIWW look bad? I’m not a fan of that