Distance Nixes Hollywood Role for Dearborn Schools
Nowlin nearly lands starring role in upcoming Hollywood movie.
Dearborn schools nearly landed a starring role in an upcoming film being directed by Rob Reiner, aka “meathead” from his days in the sitcom “All in the Family”.
The G-rated movie called “Flipped” is about second grade friends growing up together who then struggle trying to understand the awkwardness they begin to experience as feelings for each other grows stronger. Filming for the movie begins this summer in Michigan.
Production teams were in town last week looking at Nowlin Elementary and O.L. Smith Middle School. After looking at several Dearborn schools on three separate occasions, the production team fell in love with Nowlin, located near Grindley Park and O.L. Smith, immediately adjacent to the elementary school, because the schools so perfectly fit the time period for the movie.
Smith was built in the early 1950s, Nowlin in the 1940s.
But when Reiner came to town to make the final decisions on locations last week, he chose a school in Saline because it was closer to another location in Ann Arbor where a good portion of the movie will be filmed. Production crews simply did not want to make the drive between a movie set in Ann Arbor and one in Dearborn, school officials were told. (Now we know why he was called “meathead” for all those years.)
The good news is that the production team said they would keep Dearborn schools at the top of their list of potential future movie locations because the buildings are so well maintained.