March 30--Update: The cast and crew of "Office Christmas Party" are in town this week to film exteriors for the Jennifer Aniston-Jason Bateman comedy.
For co-star T.J. Miller, who came up through Chicago's comedy ranks in the early 2000s, it is a return to the city where het got his start. Wednesday morning he posted a very Chicago photo of a cheeseburger and a bottle of Old Style balanced on a bar that looks an awful lot like the one at the Billy Goat.
"BGBOC," he wrote. "First person to guess the acronym gets a follow back and a nude DM." It didn't take long for someone to give the answer: Billy Goat Breakfast of Champions.
(Miller honed his comedy chops at iO and the Second City as well as the now-defunct Lincoln Lodge where he was part of a generation of standups in Chicago that included his current "Silicon Valley" co-star Kumail Nanjiani as well as Hannibal Buress.)
"Office Christmas Party" (a DreamWorks picture) is written for Chicago, but has been shot primarily in Atlanta. Georgia's film incentives are among the most lucrative in the country, which goes a long way when producers are looking at budgets. The forthcoming "Barbershop: The Next Cut" (which is also set in Chicago) was shot in Atlanta for similar reasons.
According to Rich Moskal, of the Chicago Film Office, main unit filming is not schedule to begin until Saturday, and is expected to continue through the following Saturday.
It is unclear at this point whether Aniston herself will be in Chicago to film scenes.
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The Jennifer Aniston-Jason Bateman holiday comedy "Office Christmas," which had been slated to film some exterior scenes in town for a few days in April, will instead begin that shooting schedule this week.
The DreamWorks picture is written for Chicago but has been shot primarily in Atlanta.
According to Variety, the movie "follows a cast of characters who have to contend with an office party gone wrong."
nmetz@tribpub.com
