Burn After Reading released in theatres this past Friday, September 12th, and took first place in the weekend box office.  The film shot from August to October of 2007, and employed over seven hundred New Yorkers.

Burn After Reading is a comedy thriller from the Oscar winning Coen brothers.  The film, in typical Coen brothers fashion, is a twisted tale revolving around two dimwitted gym employees, a recently fired CIA analyst, his cold hearted wife, and a lady-crazed Federal Marshall.

While the film takes place in Washington, DC and some scenes were, in fact, shot there, the majority of the film shot in New York City, dressing up parts of Brooklyn Heights to look like DC’s tony Georgetown neighborhood.  In fact, the film’s costume designer, Mary Zophres, had to take the DC look into consideration when dressing her characters.  She noted that while “this is a contemporary film” they “still had to dress people from head to toe because people dress differently in D.C. from the rest of the country – certainly different from New York…it’s conservative, clothes-wise, probably more so than the rest of the Eastern Seaboard.”

The production team also did quite a bit of work at their stage location, Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios.  To create two different Russian Embassy locations, the set decorators constructed a very distinctive round window, 10 feet in diameter, in the Russian functionary’s office where Linda and Chad are interviewed.  It was replicating something they had seen and liked on the buildings at Bronx Community College, where the embassy exteriors were shot. 

The film stars Brad Pitt, who shot The Devil’s Own in NYC in 1996, Frances McDormand who shot City By the Sea in NYC in 2001, John Malkovich, George Clooney and Tilda Swinton.  Both Clooney and Swinton received Oscar nominations for Michael Clayton, a “Made in NY” production.

Besides Bronx Community College and Steiner Studios, the film also shot in:
Club Macanudo on East 63rd Street
House of the Redeemer on East 95th Street
Blue Water Grill on Union Square West
Chelsea West Cinemas on West 23rd Street
Ruby Foo’s on Broadway and 77th Street
Clearview 9 Cinemas on West 23rd Street
New York Life Building on 27th Street and Madison Avenue
And Many More Locations in NYC