After a one-day trip to the Lafayette County Courthouse, Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES returns to Columbus, Wisconsin today, to wrap up the bank robbery sequence filming there. Some additional footage of the main streets of Columbus will be shot, and interior and exterior shots outside of downtown also will be completed, Mayor Nancy Osterhaus told the Portage Daily Register. The filming has been a boon to Columbus: “The number of tourists (this week) I would place in the thousands,” said Osterhaus.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, who led the development of the film industry tax incentives that attracted PUBLIC ENEMIES–and a $20 million cash infusion–to Wisconsin, will greet the cast and crew of the movie at 11 a.m. at the Columbus Visitor Center . . . soon to be better known as the bank Johnny Depp “robbed” earlier this week. [The Visitor Center and the West James art gallery occupy the same building.]

Mayor Osterhaus praised Johnny Depp for being so gracious to the crowds who have filled Columbus this week. “He did sign autographs Tuesday evening and was very polite, very focused, and a bit quiet,” Osterhaus said. “They had just come off the shoot (as he was wearing the same coat and hat as in the film).” To see a larger photo of Johnny as Dillinger standing outside the Columbus Visitor Center with his gang, click here: http://tinyurl.com/yqrrka

Today’s filming will conclude the shooting in Columbus for now; the company plans to come back again in warmer weather, but no dates have been scheduled.

The Zone thanks Emma for the Daily Register article; you can read it in full on the Zone’s News & Views forum, in the “PUBLIC ENEMIES in Columbus News Thread.” –Part-Time Poet