Scenes from a star-studded major motion picture were shot in a couple of Twin Cities locations recently -- and Minnesota's snowy reputation didn't let down the movie's makers.

The film "360" stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz, and is scheduled for release next year.

A week ago, director Fernando Meirelles ("The Constant Gardener") worked on scenes tromping around in the snow outside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and at Stillwater prison.

None of the movie's stars were involved in either shoot, Anne Healy, whose business helps filmmakers find locations, said Monday.

Healy said the Twin Cities area was chosen for scenes in "360" because the movie's makers wanted "a major airport under blizzard conditions."

Their homework pointed to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the scenes were indeed shot for two days during and immediately after a double-digit snowfall.

Their first shots were of jetliners arriving, said Steve Wareham, the airport's director of operations. "The wind was blowing, and the snow was blowing, and the planes were coming in."

Next came filming from inside several concourses, with the wintry conditions visible through the windows.

On Day 2, the filmmakers needed a blue sky for departure flights, "and lo and behold, it was blue sky," Wareham said. "They got some really great shots of planes taking off over the snowbanks."

That night, the crew wrapped up with some runway lighting shots. At the prison, "they filmed a truck going through a side gate over and over from different angles," said corrections spokeswoman Sarah Russell.

The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) describes "360" as "a look at what happens when partners from different social backgrounds engage in physical relationships." Wareham cautioned that Minnesota apparently won't get the props for being a movie prop. "The idea of these winter scenes was that this would be a Denver airport," he said.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482