Ann Arbor Sets Stage for Rob Reiner’s Flipped

For more than two weeks this summer, anywhere from 15-150, 11-15 year olds willingly got up and went to school in Ann Arbor. The lesson plan: how to make movies. Required reading: Flipped, by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Director Rob Reiner, and his Castle Rock Pictures team, re-imagined the young-adult novel, about two 13-year olds and their changing feelings for each other, against the background of late 1950's - early 1960's suburban America with Ann Arbor as the setting. Madeline Carroll plays Juli Baker, who has loved Callan McAuliffe’s Bryce Loski since his family moved in next door when they were both seven years old. Now 13, Bryce finds that he no longer wants to avoid Juli, while Juli starts to wonder if Bryce has really been worthy of her devotion. Israel Broussard plays Garrett, Bryce’s best friend. The local “students” filled in the classroom, lunchroom, and auditorium scenes as extras.

The school scenes felt like regular school, with crew members as the authority figures instead of the teachers (also local extras). The first day was the quietest as kids met each other and broke off into groups but by Day 3 it was as if they had been attending school together for years. McAuliffe, a young Australian actor in his first American feature film, and Broussard frequently visited extras holding where they hung out and signed copies of Van Draanen’s book for their cast mates. Carroll was also a frequent visitor to extras holding where she would commandeer the P.A.’s megaphone to make announcements about birthdays, etc. As the crew set a small classroom scene one day, she kept the other students answering questions like: “Chocolate or vanilla?” “Hot dogs or hamburgers?” “School or summer?” and passed notes with Reiner’s daughter, who was also in the scene. While the scene was filmed from another direction, Reiner’s daughter chatted with a few waiting extras, and then later found two of them – who had expressed their intense fandom of her father’s work – and took them to meet the famous director.

Reiner set the tone for the entire production: professional yet approachable, he made the set feel like a family atmosphere and gave the appearance of genuinely enjoying working with the teens (or perhaps he still has his acting chops). Even as he worked with 7-10 year olds for a flashback scene later in the production schedule he appeared unflappable and cracked up when he got the reaction he was looking for from Ryan Ketzner playing young Bryce. He is a decisive and complimentary director, but also found time to stop to chat or sign a book. He also remembered an extra from her stint as a spokesperson at Comerica Park from a visit to Michigan years earlier and posed for a picture with her.

There is one word that can sum up the production as a whole: charming. Every parent or guardian on set was thrilled to see their child dressed in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s clothing and hairstyles, and the principal teen actors seemed chosen for their charm as well as their talent. And while the draw of the production to Michigan was most likely the tax incentives, the setting is just as charming as the cast.

Flipped is tentatively schedule to be released in September 2010.

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