Producers of a new movie (still being referred to only as “Untitled
Detroit Project”) starring the controversial rap singer Eminem have
found themselves battling local residents of the run-down Highland Park
area near Detroit, particularly over a plan to burn down a derelict
building for one scene.
The French news agency Agence France Presse on
Tuesday quoted one local councilman as saying, “I don’t see any
entertainment value in watching homes being burned….It wouldn’t
reflect well on our city.”
Residents of a local mobile-home park also
complained about how it had been literally trashed for a scene in the
film. One man remarked, “We pick up the trash and they bring it back in.
Does that make sense?”
A resident of the park told AFP: “They are
making us out to be a bunch of rednecks in trailer parks….We’ve got
enough problems around here with crime. We don’t need this.”
