Special permission has been given to Marvel to film the third installment of “Spider-Man” at Atlanta schools still closed to students during the pandemic.
“I know that APS [Atlanta Public Schools] is currently not accepting filming applications due to the COVID pandemic, and I know that filming a new movie quickly falls to the bottom of the priority list,” Marvel Studios location manager, Ian Easterbrook, wrote in an email obtained by the Atlantic Journal-Constitution. (RELATED: Watch The Latest Electric Trailer For ‘Captain Marvel’)
Why parents in some Georgia school districts are frustrated, in a nutshell: Atlanta students still don’t know when they can return to classrooms, but the cast of “Spider-Man” is about to film in two local high schools. #gapol https://t.co/Xkrq6ZWxCl
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 27, 2020
Easterbook reportedly said the use of Frederick Douglass High School and Henry W. Grady High School was “vital to the success of this next film” because the spots already had been established in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which came out in 2017. (RELATED: ‘Spider-Man’ Star Tom Holland Once Helped A Woman Who Passed Out On A Plane)
The movie location manager ended up appealing directly to school board members and Superintendent Lisa Herring after he said he had “exhausted” their “normal channels of communication.”
His request also reportedly included an offer of $50,000 for the Atlanta public school system, with funds he suggested could be used for such things as upgrading “the schools’ air filtration systems,” “COVID-19 tests” and “protective gear,” among other things.
APS spokesman Seth Coleman said, despite turning down other requests for the use of school facilities, they made an exception for “Spider-Man” because the schools had been used before, per the report.
Filming for the superhero movie is expected to get underway at one of the schools in January with the other in March. The news comes as students in the area are still unsure when they will be allowed to return to the classroom after undergoing distance learning for the last eight months.