For a few days over fall break, the University will turn back the clock to the '60s.
Period Musical Inc., of Revolution Studios, will spend Nov. 2 and 3 on campus filming scenes for its upcoming musical, "Across the Universe," directed by Julie Taymor of Broadway's "Lion King" fame.
The musical will be scored with Beatles music and feature characters from familiar Beatles hits, including Lucy, Mr. Kite, Sexy Sadie and Prudence.
Set against the tumultuous 1960s, the story centers on a Liverpool boy coming to America to find his father, who turns out to be a maintenance worker at Princeton. En route, he falls in love with a girl from Greenwich Village and meets a host of characters, one of them a Princeton student.
Shooting will center on the junior slums, Blair Arch, the U-store and Little and Holder Halls.
Thomas Quirk, conference and event manager at the University, said that more than 200 students responded to a mass email requesting extras. Only about 100 students are needed.
Since few students had attached electronic photos as requested, another mass email was recently sent requesting photos.
Quirk said that because the film is a period piece set in the '60s, and the University did not go coed until 1969, the majority of student extras must be male. Females are still needed, possibly for administrative roles.
"They'll probably go with Princeton extras almost exclusively — I think that's a good thing," Quirk said. "The communications office negotiated with the production company over some script issues so they could approve the filming and requested that they cast extras from Princeton to make it more interesting as a campus community."
To be in further accordance with the times, wardrobe fittings and haircuts, where needed, will be asked of students, as stated in the email from the producers.
Meaghan Petersack '08 and several of her friends signed up to combat the boredom of fall break.
"It sounded like fun, so I signed up," she said. "And it'd be fun to be in a good movie that I can go see 10 years from now and see my face in the background."
The last film set on campus, Justin Lin's "Annapolis," was shot last fall. Quirk says that a "year's window" is typical between studio productions. Usual media projects include documentaries, History Channel features and photo shoots.
A graduate student is also seeking sponsorship from a University department in the hopes of getting Taymor to speak on campus, Quirk said.
Taymor was the first female ever to win a Tony for Best Director of a Musical, and was involved in productions of "Frida" and "Titus."
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