In a few days, Boston will be full of movie stars for the filming of a new Netflix-produced movie, and it may finally be your chance to walk out your door and meet a celebrity.
On Nov. 19, “Don’t Look Up,” a new movie from director Adam McKay (“The Big Short” and “Step Brothers”) is scheduled to begin shooting in Boston, and boasts a huge cast of A-list celebrities.
The confirmed star-studded cast includes Jennifer Lawrence (“The Hunger Games”), Cate Blanchett (“Carol”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Titanic”), Meryl Streep (“Mamma Mia”), Jonah Hill (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”), singer Ariana Grande, rapper Kid Cudi and Matthew Perry from “Friends,” among many others.
According to the dark comedy’s IMDb page, “Don’t Look Up” is a film that will star Lawrence and DiCaprio as a team of scientists who discover an asteroid that is on the path to hit Earth. However, no one takes their warnings of impending doom seriously – even the president.
In March 2020, McKay discussed the timeliness of this end-of-world movie with President Trump’s position on science and climate change while scouting movie locations in Boston.
“While we’re scouting this movie, this is all going on with the coronavirus and we’re seeing clips of Trump saying ‘ah it’s nothing’…meanwhile this thing is proliferating in this frightening way and we all had to run and jump on a plane and get out of town and come back to Los Angeles,” McKay said in an interview with the Rolling Stone.
Back in September, casting director Judith Bouley – who also cast the film “Hubie Halloween,” which was filmed on the North Shore – put out a call to Boston residents to apply to be an extra for the movie. People of all ages, sizes and ethnicities were encouraged to work as paid background actors.
It’s unclear whether applications are still being accepted for background actors, but up-to-date info on the process can be found on Bouley’s Facebook page.
As reported by IndieWire, “Don’t Look Up” was originally scheduled to start filming in April for a December release on Netflix, but it is now set to be released sometime in 2021 on the streaming platform.
Lawrence was originally cast in this movie to play the PhD candidate scientist, but the delay opened the door for this large ensemble to come together. It is also DiCaprio’s first time starring in a movie produced by Netflix.
According to a Nov. 7 tweet, Lawrence was already spotted in Boston getting ready to start filming.
There is no word yet on which locations in and around Boston will be used for filming, but given the stars attached to the movie and its estimated $75 million budget, it’s expected that the cast and crew will be filming until the end of 2020, if not longer.
This isn’t the first time Boston has seen the filming of a profound movie given its rich history as the backdrop of films. Recently, “Little Women,” “Free Guy” and “Knives Out” were filmed in Greater Boston.
In a world where many movie productions were forced to shut down at the start of the pandemic, it’s encouraging to see a celebrity-filled film being shot in Boston. You may not be safely able to go to the movie theater at the moment, but Boston residents may very well see a plethora of movie stars on their morning commutes.
Follow Sarah on Twitter @thesarahdipity.
