Boston on the Big Screen
Maybe you live somewhere else but your heart’s really in Boston. Or maybe you live in Boston and you just can’t get enough. You’re in luck. Boston and surrounding towns and neighborhoods are playing an ever-bigger role on movie screens. So when you want to visit the North End, you can rent “Everyone Wants to Be Italian” and practically smell the cannoli yourself. Or if you’re hankering for a trip to South Boston, you can rent “The Departed” and feel like you’re at a neighborhood pub. Boston has also acted as a stand-in for other locales — for example, Paris in the upcoming “Pink Panther Deux.”
Last year, nearly a dozen films were filmed in and around Boston. And this year, at this writing, seven film crews have rolled through town. Why all the action? Under a new state law, studios, major producers and filmmakers who shoot at least half of their movie in the Commonwealth are eligible for a tax credit equal to 25 percent of their total spending in Massachusetts, inclusive of any salaries over $1 million. So, increasingly, to Hollywood film crews, filming on the streets of Boston makes financial sense.
Here are a few upcoming and recent movies filmed in Massachusetts in 2007 and 2008:
In Production:
Ashecliffe, directed by Martin Scorsese, filming in Taunton, MA.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring Matt McConaughey.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop, directed by Steve Carr.
The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock.
The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis.
This Side of the Truth, starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.
Bride Wars, starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway and Candice Bergen.
Filmed in 2007:
21, starring Kevin Spacey.
The Women, starring Meg Ryan , Eva Mendes, Carrie Fisher and Jada Pinkett Smith.
The Lonely Maiden, with Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and Marcia Gay-Harden.
The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington.
The Game Plan, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kyra Sedgewick.
The Box, starring Cameron Diaz.
Real Men Cry, with Donnie Wahlberg and Ethan Hawke.
Pink Panther Deux, starring Steve Martin.
My Best Friend’s Girl (Bachelor #2), with Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin.
Gone Baby Gone, directed by Ben Affleck.
Chatham, starring Mariel Hemingway, Bruce Dern and David Carradine.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
It’s been an amazing past few years for Boston area crews. After a 4 year “drought”, the tax incentive passed by Governor Patrick’s administration has brought tons of work to the area. This means work for local area film technicians, money spent by productions for food, supplies and lodging and more potential for tourism revenue as people come to see the city after seeing it in a film like “The Departed”. So, when you see one of those “No Parking” signs taped around your neighborhood, or find your way home crossed by a carpet of cable, just remember that a little inconvenience now will pay out in the end with tax dollars put back into the state’s budget.