CLEVELAND — The transformation of Superior Avenue into the mythical land of Metropolis continued Thursday.
With the roadway shut for traffic through Saturday, crews began moving their movie-making equipment into place, converting more of the storefronts on the first floor of the Leader Building and, most notably, putting in place the iconic Daily Planet globe above the front door and directly outside Robert Vecchio's palladium window.
"My office is right above the new globe that's been hung up in the Leader Building, well now called the Daily Planet building," said Vecchio. "It's just been incredible, we can't get any work done."
Crews had the benefit in the early morning of the shade provided on the north side of the Leader Building as the feels-like temperatures rose once again into the 90s, a trend expected to continue into the weekend. Mason Camp of Evansville, Indiana, was happy to be watching from the shade.
"I hope the actors and all of them just stay hydrated and all the work crews all hyrate up and doing just fine," Camp said.
The Longs, visiting from Boston, said they can empathize with what the actors will be dealing with.
"Our daughter is actually doing a play up in New York and she's outside and she's got this big huge dress on and she says it's very, very hot," said George Long.
Heat, though, is better than rain which we had our share of in 2013 when the Captain America movie was shooting here. Crews come to Cleveland well aware of the obstacle that can be the weather. Keep in mind that during the massive movie-making year of 2011 here, which brought the filming of The Avengers, Fun Size and Alex Cross to the city, we not only broke the annual rainfall record but did it by mid-October of that year. In fact Cleveland ended 2011 26 inches above the average rainfall.
The history of challenging weather and filmmaking actually goes back to 1983 when crews were in Cleveland filming A Christmas Story and lacked a key ingredient: snow. Fortunately, the weather was cold enough for the production crew to borrow snow-making machines from Brandywine Ski Resort to create the snowy backdrop for Ralphie and friends.
