My Fiero will be in the movie "The Change-up" (staring Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds). Here's the story of how that came to be.
About three weeks ago, my wife got a call from someone who said he wanted to rent a red Fiero for use in a movie. He got our number from the restaurant where we hold our Fiero club meetings.
So I called the guy, and he said he needed a Fiero for interior shots, and would pay $300 a day to use it. He said that they would have to take out the windshield, but would give me a new one if it was damaged in any way. Well, I thought to myself that because my existing windshield has a small rock chip in it, that this might not be too bad. After all, when I had the windshield changed in my other Fiero, the old one was kind of messed up during taking it out, so I figured the new one was guaranteed.
So I said OK, and he gave me an address of where to be at 7:00 AM on the following Saturday. And he e-mailed me a W9 form to fill out (everything had to be "by the book").
I got up real early that Saturday, because MapQuest said it would take a little over an hour to get to their address. When I got there, I saw this big old place called "Rhodes Distribution Company" or something like that, and thought, "this can't be the place", so I pulled over and called the guy up. He said that's it, because they had taken over the place and made it their movie studios. So I went in to the gate, and saw a sign, "Stage 2", over an entrance, and a guy was waving me in that direction.
I drove in and parked my car where they told me to. There was another Fiero there, a red Formula with a nice exterior and nice after-market wheels, but the interior was kind-of crappy. So it was easy to guess why they wanted my car for interior shots. I guess it didn't matter that mine is an 86 SE.
The guy who had arranged this all, and to whom I was supposed to give the W9 to, wasn't there yet, so I just hung around and had a nice free breakfast with the production people. The production people were nice, but I noticed that all of them were 20-something or at most, early 30-something. Don't these people hire old people like me?
Finally the guy in charge got there, and I gave him the W9, and talked to him about the window removal, and how I was going to get around while they had my car. He said that their window guy was a real expert, and would be very careful. And they would give me a rental car to use. I decided to wait for the window guy and see for myself. While I was waiting, I went over to "Stage 1", where they were shooting a scene. They had a travel trailer set up inside this big warehouse-turned-studio, with gravel on the ground, and it made to look like it was outdoors. In this scene, a guy would walk up to the trailer, knock on the door, and say something. The door would open, and the guy inside would say something. They kept shooting the scene over and over. I later asked someone why, and he said it was "for options".
I also saw some movie set houses in the place. Imagine building a frame house, and then finishing the inside, complete with furniture, but leaving the outside unfinished -- the framework still visible, and no roof.
When the window guy got there, I watched him very carefully, and he put a slight nick in the plastic on the right outside A pillar, so I griped to the head guy about that. As it turned out, the rubber edging around the windshield covers the nick, so it wasn't a big deal. But the guy must have felt bad, because the car they gave me to drive while they had my Fiero was a BMW 325i hardtop convertible. It was a cool car, but frankly, I like a Fiero better. It had two things I didn't like. The brakes were too touchy for my taste, and there was a noticeable lag between when you pressed your foot on the accelerator and the car reacted. It must be that "drive by wire" stuff.
Well, I left my car behind, and took my wife out to dinner in the Beamer, confident that they would take care of my Fiero.
On Monday, they still had my car, so I drove the Beamer to work. In the afternoon, they called me up and said that they were finished with my car, and that it was at their downtown office. So I drove the Beamer into downtown Atlanta and found my car with a new windshield, and nicely detailed inside and out. They also put gas in it, but they obviously didn't know the trick for filling a Fiero, because it wasn't full. But at least it had more than when I left it.
So I drove home, and that was the end of my movie adventure. I'm going to have to see that movie to see where the inside of my Fiero winds up in it. I hope it doesn't fall on the cutting room floor.

[This message has been edited by TopNotch (edited 07-05-2011).]

Topnotch,
Just what is the trick with the fiero and refueling? My car has issues where the gas gauge shows only half full after I put 20 bucks in it. Less than half actually more like a quarter and now matter how much I try to put in it that is all I can ever put in it. Not even sure of the tank size...peace

Pete

Well, first of all, it could be that your gas gauge isn't accurate. But if it is, the trick is to fill until the pump clicks off, and then to fill some more with the handle squeezed just enough to get a flow, until it clicks off again. You can sometimes get one or two more gallons in that way.
Basically, a Fiero holds 10 gallons if it's 84-86, and 11 if it's 87-88. That's not exact, but close enough.

I've heard that if you over fill, you can saturate the evaporation canister and cause problems. I usually just set the pump nozzle at low flow, then when it cuts off, I do 2 more times at low flow.

Congratulations on the movie star status.

quote Originally posted by TopNotch: On Monday, they still had my car, so I drove the Beamer to work.

