Walt Disney Pictures live-action musical which was the first to shoot on the newly rebuilt New York Street sets at Universal following the 1990 fire. William Sandell was the Production Designer on the movie who made a relatively small area of backlot look like New York City.
The sets were extended using beautiful matte paintings by Syd Dutton at Illusion Arts.
The large cast of teenagers worked on the Universal backlot for many weeks - they made great use of the new camcorder technology and shot their own horror movie during their breaks. The result, Blood Drips Heavily on Newsies Square can sometimes be found online.
Links:
DIRECTED BY: Kenny Ortega
STARRING: Christian Bale, David Moscow, Max Casella
Newsies (1992)
Newsies in production on New York Street, while the sets are still being rebuilt after the fire (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Plan of the New York Street set showing (in yellow) the area used by Newsies (plan courtesy of universalstonecutter)
All roads lead to New York Street (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Director Kenny Ortega lining up a shot on New York Street (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Newsies in production on New York Street (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Newsies in production on New York Street, showing the painted backdrop top right of this frame (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Newsies in production on New York Street (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
Newsies in production on New York Street (still from DVD featurette, 1991)
