Anyone ever had their car in a movie?

I had a friend message me that they were looking for certain cars for an upcoming movie in NKY. Lot's of BMW's, some various other models but then also anything from late 70's to 1987. (I can't find the exact message now.)

My 1988 MR2 SC from the outside looks like all the other 85-87's so what the hell I sent them a photo. They replied they liked the car and think it will work, and will get back to me. I had a friend reply he's heard horror stories and had no interest, I figured I could always say no when I got the details.

Anyone ever do this? I'm not sure if it's a full big-budget flick, or a Lifetime-type movie...

IIRC Woody had a Jeep Wrangler that was in the movie The Happening. But he sold it to the studio and they crashed it.

Somebody had a old Civic or CVCC that was in Anchorman 2, iirc.

Yup. That.

ProDarwin wrote: IIRC Woody had a Jeep Wrangler that was in the movie The Happening. But he sold it to the studio and they crashed it.

RossD wrote: Somebody had a old Civic or CVCC that was in Anchorman 2, iirc.

I had my El Camino in that movie too. I remember that Civic, it was cool. So was this gig. I got paid like 10/hr plus an extra 50/day (vehicle bonus) to sit in my car in downtown ATL for 14 hours/day for 3 days pretending to be in traffic with a bunch of classic cars and Checker cabs. I also got free catered food, free gas tank top-offs courtesy of the on-site fuel tanker, and didn't actually have to do anything.

In fact, the vehicle extras got paid more to do less work than the acting extras, just because we brought a cool car. The horror stories come from the acting extras, and I felt bad for them...they were herded around, running all over the place, and getting yelled at by obnoxious casting people while I just sat in my comfy bench seat. It looked exhausting. I didn't even have to wear a costume. Best college gig ever.

My dad's 1930 Chevrolet Sedan, in a James Franco movie that will be out next year. The car may be visible outside the pool hall where the filming took place.

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That sounds like the casting call from Adventureland. I didn't get anything in it, but my friends Keith and Marnell had their cars in it as background. A Black E30 BMW and a gun metal grey Rabbit GTI, respectively. I think they got like 50 bucks each for the cars for the day, but they're only in a couple shots.

My truck was just filmed for a buddy's Indie Film in Memphis. Its pretty obvious to me that this is the face of a star.

The dragster wrecked at the end of Steve Martin's Parenthood was my dad's. He sold it to the production company.

A popular chicken chain once shot a commercial at my brother's house--in his living room, garage and backyard. One of their people nicked a wall. They immediately repainted it. They also replaced a dead bush before shooting. His wife's car made a cameo in it, too.

The kicker: It was a Spanish-language commercial, so the odds are slim that we'd ever see it broadcast.

I got an email from someone involved in the show Leverage that wanted my Fiat for an "italian street scene" being filmed in Portland. The small amount of money they offered wasn't enough to justify taking a few days off work to do it though. I wasn't sure if it would be fun or a hassle so I passed.

In reply to maschinenbau:

This is what I'm curious about. If it's a couple days, decent pay, free food, it might be a fun little lark. If they say it's 2-3 weeks off work, $20/day perdiem, someone else driving, etc then I will politely decline. Although we need more MK1 MR2's in movies.

As someone who makes their living in the business, I'd suggest being pretty careful about it! Film crews tend to treat everything as an expendable tool, no matter how cool it is.

If you will be with the car the whole time, it might not be that bad. But if you send the car off, if it is featured, if it is only one of a few, or if others will be driving it, there is a good chance that it will be a little worse for the wear.

I'd make sure that it is very clearly spelled out what happens if/when damage occurs and make sure you are happy with it. I have seen extras' cars get totaled, just from being parked near the action. And even if there aren't any stunts in the area, people moving equipment around can do some serious damage.

Locations get pretty thrashed as a general rule. You will walk the locations rep through everything you are concerned about and they will nod and say yes, but if it isn't labelled clearly and overseen, there is a good chance that something will happen.

Just recently on a big feature I worked on I had to slide and "drift" a Saturn in a chase. I am always careful with the equipment but I was a little sad to hear that they had rented the car (not bought it) from a local college girl. I still had to do my job and the car was probably not really worse for the wear, but she probably wasn't aware of what it would be doing.

