'Gone Girl' producer on Cape Girardeau's hospitality

An image of the front of the Sunday A&E section from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, featuring photos by Southeast Missourian photographers.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch movie critic Joe Williams turned his attention southward, focusing on Cape Girardeau and the shooting of "Gone Girl" in the Post-Dispatch again this past weekend.

In a blog post on stltoday.com, which also appeared on the Sunday A&E section front, Williams wrote about the ongoing movie work and talked to a producer about the hospitality our fair city has shown the crew and the acting talent.

Williams quotes Cean Chaffin, who originally confirmed local shooting for us last month, as saying:

"We needed a specific kind of house for the character Desi (played by Neil Patrick Harris), and we had found a good one in LA. But the person who was repping the house was such a jerk and was so difficult that I said, let's look in Missouri instead. We found one here that was perfect, and the people said yes. To this day, I don't know why. We're not special. We're just making movies, and it can be disruptive of people's lives. But people are so nice here. They don't even have fences around their yards! They're proud of their community, and they're interested in what we're doing."

She also gave a choice quote about a famous Missourian turned Hollywood golden boy.

"We've made three movies with Brad Pitt ("Se7en," "Fight Club," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), and I can't say a bad thing about him. He is such a good, smart, funny person. I figured his family must have raised him well. But I realize now -- he's just from Missouri."

-- Matt Sanders