"I currently reside in Cleveland and this weekend my girlfriend and I headed downtown to the Spiderman 3 production that's taking up about 18 blocks of Euclid Ave. For anyone that's familiar with the area, they have both sides of E 9th street blocked off, and have Euclid Ave closed to traffic from Tower City all the way over past Playhouse Square. The scene they're shooting involves a Manhattan Armored Vehicle racing down the street out of control, slamming into practically every prop car along the street. I got a chance to talk to one of the crew and he spilled a few details about the scene.
Apparently, Sandman is covering the armored truck, seeping his way into the cab in order to take over the wheel. The guards, being blinded by the sand, lose control and wreck the truck into cars, cabs, and whatever else gets in it's way. The scene is supposed to appear somewhere in the beginning of the movie, seemingly as Sandman's first encounter with Spidey, who will be added into the scene in post-production, web-slinging down the street to catch up to the truck. Thomas Haden Church, Tobey McGuire, nor Sam Raimi were on site.
I do however, have a suspicion that this downtown production and all the hype it's recieving is actually a distraction from some other filming happening close to town. My reason being is that the Cleveland Film Commission brought the SM3 production to Cleveland in contest with Detroit, both of which are very industrial type cities, have nuclear power plants considerably close, and lie directly on Lake Erie, otherwise known as the north coast.
It would be very practical for them to shoot Sandman's origin scene, giving that the city's backdrop and industrial atmosphere are perfect for those conditions. Also, another crew member told me that Sam Raimi is currently shooting in NYC which explains why he's not in town right now, but the last report I heard about the NYC SM3 shooting schedule stated that the production wouldn't start there until May. I know is competely speculative, but it makes sense. At least it's something to consider.
Here's a few photos for you, the main one being that of the armored truck between takes. (note that it's being filled with a sand-colored foam-like substance for post-production use). The others include a stunt NYC cab, a wrecking car, some of the crew, and a few of the building sets they've created downtown for the shots. Also, they're going to be shooting downtown all this week."
