Ilta-Sanomat: Filmmakers want to blow up Turku’s sagging bridge

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Rumours are afoot that production company Solar Films wants to blow up Turku’s sagging Myllysilta bridge in the next film about the career of Turku private eye Jussi Vares, based on the noirish novels of Reijo Mäki.
      According to the late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, the pragmatic film company has already been in touch with the City of Turku with the intention of buying the bridge. The idea is to film the blowing up of the bridge this summer.
      One of the directors of the upcoming clutch of six Vares films for cinema and TV Lauri Törhönen confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat that plans have been laid to blow up the bridge, which is currently in danger of collapsing, in a Vares movie.
      “If the bridge has to be demolished in any case we could well take part in it. In our upcoming film there is a scene for which the blowing up of the bridge would fit perfectly. Then again, today such an explosion can also easily be created digitally”, Törhönen continues.
     
The Myllysilta bridge in the southwestern city of Turku, the old capital of Finland, was closed during the weekend, after it was noticed that it was sagging.
      The middle part of the bridge is more than a metre lower than before. The bridge will either be demolished or repaired. In both cases it has to be supported first.
     
Törhönen still hopes nevertheless that the bridge could be saved.
      “From the Helsinki perspective the Turku people seem a bit silly. Having studied some architecture I would advise hoisting the bridge up from the middle and then adding the supporting structures underneath that for some reason were not put there in the first place. Otherwise we will be pleased to come and blow it up.”
      The principal photography of the third Vares film will commence in Turku on April 20th.
     
On Wednesday the City of Turku denied rumours that the film company had been in touch regarding the fate of the bridge, and it is probably true that blowing it up digitally would be an appreciably cheaper solution for the producers than actually detonating the thing.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Barges to keep Turku bridge from collapsing (8.3.2010)

Links:
  Solar Films: 6 x Vares

Helsingin Sanomat