My regular metro stop downtown is Archives/Navy-Memorial, which is just a few blocks down the street from my office. When walking to work yesterday morning, I noticed lots of activity – lights, power surge protectors, lots of vans. Movie vans. On my way back in the evening, I asked a guy who looked a lot like an FBI agent (and could have been, given that the FBI building is right there) what was going on.
Nick Cage is breaking into the National Archives. At least, his character is, in the film National Treasure, currently in production down the street.
Premise: Modern treasure hunters, led by an archaelogist [sic] (Cage) who is the eighth descendant in a family all searching for the same thing: a massive war chest treasure reportedly hidden by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin as funds for the Revolutionary War, using a secret code found in the Constitution (and a map that might have been drawn on the back of the Declaration of Independence) to find its location. [from Yahoo! Movies]
Filmjerk reviews a version of the script, citing more than a few similarities to the Indiana Jones franchise and noting the difficulty of exceeding that franchise’s influence.
Part of the script includes a daring escapade that involves stealing the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives (why? there’s a map on the back, of course! In invisible ink. Those wacky founding fathers.). That is, of course, why the film crew is set up in front of Archives this week.
Meanwhile, our founding documents – or “Charters of Freedom” – just got a facelift and are now available to see once again in the newly rededicated National Archive building. At least, until Nick Cage swipes them.
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