Iowa’s second largest city is the setting for a movie that hits theaters later this week, but you won’t see many Cedar Rapids landmarks in the movie titled “Cedar Rapids.” The comedy stars Ed Helms who plays small town insurance agent Tim Lippe.
Lippe is sent to Cedar Rapids for an insurance convention, where he meets the other characters and the laughs begin. “It just seemed like the perfect backdrop to tell this story of this character who was overwhelmed by this place that really wouldn’t overwhelm most people,” Helms said.
There are shots of Quaker Oats and the Cedar Rapids’ skyline, but few other landmarks in the City of Five Seasons made it into the film. That’s mainly because the scandal over the Iowa Film Tax Credit program pushed the production to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“It almost shut down the whole movie,” Helms said. “We were heart-broken and trying to figure out what to do. Our crew rallied, found all the locations we needed in Ann Arbor and off we went.” Co-star John C. Reilly says most of the cast and crew have ties to the Midwest and he believes the film captures that look and feel.
“I think it’s that openness, innocence and decency that Midwesterners have that makes for a good comedy,” Reilly said. Cedar Rapids opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. A private screening of the film will be held Thursday at the Wehrenberg Theaters in Cedar Rapids.
You can watch the official trailer for “Cedar Rapids” here:
By Nicole Agee, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids