{"slug": "fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie", "title": "Fake Homeless Encampment Appears In Downtown SF, Turns Out to Be Part of Movie Set", "summary": "Actor-director Joseph Gordon-Levitt is filming an AI thriller titled '2034' in San Francisco, with a fake homeless encampment set up on Battery Street as part of the production. The Netflix film, co-written by Gordon-Levitt and Kieran Fitzgerald, stars Rachel McAdams and Jeff Daniels and is expected to conclude filming this month.", "body_md": "Actor-writer-director Joseph Gordon-Levitt is making a new movie, a thriller centered on artificial intelligence, and that appears to be what brought him and his cast and crew to San Francisco this week, with a fake homeless encampment in the Financial District being one of the first clues.\n\nThe film industry trades haven't yet reported on Joseph Gordon-Levitt or any of his cast being on location in San Francisco. But it would appear that a previously announced feature film he co-wrote, titled *2034*, which stars Rachel McAdams and Jeff Daniels and which has been acquired by Netflix, was shooting here on Wednesday and Thursday and perhaps earlier in the week, after [doing principal photography in May](https://artthreat.net/29484-46376-rachel-mcadams-begins-netflix-s-ai-thriller-2034-filming-in-belgrade/) in Serbia and Montenegro. Filming was scheduled to conclude this month.\n\nA [Redditor snapped photos](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1us35jx/joseph_gordonlevitt_shooting_his_next_film/) of Gordon-Levitt looking directorial in Civic Center on Wednesday, and possibly actor [Nnamdi Asomugha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnamdi_Asomugha) in costume crossing the street near City Hall. The film also features Toni Collette, Alfre Woodard, Caleb McLaughlin, Joel Edgerton, Chloe Coleman, and Sagar Radia.\n\nAnd both [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1usbai9/battery_california_lined_with_tents_filming_for/) and the [Chronicle caught photos](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/fake-homeless-encampment-film-shoot-22340460.php) of a staged homeless encampment on Battery Street at California, which was set up there on Thursday night, though their photographer did not catch any active film shoot going on.\n\nThis is Gordon-Levitt's third directorial feature, and it's co-written by his previous collaborator on *Snowden*, Kieran Fitzgerald, with a story credit going to actress Natasha Lyonne. Nothing has been publicized about the film's storyline other than it's an \"AI thriller,\" but we know from Gordon-Levitt's [Instagram feed](https://www.instagram.com/hitrecordjoe/?hl=en) that he is passionate about the dangers of AI and the missteps of AI companies, and [Deadline referred to him earlier this year](https://deadline.com/2026/05/joseph-gordon-levitt-ai-interview-netflix-1236898916/) as Hollywood's \"town crier on AI accountability.\"\n\nGordon-Levitt reportedly \"conceived [*2034*] nearly a decade ago but waited for AI to percolate into the collective consciousness before pursuing a greenlight.\" As Deadline said of the unknown plot of the film, \"It’s probably safe to say that the story is unlikely to be a love letter to the tech titans currently building their AI empires.\"\n\nThe film is being produced by T-Street Productions, the production company of Rian Johnson that produced his Netflix features *Knives Out*, *Glass Onion*, and *Wake Up, Dead Man*, as well as *American Fiction*, and the TV streaming series *Poker Face* (starring Lyonne) and *3 Body Problem*.\n\nGordon-Levitt previously starred in Johnson's 2005 feature directorial debut *Brick*.\n\nWe eagerly await further details about the film, which we may or may not get before it pops up on Netflix, likely next year.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie", "canonical_source": "https://sfist.com/2026/07/10/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie-set/", "published_at": "2026-07-10 18:20:58+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-10 18:37:12.234109+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Joseph Gordon-Levitt", "Netflix", "Rachel McAdams", "Jeff Daniels", "Toni Collette", "Alfre Woodard", "Kieran Fitzgerald", "T-Street Productions"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-homeless-encampment-appears-in-downtown-sf-turns-out-to-be-part-of-movie.jsonld"}}