A reader named Catherine sent us a link to Chris Pratt’s Facebook with the subject line “Pratt being Pratt”. He’s auctioning off a chance to win a trip to the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set through Omaze—you can find out more here if you’re interested—and posted a video showing off some of the behind the scenes set up while talking up the opportunities to build ramps and jump forklifts with him for a day. “Pratt being Pratt” pretty much covers it. He’s a goddamn delight.
Guardians is currently filming in Atlanta, which is the third straight Marvel production at the new Pinewood Atlanta facility, an enormous full-scale production studio built by the same group that runs the historic Pinewood Studios outside London. It’s a GORGEOUS facility, and Marvel has gotten very comfortable there, shooting Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, and now Guardians 2 back-to-back. They may well shoot Spider-Man 3.0 and/or Avengers: Infinity War there, too.
Or they might not, because some people are assholes.
The governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, is currently faced with either signing into law or vetoing one of those religious freedom bills that has nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with legalizing discrimination against the LGBT community. This week, Disney said they’d bail on future productions in Georgia if the bill goes through. Australia is already rolling out the welcome mat for Thor: Ragnarok, and London was a comfortable home for a couple years, too, so they have options.
And of course, Georgia is also home to The Walking Dead, and while AMC’s statement wasn’t quite so “bye Felicia”, they are part of the choir of businesses and film studios going on the record opposing the bill. Georgia has become the third-biggest film industry center in the US, following Los Angeles and New York, and Marvel alone represents about one-sixth of that business. Whatever their representation problems are on screen, as a corporate culture Disney is very inclusive, so I don’t think they’re f*cking around. They’ll leave.
Click here to see Chris Pratt’s Facebook video.
