While all of Wisconsin's media and bloggers were in Columbus yesterday trying to spy a glimpse of megastar Johnny Depp, Aussie actor David Wenham, who played Faramir in Lord of the Rings and Dilios in 300 (who, after losing an eye, spoke the line "...it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare."), checked into a downtown Madison hotel (I've chosen not to reveal the name of the hotel for the sake of privacy - and no, I'm not blogging from the lobby waiting for him to come downstairs). Wenham has been cast in the Michael Mann directed film as Harry Pierpoint, the "self-described leader" of the Dillinger Gang. According to one of the many online bios of Pierpoint, he would often drive the Dillinger getaway car during bank robberies, including an infamous robbery in Racine, Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, what of all the Johnny Fever infecting starstruck Wisconsinites? Sitings of our favorite resident of Jump Street Chapel have been rampant and we've made our best attempt to collect coverage of Day One of shooting in Columbus below.

Rod Melotte is hands down the king of capturing the filming of Public Enemies in Columbus. The photographer has fired up a blog just for the occasion and gave us the first clear and crisp image of Depp waving from a vehicle. The smile on Depp's face looks very sincere so we hope that means he is enjoying his visit to Wisconsin.

The blog Hollywood, Wisconsin also has an excellent report on day one including some sharp images of the antique vehicles being used in the film.

Johnny Depp Reads reports on some local homes being converted for use in the film, "a private home has been made ready for a dual filming opportunity, one use is reported to be the front door and living of Frank Nitti (played by John Ortiz) and the other reports that a bedroom of the same home will be used as the set of a brothel where Dillinger is with girlfriend Billie Frechette (played by Marion Cotillard)."

More images from Toadlessgirl.

Behind the Scenes TV reports that people started showing up at 2 a.m. Monday morning in hopes to catch a glimpse of Hollywood.

If you are looking for details on what exactly was filmed for nine hours on Monday, The Portage Daily Register provides, "Michael Mann, the director, hung on to the drivers side of Depp's car, filming dialogue. Women in pin curls walked past, and soldiers congregated at a mailbox while Model A and Model T automobiles took cues from men in knit hats off set. A forest green car drives through the stop light, an old man on the street corner approaches the soldiers, and Depp's car takes a right turn, all of which took about a minute to happen, but hours to reconstruct over and over and over again. Only a keen eye could tell what changed within the scene, as it all seemed so familiar that you forgot to look."

Not everyone was in Columbus because they wanted to catch up with the John named Depp. Christy over at Christy's Book Blog made the journey because of a lifelong fascination with John Dillinger.

Mary Bergin writes about the buzz in Columbus for The Capital Times.

Jesse Russell

Co-Editor

Jesse was born and raised in Connecticut, began blogging in 1997, and moved to Madison in 2003. In 2005, he co-founded dane101 along with Kristian Knutson and Shane Wealti. In addition to helping nearly a dozen contributors run this website he's helped launch various events in the city including What's Your Damage?!, the MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, the Fire Ball Masquerade, Dane101's Freakin' Halloweekend, and more.