Movie execs: Choice of Argonne helped write the film's script

Reprinted from the Argonne News, Feb. 19, 1996.

The choice of Argonne-East as a location helped write the script for a new feature film, according to 20th Century Fox executives who spoke at an Argonne Topics seminar Feb. 7.

"Chain Reaction" (The title was changed from "Dead Drop" the day of the seminar) started out as an cloak-and-dagger espionage movie, said location manager Mike Malone, who spoke with publicist Deborah Simmrin. But director Andrew Davis changed the content of the movie after touring the Argonne site, which he chose from among several places suggested by the Illinois Film Commission. The film will now emphasize technology.

"We knew it was going to be a scientific movie," Malone said. "It really was the location writing the script. Davis' interest is in the future, and the uses of technology."

Changes are substantial, Malone said, and "the ending is being re-written even as we speak."

The script calls for about 27 extras, Malone said. The call for extras in a recent edition of Argonne News brought more than 250 photos, which were forwarded to the film's casting office in Chicago. Several employees were called on the first day of shooting, Feb. 12, and more will be needed when film crews return in April.

Scenes being shot at Argonne will appear near the end of "Chain Reaction," Malone said, as the real laboratory doubles for the mysterious "Mount Weather," a clandestine research facility. Crews spent a day filming at Eastgate, then moved indoors to the Zero-Gradient Synchrotron tunnel and Continuous Wave Deuterium Demonstrator. The best time for employees to observe filming will be in April, when crews will shoot outdoor scenes.

"The film will be Fox's major summer presentation for this year," Malone said, with a budget in excess of $50 million.

An autograph session with the movie's actors, which include Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman, is possible, Malone said, nobody should be holding their breath. "It's up to the actors, and depends on how our days are going. We work 12- to 16-hour days."