"Scooper 'Larryfilm', who previously sent us very reliable reports from The Da Vinci Code sets in Paris, tells ComingSoon.net that Steven Spielberg's Munich production is currently shooting in the French city before moving to New York.

Today, Saturday, September 17, 2005, I got the opportunity to get very close to Steven Spielberg's huge shoot in Paris for his upcoming ""Munich"" feature film. As I had the previous privilege to report from the set of The Da Vinci Code, I didn't expect to be shocked by the magnitude of this shoot's logistics, and yet I was!

The ""Munich"" 250-member crew (yes, 250!) had prepped a 1970s street market right under the Paris' Bir-Hakeim bridge (very famous double deck bridge with the Paris metro above the main road) with 200 extras in 1970s outfits, close to 70 vintage cars (Simcas, Citroen's DS, Peugeot's old fashioned vans, and counting...). Along the bridge was set up a 450-foot long track accomodating a 30-foot high crane, plus 2 steadicams for filming inside the 400-footlong market. The crane shot was to show the Eiffel Tower and the Seine river in the background for a film's key scene with Mossad agents.

In the middle of the bridge they had put 4 huge 5 KW HMI projector lights in front of a 100x100 ft white screen to soften the scene lighting. Very impressive! And right there was the ""production camp"" with two large white tents under which the filming crew (Spielberg included) was checking the shots on 3 large flatscreen TV sets.

Finally, on the two main bridge access ramps were parked up to 30 large trucks (electrical, props, grips, camera dept., make up...) 6 power generators and several cast limos. I would say the security detail was, once again, very impressive, with ""V.I.P. "" on-set security (50 officers) and Paris Police PD.

It was almost impossible to get pictures (due to the location and security), but I have to say this was a pretty big and nice shoot by Paris standards. And I can't wait to see the big crews for Rush Hour 3 and others!

Universal Pictures will release Munich, a historical thriller set in the aftermath of the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, on December 23.

Source: /www.comingsoon.net"">ComingSoon."