Hello All,
Here is a story I have been holding back for some time now. Back in June I was contacted by a movie company in New York. They were looking for an electric wheelchair with 24 inch wheels for an upcoming movie shoot. The movie was starting shooting in a week and the wheel chair they had was with only 12 inch wheels. The director “Rob Reiner” looked at the chair and decided it was not suitable. They were searching everywhere for something electric with 24 inch wheels and found my website. After a brief discussion it was decided they would like to use the GM 24 inch wheelchair. The problem was there were none available in North America and they wanted it within a week. After a scype meeting with GM China and many phone calls from New York arrangements were made, The chair was shipped and it arrived the day shooting began.
After a few months they were down to the last few scenes to shoot and one wheel failed. They called me on a Thursday night around 9pm (Friday 9am in china) stating the needed a relacement wheel in New York by Sunday. They had one more week of shooting and need the chair working. This would be an impossible feat. Even with the most expensive shipping by courier there would be no way it could get from China to New York in 3 days. After talking with GM China they said they could ship one immediately but it would not make it. The movie company said “ We have someone in Shanghai checking out shoot locations for an upcoming movie”. “He can be at GM China in 2 hours by cab, Can he pick one up”. Arrangements were made, the wheel was picked up and was flown around the world over the weekend as check in luggage for the person escorting it.
On Monday they were installing the new wheel and were so grateful they had “Morgan Freeman” who was the star sitting in the chair for this movie pose for this picture with the old wheel in his hands. You can see the wheel has been “aged” for the movie but the red stripe on the rubber can still be seen and by comparing it with Pictures from GM it can be clearly seen that it is a 24 inch GM wheelchair wheel.
The movie is now finished shooting and will be released soon. I have received several other pictures from the movie shoot, but this is the only one I am allowed to Display. The rest are for my personal collection and quite interesting as they show the scenes being shot as well as all the cameras and people involved.
So when you see a movie out with Morgan Freeman sitting in a wheelchair you will know the Chair is a GM chair supplied by Golden Motor Canada. It is also interesting the picture was taken on the set and he is wearing the hat you will see in the movie
Gary
