Sandra Bullock movie takes over Atlanta private school

Football games that lasted until dawn.

Filming of "The Blind Side," based on Michael Lewis' best-seller about former Ole Miss lineman Michael Oher, took over the West Paces Ferry Road private school for three weeks following graduation.

Shooting concluded June 20, and the movie is scheduled to open late this year.

The movie traces Oher's incredible journey from homeless Memphis teen to coveted college prospect. (Postscript: Oher was taken in the first round of this year's NFL draft).

Director John Lee Hancock ("The Rookie," "The Alamo") used Westminster football players, coaches, cheerleaders, volleyball players and parents as extras.

For the high school football scenes, Hanock shot through the night.

"We thought they'd go until midnight, but they filmed five nights in our stadium from 8 p.m. until 6 in the morning," assistant headmaster Scoot Dimon said. "If the sun came up at 5:50, they'd stop shooting at 5:50.

"A lot of Westminster parents were in the stands as extras, and they had to dress in fall clothes," he added. "Everybody came in long pants and fairly heavy clothing. It was pretty hot."

Bullock and the country singer McGraw play the wealthy white couple who adopt Oher, the African-American son of a crack-addicted mother and murdered father. Kathy Bates plays Oher's tutor. Quinton Aaron, who plays Oher, trained for his role at Georgia Tech spring practice.

For three weeks, Westminster became Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis. Filming was done in the library, cafeteria and stadium.

"They kept our coloring (forest green and white) but changed the name on the scoreboard to Briarcrest. They took Wildcats off the concession stand and changed it to Crusaders," Dimon said. "They had armies of people to make sure all the details were right."

Current and former SEC coaches Nick Saban, Houston Nutt, Tommy Tuberville, Lou Holtz, Phillip Fulmer and Ed Orgeron played themselves, re-enacting the intense recruiting battle over Oher.

Most of their scenes were shot elsewhere in Atlanta, but Fulmer showed up at Westminster one day. Crews converted the headmaster's office to the Tennessee head coach's office, which Fulmer occupied until last year.

"They took down all the paintings, put up Tennessee paraphernalia and painted his office Volunteer orange," Dimon said. "The minute the scene was over, they repainted it the way it was. The Hollywood people are pretty amazing."

Dimon would not say how much Westminster was paid, except to say "it wasn't a ton but it wasn't insubstantial either."

"We've actually said no to a lot of requests but when this one came up, a couple of people knew the story, knew it was an inspirational story and one the school would like to be associated with," Dimon said.

The film crews were very easy to deal with, and left the school as they found it, he said.

Westminster is hoping to get an advanced screening.

"We've already started planning a movie night," Dimon said. "We're going to do some special things because it was a pretty special opportunity for us."