Nobody’s Perfect

You’ve heard the old saying “nobody’s perfect; we all make mistakes”. But sometimes there are some real doozies. You know what I’m talking about. How in the world did they miss that one? Case in point: George Clooney’s film, The Ides of March. During its theatrical run back in October, somehow, the producers forgot to give Ohio and Cincinnati credit in the end titles. How do you miss that? That’s a big deal, especially for the people here in Cincinnati. Most of the exterior shots were filmed in and around the Cincinnati area.

I’m sure most people in the country really don’t care, but for those who worked on the film and live here, it was a big oversight. It’s been well over 20 years since a major film has been shot in the Cincinnati area. The local film community saw The Ides of March as an opportunity to put Cincinnati back on the map as an ideal location for major Hollywood movie production. So there’s was a whole lot riding on the The Ides of March for Cincinnati.

But not to be included in the credits was an unfortunate error to say the least. The producers of the film have apologized for the omissions and have issued a statement saying, “We sincerely appreciated the opportunity to film in the city (Cincinnati)  that so graciously opened its arms to us. We truly regret this oversight. “

They went on to say that the mistake would be fixed in the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray releases scheduled for January 17. The credits will now read as follows: Filmed on location in the State of Michigan and the State of Ohio. Additional credits will also list special thanks to the Ohio Film Office, the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati police Department, Miami and Xavier University, Oxford, Covington, Newport and Bellevue.

Sure, it’s nice that they fixed the mistake on the DVD release; but the truth is the damage has been done. You only get one shot at theatrical distribution, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. I guess it shows you that even the big boys are not perfect. Maybe, they thought Ohio was part of Michigan. I guess, it all looks the same. Right? It’s a lesson to any future filmmaker. Always get your end credits right. That includes the right spelling, including everybody that was part of the production. And one thing you certainly don’t want to miss is to thank the people who went out of their way to make your film a reality.

Hopefully, Cincinnati will still get some mileage from the film. The political thriller, which is set around the Ohio primaries, has been nominated for 4 Golden Globe Awards, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. The Golden Globes will air this Sunday, January 15, at 8:00 p.m. EST on NBC.