Chicago remains insecure about its reputation as inferior in business, industry, and culture, but Emanuel could usher in a new era of political and entertainment power. Considering his brother Ari's status as one of the most influential agents in Hollywood—canonized by Jeremy Piven in the HBO series Entourage—and the fact that a sizable portion of Emanuel's campaign contributions came from Hollywood (Steven Spielberg donated $75,000), it's hard not to wonder whether Batman could have been saved by the new administration.
According to Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, former mayor Richard Daley recognized the ability of film to help transform the image of a city through glossy productions and storylines that take the focus away from the clichés of Chicago's history like crime, gangsters, Al Capone, and corrupt politicians. Moskal is hopeful that the new mayor will not only continue in Daley's footsteps when it comes to stewarding film in Chicago, but in fact help foster its expansion too. If the momentum slows, however, the city might look to the departure of Nolan's franchise as the first sign that its recent filmmaking success is already on the decline.
Chicago's relationship with film began auspiciously enough—it was home to one of the first studios in the country, Essanay, famous today for producing a series of Charlie Chaplin silent comedies. But only a few years later, the studio opened a California branch and eventually transferred all operations to Los Angeles. By the early 1930s, although Chicago remained a prominent setting in films, it became increasingly evident that few were actually shot on location. Drawing on his real life experiences on the crime beat, journalist-turned-screenwriter Ben Hecht was responsible for solidifying Chicago's pop cultural image as a town of gangsters, floozies, murders, corrupt politicians, journalists, and mayhem in the early days of the industry in films such as Underworld (1927), The Front Page (1931), and Scarface (1932)—none of which were shot in Chicago.
As audiences, we're willing to accept geographic license, especially in the older films when many shoots were confined to a soundstage. But sometimes the films betray us. In The Public Enemy (1931), James Cagney and Jean Harlow go for a ride through "Chicago." Thom Andersen, a Chicago native, notes in his documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself (2001) that "anyone who knows anything about Chicago might find the cityscape strangely rural," as Cagney and Harlow drive down streets with peculiarly large front yards, passing by Los Angeles landmarks like the Bullocks Wilshire department store.
Despite the fickle weather and overall costs associated with shooting in Chicago, there are some undeniable advantages to shooting on location. Buffered by a lake that gives breathing room to skyline shots, and split in half by a river which allows more fluidity in shooting the deep insides of the city, Chicago gives cinematographers more freedom in capturing a metropolitan setting, especially compared to the claustrophobic Manhattan streets, Toronto, or Los Angeles. The first major Hollywood film shot in Chicago was 1948's Call Northside 777, a Henry Hathaway noir once again about journalists and criminals. The film opens with an extensive shot of the city, the Chicago River, the Tribune building, the downtown streets, and even the L. The narrator describes "a city of brick and brawn, concrete and guts, with a short history of violence beating in its pulse."