CINCINNATI (AP) – A year ago, Antiques Warehouse owner Gary Neltner got an online inquiry from a woman who needed birdhouses.
“It was just by chance that I asked her what she needed them for,” said Neltner. “I told her if she needed anything for a movie, I’ve got it in every color and size.”
Soon, set designer Kris Moran, whose credits include Good Will Hunting and The Royal Tenenbaums, visited his three-story warehouse near Interstate 75. Moran “just went crazy” picking out lanterns, whistles, slingshots, oars, flotation cushions, board games and bumper stickers.
Now, while other moviegoers watch Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton in Moonrise Kingdom, Neltner looks for his sleeping bags, birdhouse and red flashing police car light and siren.
Neltner ended up driving a truckload of rented props to the Rhode Island movie location last year. He provided more than 500 items for the quirky comedy-drama written and directed by Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums). The film is set in 1965, about adults hunting for a 12-year-old scout who runs away with a 12-year-old girl.
“I saw the siren on the police car and thought, ‘We’re going to see lots of things.’ But you’ve really got to look for them. They’re hidden in the background,” said Neltner, 56, of Cold Spring, a collector and antiques dealer since 1985.
Most of the items ended up on the cutting room floor or never left the prop room. Only a couple of items play a key role in the film:
– The siren and red flashing light atop the sheriff’s cruiser driven by Capt. Sharp (Willis).
– The plaid-lined sleeping bag neatly folded by Khaki Scout Sam (newcomer Jared Gilman) when he sneaks off to meet girlfriend Suzy Bishop (newcomer Kara Hayward).
A handful of other things have a visible background role – a bear rug in Suzy’s New England home; rows of Husman’s cans in the scout camp commissary; and the red-and-white camp ice chest.
For a few seconds, when Sam and Suzy hike across a field, on the horizon, moviegoers can see the huge birdhouse that lured Moran here.
“It’s amazing how much detail they put into that shot. It’s way off in the distance,” said Al Ehrman Jr., 35, Neltner’s nephew and lone full-time employee.
Antiques Warehouse, listed on the Greater Cincinnati and Kentucky film commission sites, has rented props for Ohio Lottery and Long John Silver’s TV commercials and sent metal roof vents to The Smurfs movie.
Ehrman finds the Moonrise Kingdom exposure for everyday ’60s stuff ironic, since the store sells mostly high-end items online (the-antiques-warehouse.com).
It has shipped six brass umbrella stands to a store in China; 30 cast-iron table bases to a restaurant in England; a huge chalkboard to a New York restaurant; and a church pew to Alaska.
Neltner wants to parlay the Moonrise Kingdom fame into more movie fortune.
“We’ve got everything here,” Ehrman said. “We’re in the industry now, and we’re playing with the big boys.”
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-08-18-12 1605GMT
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