The voice will be instantly recognizable even if the campus isn't.
In the new movie "About Schmidt," Jack Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, a recent retiree and widower en route to stop his daughter's wedding. He announces in a voiceover that he is taking a detour in his journey from Omaha to Denver.
"Next stop: my alma mater, the University of Kansas," he says in that famous Nicholson drawl.
But what the moviegoer sees next is not KU's hilltop, tree-lined Jayhawk Boulevard, gleaming Campanile, red-tile roofs or tranquil Potter Lake.
No, Jack says it is KU, but Jayhawkers will quickly realize that Jack isn't in Kansas. Instead, it is the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln.
The movie's director, Alexander Payne, is an Omaha native and bases many of his films -- including "About Schmidt" -- in his hometown. So even though Jack's character is a KU alum, Payne opted for convenience and filmed the scene at the nearby University of Nebraska Lincoln campus.
Last summer, Payne's production company ordered more than $1,100 worth of KU-related apparel and a camera crew came to the KU campus to shoot scenes of Nicholson's motor home driving down Jayhawk Boulevard. But that footage is on the cutting-room floor.
Even though the University of Nebraska won out on the battle for screen time, an official there says the cameo is bittersweet.
"It would have been great if it could have had our campus and our university mentioned," said Scott Lewis, associate vice chancellor for business and finance at NU. "It would have been better for us, but as it stands, it was a way to help a filmmaker with Nebraska ties carry on with his filmmaking."
The movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters in the Kansas City area Jan. 3, already is receiving Oscar buzz and critics are saying that Nicholson is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.
"This is a wonderful tour de force for Jack Nicholson," said film reviewer Marie Asner, who often appears on KCUR 89.3-FM's Walt Bodine Show.
To learn more about the movie, visit http://www.aboutschmidtmovie.com.
To see pictures of the actual KU campus, check out these links:-- http://www.visitlawrence.com/visitor/collegetownatheart.php-- http://www.ku.edu/visitors/tour/--http://www.virtualtour.ku.edu/-- http://www.oread.ku.edu
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