“Three… two… one. Background. Action!” an authoritative voice bellowed over the speakers.
Lower Nob Hill residents peered out of their apartment windows in anticipation of the scene on the street below them. Within seconds, a Muni bus careened around the corner at full throttle, crashing into a line of parked cars and scooters. A small drone flew overhead, following the bus as it continued to race across Bush Street, looping around the block again for yet another take.
"It immediately caught my eye since Muni doesn't run on this part of California Street," said Chiaki N., a resident of the neighborhood who also noticed that much of the nearby street parking was occupied with trucks, cameras and trailers.
Earlier this week, notices posted by the San Francisco Film Commission alerted the public that a feature-length project titled “Steamboat” would be filming stunt scenes downtown throughout the week, just months after “Matrix IV” and “Venom II” crews used the city as a backdrop for their own respective action flicks.
It raises the question: Is Marvel making a return to San Francisco?
Production began for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” — the 26th film in the Marvel universe — earlier this year before it was subsequently halted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter half of the year, the project resumed filming in Australia, though Comicbook.com reported last week that production would move to San Francisco. IMDB also cites the city as a filming location for second unit stunts.
“There are no actors in these scenes, only stunt doubles,” Susannah Robbins, executive director of the SF Film Commission, told SFGATE, confirming that the downtown shoot was part of a soon-to-be-released “action, blockbuster” film.
According to HN Entertainment, “Steamboat” is actually a working title for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” The Marvel film follows titular superhero and martial artist Shang-Chi (played by “Kim’s Convenience” star Simu Liu), who is raised by his father to become a deadly assassin. Shang-Chi eventually turns on him and comes face-to-face with the Mandarin (“In the Mood for Love’s” Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) — a villain whose greatest rivalry lies with Tony Stark, or Iron Man. Rapper and actress Awkwafina also joined the cast in an unbilled role, and the film is slated for release on July 21, 2021.
For Robbins, the most exciting aspect of this week’s shoot is bringing jobs back to a creative industry that had largely dried up in the city, and the impact their work has on the community.
“For the most part, people are very happy to see crews back to work, because it brings them a sense of normalcy, in addition to the economic benefit they are realizing,” she said. “Our local crews and actors are back to work, and local businesses are benefiting from the production being here, in addition to neighborhood groups. Productions spend so much money when they shoot films like these here in San Francisco, much of it to offset the impact they have on a neighborhood.”
Though preparing for production in the middle of a pandemic does come with its perks — fewer onlookers on the street and less traffic, for instance — it still has its challenges. Production crews have had to completely rethink how they normally film stunts and must wear PPE, socially distance and only gather in groups of 12 or less in accordance with the SF Film Commission’s updated guidelines.
“Luckily, for the stunts, they don’t need to have their masks off, as their faces aren’t seen on camera close up – and anyone, like an background extra, who might have their mask off, is either socially distanced in the scene or part of a household which is sheltering in place together,” she said.
As always, the production crew is required to post notices at filming locations 72 hours prior to shooting, but the Film Commission made sure to take additional steps to alert residents.
“They have done a lot of ground work in the past month, going door to door, business to business, in order to set up what they needed to pull this off,” said Robbins. “There is a lot of coordination that has to go on between the Film Office, SFPD, DPW and SFMTA to make a shoot like this work, and all of that has been done remotely by our offices.”
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” would be the fourth Marvel film to appear in San Francisco, following “Venom” and its sequel, “Venom: There Will Be Carnage,” which both feature the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood as well. Notably, British actor Tom Hardy sat on an Edinburgh Castle barstool while filming "Venom" in and around the pub, and Paul Rudd filmed scenes for “Ant-Man” outside of the Ellis Food Center on Jones Street.
Street closures this week will occur on Larkin Street between Bay and North Point, and filming is scheduled to wrap on Thursday. Residents typically using street parking will be offered a spot at a nearby parking garage during the week and are encouraged to contact the film's key assistant location manager, Alex Pearcy, for assistance at (510) 219-2463 or apearcy@mcustudios.com.
Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE culture reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
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October 20, 2020 at 09:37AM
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A new Marvel movie is reportedly filming in downtown SF this week - SFGate
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