What Elgin, Illinois has over the U of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview will be the setting for the fall 2011 action thriller, Contagion, about doctors fighting a global virus.

But the movie won't be filmed there, the Minnesota Daily reports.

Apparently, the movie makers chose Fairview because it's a well-known metro hospital name, but decided to film the movie in Elgin, Illinois.

Why Elgin? It apparently has a recently emptied old facility, Sherman Hospital, where the movie can be shot. (No real doctors and patients to get in the way of the fake doctors and patients, I guess.)

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So don't go looking for small shots of the Twin Cities.

The Daily reports:

“Contagion,” which will hit theaters in October, takes place partly in Edina and Minneapolis, but hasn’t been filmed anywhere near metropolitan Minnesota.