NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

By: Jim Hodges

Some people who attended the Virginia "premiere" of "The Box" in Richmond on Thursday learned an important lesson in movie-making:

It's like putting together a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle from 300 pieces.

"I guess I was left on the cutting-room floor," said a disappointed Susan Kizer of the Chemistry and Dynamics Branch. She was one of more than 100 NASA Langley employees who took time off from work to perform as extras when part of "The Box" was filmed at the center during a week in January of 2008.

Kizer said she was filmed in three scenes, including one in which she was walking along Langley Boulevard and another in a news conference at the Reid Conference Center.

Thursday night in Richmond … nothing.

Husband Ed Kizer fared better. "There I am," he whispered while watching the film Thursday at Movieland in Richmond.

Kizer was playing a black operations guy and found himself three times in the movie after filming all week. "Maybe 10 seconds," he said of his total screen time.

In another scene, he was nearby when two "black ops" soldiers hauled Arthur Lewis, played by James Marsden, away. "It was a perfect chance to get me, but they went for a closeup on Marsden instead," said Kizer, laughing because he understood the nature of movie stardom.

And his "big" scene? It involved climbing the Gantry to provide part of the background. "The wind was blowing 40 mph, and it was 35 degrees," he said.

Glenn Woodell (left), an engineering technician at Langley, heard about the need for 1970s cars for "The Box" and brought John Vukovich (right) on board. They have been "car buddies" for more than 25 years. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

Click image to enlarge

Another piece that wasn't used to put together the puzzle.

Movie extras, John Vukovich and Susan Kizer took a moment before the national premiere on Friday night at AMC's Hampton Towne Centre 24 theatre to ask trivia questions about "The Box" to attendees, which included more than 70 Langley employees. They also introduced the movie's casting assistant, Henry Jaderlund.

Some of the extras took advantage of their stardom and arrived in a limousine.

Vukovich and Glenn Woodell attended the premiere in Hampton by way of their 1970s cars. Vukovich spotted his car in the movie -- a yellow '71 Plymouth Roadrunner.

Woodell, an engineering technician at Langley didn't spot his car, but he did spot himself three times. His most prominent scene shows him hunched over a news camera outside of the Hangar as Marsden was captured.

"Everyone who knows what the back of my head looks like would be able to find me easily," Woodell jested.

Their sentiments matched those of the extra's who watched the movie in Richmond.

"I want to see the trash can in the editing room," Vukovich said.

The center showed up well, and in fact showed up much better than scenes set in Richmond, most of which were actually filmed in snowy Boston.

Though "The Box" filmed at Langley for only a week after almost three months in Boston, the movie accorded substantial time to scenes from the center.

The Full Scale Tunnel, adapted for "The Box," was a focal point of the film, with the tunnel's giant fans moving slowly in the background. The Hangar was prominent, as were the Gantry and the Reid Conference Center.

An example of motion picture license was the open parking place in front of the Reid for Arthur Lewis (played by Marsden) to pull into in his Corvette. A full crowd inside the Reid for a news conference with an open parking space in front? That's Hollywood, not Langley.

But people are another story.

Jennifer Collings, a public affairs officer in the Science Directorate, was filmed at the news conference at the Reid Center. But she was on the left, and the movie's action was on the right.

Still, she took heart from knowledge that there is another chance to be seen.

"I'll buy the DVD when it comes out with the scenes that were cut," she said.

Those who don't find themselves in a scene when viewing the movie, can take heart from that and a couple of other things. One is the paycheck stub indicated that they have been performing actors, albeit for a smaller salary than they get for being a performing NASA civil servant or contractor.

The other is that Cameron Diaz, the film's star as Arthur Lewis' wife Norma, came to Langley for one day to be filmed in the Full Scale Tunnel. During her brief time at the center, she was amazed at watching F-22 Raptors in the air and bemused for the lack of star-treatment by Langley security.

But in the end, her scene in the Full Scale Tunnel also ended up on the cutting room floor.


Contributions by: Denise Lineberry
 
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry