Set contractors are busy remodeling downtown Columbus, Wisconsin, for the movie ‘Public Enemies‘, which is expected to start shooting next week.
They're making alterations to some stores to fit the movie about bank robber John Dillinger, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard.
Director and University of Wisconsin grad Michael Mann said that Columbus has just the right history for the movie location.
There are more than 240 homes and businesses on the National Historic Registry. In fact, the entire downtown is a historic district.
NBC Universal plans to spend $20 million of the movie's $150 million budget in Wisconsin.
Columbus Mayor Nancy Osterhous said that the local lumberyard, restaurants, hotels and other businesses are the beneficiaries of that spending.
Osterhous said that Columbus has plenty of snow cover, but she said that the movie makers will add some artificial snow to shoot the winter scenes.
Another filming location is the Milwaukee Historical Society, which once was a bank and still has a vintage vault.
