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\tBy CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tOnce the producers of \u201cLast Vegas\u201d had assembled the comedy\u2019s core group of actors \u2014 Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline \u2014 there were still two key roles to cast: the hotel that represented the Vegas the lifelong best friends remembered from their prime, and the resort that symbolized the new, sleek Vegas they can\u2019t quite comprehend.<\/p>\n
\tFor the latter, director Jon Turteltaub says scheduling problems knocked Wynn Las Vegas out of the running. And he ruled out Caesars Palace because of its ties to another bachelor-party movie, \u201cThe Hangover.\u201d Then Aria entered the picture.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019re very selective. We get scripts and opportunities all the time,\u201d says Carl Cohen, the hotel\u2019s vice president of marketing. \u201cAnd, more often than not, they\u2019re just not the right place for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn fact, only one other movie \u2014 this summer\u2019s \u201cNow You See Me,\u201d which also starred Freeman \u2014 had filmed on the property.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey sent us the script for our review. We immediately fell in love with it,\u201d says Jenn Michaels, senior vice president of public relations at MGM Resorts International. \u201cYou don\u2019t often see scripts where the location plays such an integral part in the storytelling. \u2026 You could tell immediately that the hotel was going to be a really important part of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe bulk of the \u201cLast Vegas\u201d takes place at Aria, from the lobby to the casino floor and from the pool to the cab line.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have shot in Vegas, I don\u2019t think, unless we could have made the kind of arrangement we made with MGM Resorts,\u201d Turteltaub says. \u201cWe needed so much. And the movie really needs to turn Vegas into a character. And without the kind of access we got, it would have impossible to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThen there was the hotel the characters were drawn to out of nostalgia, one they keep coming back to after meeting a lounge singer played by Mary Steenburgen.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe were looking for someplace that still had the look of Old Vegas,\u201d Turteltaub says. \u201cIt needed to be downtown and someplace that had some recognizability but that looked still old.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe were gonna go to the El Cortez,\u201d he continues, \u201cand the El Cortez told us to get lost. They said you\u2019re making us look bad, get outta here. \u2026 They were, like, we have no desire to be the hotel that is the \u2018not nice\u2019 hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBinion\u2019s had few such qualms, Turteltaub says.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe did work a little bit on the script, because I wanted to make sure that we felt comfortable with how we were represented,\u201d says Binion\u2019s general manager Tim Lager.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBinion\u2019s totally got the joke,\u201d Turteltaub says. \u201cThey understood what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWell, up to a point.<\/p>\n
\tNear the end of the movie, De Niro\u2019s character refers to Binion\u2019s as \u201csome (excrement)hole downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat are you gonna do?\u201d Lager says with a sigh. \u201cIt\u2019s the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe was only allowed to read the parts of the script that took place at Binion\u2019s, so the dig came as a surprise when he and his wife attended an early screening.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d he says. \u201cYou know, obviously, we\u2019re no Aria. We\u2019re not a multibillion-dollar property, but we\u2019re proud of our property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDid Turteltaub hear any fallout from the line?<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNo, I haven\u2019t. I think Binion\u2019s are just great sports about the whole thing,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when you think about it, it\u2019s a great advertisement for the hotel. I mean how many times in the movie do we see that gorgeous neon sign they have?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLager agrees, calling the \u201cLast Vegas\u201d tie-in \u201creally a positive experience for us.\u201d Even despite getting blindsided by the slam.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey gave us some really great shots of our facade,\u201d he says. \u201cI was really happy with that. They didn\u2019t have to do that. \u2026 That\u2019s priceless to me that we can get that exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tContact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.<\/p>\n