I have had my drift/track car in a show and, since it lives on a trailer covered up, it was months after the show ended when I was working on it that I discovered they had cracked the windshield (by pushing down on the A-pillar to move the car around to simulate it driving while shooting closeups of the actor. The car is very stiff and they must have pushed hard :( The show was the second season of Video Game High School and was in the drifting scene. I drove my car - a white/black s13 - a little but a friend mostly drove it as I was doubling the lead in the green mustang. I also did the driving in the first season's drifting/chase sequence)

In case anyone is curious, I've been thrashing cars for over 15 years! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296758/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Someone on here owns some of the cars from Idiocracy, but that's not the kind of situation you were looking for

I think Hemmings Classic Car had an article about doing this a few years back. From what I remember, the recommended you stay with your car and find out what the plan is. Is it going to be driven by the star, stunt person whatever? They also were concerned about a coating put on the paint sometimes to dull the finish. It could be hard to get off and damage the paint. I always get a charge out of watching period pieces because no one is ever driving a rusty, worn out junk.

I had my Daytona Spyder replica on an episode of Max Headroom back in the day. Was a fun trip and shoot down in California.

Not mine but a friend owns the flat nose van from the movie Jumanji still has Parish Shoes on the sides.

Javelin wrote: The dragster wrecked at the end of Steve Martin's Parenthood was my dad's. He sold it to the production company.

Watch carefully and you'll see the tach not move and the piton that gets launched out of the nose of the car to get it to crash. They had to try 3 times to get it to wreck, the car just wouldn't not go straight.

My 5 speed SVX was in the movie "Fireproof". I also owned the Hyundai Sonata in the street racing scene, and it's wrecked double.

I got a lot of grief from the Subaru community for wrecking a beautiful SVX. I spent a lot of time explaining there was nothing wrong with the car, and that it was just a movie and some slight-of-hand. I drove it to the set and home that day.

My project car, 63 Midget was used as a prop in a very low budget movie filmed locally. They did some weird stuff to the car. For some reason they cut the hinges on the drivers door instead of unbolting it. They also removed the hood and engine and had a fire in the engine compartment that also busted the windshield. Took me 2 days with a brush and pressure washer to get rid of the fire extinguishing agent in the engine compartment just to get the VIN for the bill of sale. The kid I bought it off of (for $50) received the car as part of his payment for working as a grip on the movie. I don't think the movie was every released, if it was it went straight to DVD. Some type of futuristic apocalypse theme movie.

My Opel was almost used in a Lifetime movie filmed close to here. The script called for the leading man to be driving an old beat up Opel, didn't specify model. Since mine is restored and a lot nicer than the script called for they decided not to use it.

My only brush with this topic was being part of a forced audience watching a scene being filmed for the so-so movie "Scavenger Hunt." The film-makers blocked off the only road to our high school's graduation ceremony, so we were all stuck until they were done. The scene involved a tire "blowing out" on a station wagon (the "pop" being supplied by a fire cracker off-screen) and then a parachute pops out the back of the car (yeah I know). Anyhow, they thought it would be fine to knot the cords and pinch them in the roll-up rear window, figuring it would be enough to resist the thousands of pounds of force. Um, no, it broke the glass right out. Wonder who's car that was.

As an aside, every home I've ever known about that was used in a film seems to end up in foreclosure. Apparently it's "a thing" for financially-desperate homeowners to try and get some money from film makers, but it never seems to save them.

This is not filling me full of excitement, for my fairly-nice even if not perfect car.

Not in a movie, but my Stingray was the featured vehicle in a rap video promoting the auto tech class I was the assistant teacher in.

I just heard F&F8 is going to film in my area. This might be relevant to my interests

Had a guy at a local Cars and Coffee tell me he got a call to use his Lambo (Countach, I have posted pictures of the car here before) in a film shoot.

He shows up with the car and see's a few scantily dressed women. Then he notices one of them is holding a gigantic dildo!

His response was "not in my car!" and called a buddy with the same car who gladly showed up (and apparently did not tell his wife based on her reaction when the subject was brought up at a later dinner!)