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.)

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.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.