Renting Equipment to Hollywood? Careful of how it's treated.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 2711

It's plane, not a train, but a historic artifact has been lost forever after an incident on a movie set.

Quote:

Warbird Destroyed Due To Stupid Mistake On Movie Set

Another colossal mistake that was made during the movie was trying to make the movie more authentic by using a real PBY Catalina.

This is the type of plane that actually rescued the sailors in real life some 70 years ago. Although the shot was pretty decent in the movie, someone forgot to close the hatch. She was left overnight on the coast of Florida during high surf....

Before this crappy movie was made the world had 20 airworthy Catalinas. Now we have 19.

Full story and photos:
https://worldwarwings.com/warbird-destr ... movie-set/

When renting to Hollywood, you should have somebody on set protecting your interests.

CREEPING DEATH · **Joined:** Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:22 pm **Posts:** 275

Looks like the salvage effort was more damaging than the incident itself, sadly far from the first time such a thing has happened.

CD

train guy · **Joined:** Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:20 pm **Posts:** 202

But it was the owner who was with the aircraft and failed to properly secure it that lead to the damage, not the movie company.

6-18003 · **Joined:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:31 am **Posts:** 630

From what I can find the plane starting taking on water immediately after landing. A pump was employed and an effort was made to get the plane onto the beach when a cable snapped. The remains are at the USS Alabama Battleship Park Museum in Mobile, AL.

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 04, 2019 5:08 pm

The saddest part was this happened in making what was one of the worst WW2 movies ever made...

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Mon Nov 04, 2019 6:01 pm

Again, another reason why we shouldn't be treating artifacts as playthings.

Well, kinda.

SD70dude · **Posted:** Mon Nov 04, 2019 6:37 pm

Kurt Russell destroyed a vintage Martin guitar valued at $40,000 during filming of The Hateful Eight. That shot made it into the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjOKyC1pGDE

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news ... -destroyed

6-18003 · **Joined:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:31 am **Posts:** 630

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:

Again, another reason why we shouldn't be treating artifacts as playthings.

Well, kinda.

Actually the Catalina was in active use as a fire plane prior to its appearance in the film.

QJdriver · **Posted:** Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:12 pm

When I was with Texas State RR, we did lots of movie work, etc, but we NEVER let anybody besides our employees touch our equipment, for good reason.

Last guy I know that rented his engine out without insisting on running her himself, got her back with a nice big mud pack between the firebox side sheets, and a dozen or two staybolts to caulk.

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:28 pm

I thought this video clip on use of cars as props for ads or film/TV work and how the non-technical world thinks about such things was appropriate for this discussion, so I dredged this topic up to add it.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrdMjH5aNIk

CA1 · **Joined:** Fri Nov 11, 2016 10:17 pm **Posts:** 125

I imagine movie work like that is quite profitable for a tourist RR or museum?

JMann · **Posted:** Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:58 pm

If the plane was leaking right after it landed then why didn't they take off again and fly to a local airport. The plane is an amphibian so it didn't have to stay sitting in the water.

We had a commercial filmed in a business car that was under restoration (and still is). The film crew brought in period carpet to make the hallway look better. It gave the crew a snapshot of what the car could look like. So I guess in our case the film crew treated it better than us.

Crescent-Zephyr · **Joined:** Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm **Posts:** 971

CA1 wrote:

I imagine movie work like that is quite profitable for a tourist RR or museum?

I believe so. I know Tennessee Valley and Strasburg have both done quite a bit of movie and tv work.

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 824

Depending on the size of the railroad operation and the budget of the production involved, film work can represent a nice chunk of change, but also present a lot of extra and unusual work – along with the aforementioned risks. Paying $250k for the pleasure of using one's locomotive and train set for a day or two is not unheard of.

Regarding film work and movie trains in general, I compiled some details, background, history, quotes from IRM, Essex Steam Train, and others – as well as some advice for any railroad organization getting film work in this article here

Fixed costs for equipment, logistics are pretty straightforward – but don't forget to budget for personnel, research, personal mileage, overages, long hours, unforeseen expenses, etc...

co614 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:45 am

One of my best deals ever was I agreed to lease Paramount Pictures the use of the 2101 for their movie Night Ride Down which was the story of A. Philip Randolf the founder of the Sleeping Car Porters Union.

I demanded and they sent a $ 50,000.00 non-refundable deposit . About 3 weeks after I received the deposit Paramount scrapped the movie.

Easiest money I ever made. Ross Rowland

Renting Equipment to Hollywood? Careful of how it's treated.

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