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LMGI COMPASS
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Spring 2023
from the previous films," Leann recalls, "but sure enough,
Steven went out with us for three days and looked at
pretty much everything. That was really special for
me … he was just so present, and he would get really
emotional—even meeting with homeowners," she says.
One particular interaction from those scout days still
stands out in Leann's mind.
She had taken Steven and the team to see a two-story,
single-family home, built in the '50s and set just off the
center of a cul-de-sac on Needles Street in Chatsworth. The
cul-de-sac even ended at a T intersection and Leann knew
they had a good chance of signing up the houses on the run
up to the street and every house on the cul-de-sac itself.
"I'm standing there talking with the homeowner and I
didn't notice that Steven had wandered up behind me,"
Leann says. Spielberg introduced himself to the woman
simply as "Steven, the director," and the two spoke for a
moment.
"It was COVID time, so he's got a mask over his face,
he's wearing a hat and he has these big sunglasses on.
Anyway, they're chatting, and she abruptly tells us we
can give her a shout if we need anything and then she
just disappears inside. It was odd, but we looked around
a bit more and Steven said, 'I love it. This is it. This is the
house,'" Leann says.
She told the homeowner they were leaving, and that
she'd call the next day. "When I called her I said, 'I don't
know if you recognized who the director was, but we'd
like to use your home,' and she says, 'when it dawned
on me, I was in shock which is why I went back inside so
suddenly.'"
It turns out the woman's father, who had passed on
only two years earlier and had left her the property, had
also been in the industry. "He was a DP," Leann says, "and
every single time a Spielberg film had opened since she
was a little girl, they had a family tradition of going to the
Chinese Theatre and watching it on opening night. She
told me she felt like it was a sign that Steven Spielberg
was standing in her father's doorway, and then she said,
'whatever you guys want or need, it's yours.'"
EXPANDING THE FOOTPRINT
With the hero house on board, Leann and team began
making deals with the neighbors to re-place their cars
