Movies - A Prairie Home Companion

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	Movies - A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion (previously known as The Last Broadcast) is a comedy film directed by Robert Altman due for release on June 9, 2006. It is based on A Prairie Home Companion, a program broadcast on public radio stations in the United States and elsewhere. The film is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities on a long-running radio show that has unexpectedly been cancelled.

It stars the show's creator, Garrison Keillor, who wrote the screenplay and plays himself. It also features:

Meryl Streep
and Lily Tomlin
, portraying the last two of what was once a five-sister country music act;
Lindsay Lohan
, as the daughter of Streep's character;
Woody Harrelson
and John C. Reilly
, as singing cowboys Lefty and Dusty, respectively;
Tommy Lee Jones
as the Axeman;
Kevin Kline
as Keillor's radio character Guy Noir, repurposed as the program's security guard;
Virginia Madsen
as the Dangerous Woman, who may or may not be the Angel of Death;
Tim Russell and Maya Rudolph
, as the stage manager and his assistant;
Robin Williams
as himself;
Sue Scott, as the make-up artist.

Production notes

Principal photography for the film began on June 29, 2005 at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota (the usual venue for the radio show). Filming ended on July 28, 2005.

Because the Fitzgerald is a rather small building, other stage theaters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region had been considered as stand-ins. With some effort, the necessary film equipment was crammed into the structure. The basement is also being used for sets due to lack of space. Set design also had to make the show more visually interesting, and fake dressing rooms are being used in the film (the movie's production designer noted that Keillor's actual dressing room is "about the size of a very, very small bathroom"). Mickey's Diner, a landmark of downtown St. Paul, will also be featured.

Trivia

Altman was parodied on the radio program a few weeks before filming started in a Guy Noir skit on the June 4, 2005 edition of the show, recorded in Los Angeles. In it, he was portrayed as directing a film entitled People Standing Around Talking and Using Hand Gestures.
APHC is the second major picture to be filmed in Minnesota in 2005. Northern parts of the state were abuzz a few months earlier when North Country starring Charlize Theron
was filmed there. Few movies had been made in Minnesota in recent years, leading many to believe that the Minnesota Film and TV Board — intended to promote the state as a filming destination — had disbanded. It still exists, though the board is "restructuring" as of July 2005.
On November 1, 2005, the Star Tribune reported that a heavy bidding war was the result of an early screening in New York for film distributors. Picturehouse bought the rights, and company President Bob Berney, "aiming to capitalize on the name recognition of the 31-year-old radio program, recommended that the title revert to A Prairie Home Companion. 'At the screening, Garrison (Keillor, the radio show's host and writer) said that to broaden the film's appeal, they were thinking about changing the name to Savage Love, so we may have an argument there,' Berney said."
APHC will be the opening movie for the 2006 South by Southwest film festival on March 10.
World premiere: February 12, 2006 at the Berlinale

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Movies - A Prairie Home Companion

Production notes

Trivia

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