Cools stuff. At 300 bucks a day and a beamer to driver around they could keep my Fiero as long as they wanted. Take your time, no rush guys.

Larry

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"Life is short. Drink the good wine first"

Congratulations, TopNotch, that is cool beyond words. I would wish for calls like that! To be able to say your car was in a movie just increases it's cool factor.

Great story.

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Ron

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just filler 'til I make a Fiero sig

Did they give you a movie title? Cool story though, How many people can say their car was in a premiere movie?

quote Originally posted by PAPA_SMURF: Did they give you a movie title?

quote Originally posted by TopNotch: My Fiero will be in the movie "The Change-up" (staring Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds).

Great story! Thanks for sharing

Will you be in the credits? Fiero Wrangler has a nice ring to it...

Congrats,

--Steve

I'll have to keep an eye out for this one, and check it out.

Robert

Thats pretty sweet. Nice story. May have to watch that movie

Very cool.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1232313625/ the trailer. Pause at 19 sec and you can see the fiero

Here's a snapshot from the movie trailer where a Fiero is shown for a split second. This would be the Formula that was used for outside shooting. My car was only used inside the stage building.

If you're wondering how the trailer could already be out on this movie, and they were just shooting a couple of weeks ago, well, that shooting was the last bit of shooting they had to do. Most of the movie was shot last year. And since they don't shoot in chronological order, there's no telling where my car might wind up in the story.

I bet when the guy who owns the other Fiero sees the interior scenes in the movie, he's going to say "Hey, wait, that's not the interior of my car!"

Actually, the production company owns that Fiero, and another one like it. I was told they are going to sell them now that shooting's over, but I don't have details. And I don't know what shape they're in now, because someone said that a couple of the production crew took them out drifting.

quote Originally posted by TopNotch: Actually, the production company owns that Fiero, and another one like it. I was told they are going to sell them now that shooting's over, but I don't have details. And I don't know what shape they're in now, because someone said that a couple of the production crew took them out drifting.

Wouldn't it be something if one of them had a North * in it?

Spoon

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Two yeast spent their entire life "about 2 days" discussing what the purpose of life could be and not once did they even come close to the fact that they were making champagne. Quoted by: Unknown

I just watched the preview to that movie and it looks hilarious! Awesome job bro landing a movie gig. lol

I am going to watch it too so I can see if your car interior is in it as well.

I watched one of the multiple trailers for the movie and saw the roofline of your car come into the picture but they changed scenes before I could see the entire car. Looks like a great movie and it is nice to see that the Fiero still has a place in modern films.

Awesome! looking forward to see the Fiero on the big screen again

The screen cap above is a broken image link. Here is on I just grabbed, and adjusted brightness/contrast a bit to see it better.

quote Originally posted by JohnWPB: The screen cap above is a broken image link. Here is on I just grabbed, and adjusted brightness/contrast a bit to see it better.

Nice wheels!

Just saw the movie tonight. Hilarious movie!

Its funny to me that they had a scene where the Red '88 Formula pulls into a parking lot and parks but the sound clip they use for the engine sounds just like a duke.
oh well... only a Fiero fanatic would catch that.

i was laughing pretty hard through most of the movie. saw some much fiero on the bigscreen

I thought I spotted a Fiero in the trailer of the film. Congrats on the new windshield and getting the interior of your car in a film!

So, what is the guy in the photo capture above doing? It looks like he is relieving himself! lol

just saw the movie tonight! awsome ! my girl and i clapped when the fiero first drove up lol we're dorks..

how cool is it that ur car is in a movie? i didnt plan on seeing it, but when i read your fiero was in it we had to go

Just got done watching the movie. Thought it was a decent funny flick the fiero got plenty of big screen time and the actors even said the word fiero lol

Heh movie was pretty good, and seeing a Fiero in it raised it up a notch...

I still havent seen it

I drive an red 88 duke so spoiler aside, the two cars look the same. My wife almost peed herself laughing when she saw the car in the movie and was red faced embarased walking up to the car in the parking lot when the film let out. That alone was worth the ticket price!
If you don't mind crude humor, definitely worth seeing this film. It'll be even funnier if you have raised children of your own!

Good movie! Funny as can be, but not what I would call "family rated".. A lot of pretty raunchy language and scenes, more so that most movies I have seen. I am NO prude, by any means, just fair warning to others. Personally, I LOVED the movie! Here are a few captures of the car. Not sure which car is which, the driver, or yours for only the interior shots....

Favorite quote in the movie: "This Fiero is unfortunately... ummm... air bag free".

Sorry, the quality of the video I have is really low quality.

[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 08-29-2011).]

The first three are definitely not my car. My car was used for some last-minute fix-up shooting just before the movie was finished. The last one could be my car. But it may have wound up on the cutting room floor.