Actor Richard Gere is a temporary tenant of Ann Arbor's ex-Pfizer complex, which is now owned by the University of Michigan. But let's just say he's not here to conduct scientific research.

Gere is co-starring with Martin Sheen and Topher Grace in "The Double," a movie expected to be released in 2011. The film is shooting some scenes at the ex-Pfizer site in northern Ann Arbor, and AnnArbor.com got a brief tour of the set last week.

The movie features a retired Central Intelligence Agency operative (Gere) joining forces with a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (Grace) to investigate the killing of a U.S. senator.

Last week, the film transformed a pristine, circular conference room at the ex-Pfizer complex into a CIA situation room.

CIA logos were visible on the wall and on phones stationed on the conference room table. Red lighting lent a serious mood to the set.

Ironically, when Pfizer was still in business, "this was a conference room that was deliberately designed to have no videoconferencing. It was designed for people to talk," said David Canter, who once led the Pfizer complex for the pharmaceutical giant and is now directing the site for the university.

The film evidently was planning to shoot some scenes outside of the conference room, as well, because other CIA logos are visible on the set.

On one of the walls, set decorators mounted a memorial to CIA agents who were killed in the line of duty.

The film has been shooting some scenes in Michigan for the last several weeks. Gere himself was recently spotted with a film crew near the intersection of Main and Liberty streets in downtown Ann Arbor.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.