Apple TV+’s “Ghosted” is one of those films made partly in Atlanta but set somewhere else. So eagle-eyed Atlantans should have no problem early in the film identifying where Chris Evans’ super charming character Cole is selling plants and produce at a farmer’s market: Marietta Square.
Cole, a farmer, does a meet-cute with adorable Sadie, a supposed art curator played by Oscar-nominated actress Ana de Armas, right by The Strand Theatre.
They have a lovely date in D.C. where he waxes romantic about “The Exorcist” and Sadie mocks him, claiming nothing scares her. They visit the National Gallery of Art. Sadie performs karaoke at what is actually Eddie’s Attic in Decatur in February 2022. They kiss by a sun-dappled river. It all seems super rom-com.
“I think she’s the one,” Cole tells his family the morning after.
Then Sadie “ghosts” him. He texts her too many times. He finds her inhaler, which has a tracker so he discovers she’s in London. As a grand gesture, he flies there and tracks her down. But surprise! She’s a CIA agent trying to fight off a cavalcade of bad guys (including one played by Adrien Brody.) Naturally, Cole has to help Sadie despite his entire lack of training for such work.
“I was keen on giving the film a feel of travel and scope and taking a man like Cole who lives on a farm to places he’d never dream of or see,” director Dexter Fletcher told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before the film came out April 21. “His character has never traveled abroad. I wanted to challenge someone who has lived a safe life and throw him in the lion’s den and make him test himself.”
The movie shot scenes in D.C. and London but Fletcher used Atlanta for the aforementioned farmer’s market, Cole’s farm home, a nightclub in Buckhead and a crazy final scene involving the Polaris rotating restaurant in downtown Atlanta as its inspiration. (The restaurant in the movie, let’s just say, ends up revolving a lot faster than the real one.)
“The spinning restaurant is quite a feat of engineering,” Fletcher said. “It’s all complicated but as I was a child of the 1970s and 1980s action movies that were more analog in their conception and execution, we tried to make as much of it real as possible. Sometimes the fear on Adrien Brody’s face is quite genuine.”
Credit: Courtesy of Apple
Credit: Courtesy of Apple
The film also features a sequence of major A-list celebrity cameos that fans of Marvel movies will appreciate. It was a major wink and nod to Evans’ own Captain America roots.
“I’m a very charming man,” joked Fletcher. “I can lay it on thick. We asked favors and a lot of great stuff came together. We were lucky people wanted to help us make the best film we could.”
Fletcher felt fortunate to grab de Armas before her Oscar-nominated turn in “Blonde” had come out. (She replaced Scarlett Johansson, who had scheduling issues.) So instead of a Marvel reunion, “Ghosted” ended up being a reunion of two stars from the original “Knives Out” film.
“It was certainly a pivot I suppose, but Ana was at the top of a very short list,” Fletcher said. “She responded really positively to the script and a meeting I had with her. She said she knew Chris well and she had a gap in her schedule so we got very, very lucky.”
He is thrilled to work with Apple TV+: “We make films because we want them to be seen. Apple is building a great service with fantastic artists and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”
IF YOU WATCH
“Ghosted,” available on Apple TV+
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