Article by: Angela Christoforos
All over Boston this month, local residents have been raving about the The Town (Legendary Pictures, slated for 2010) a film directed by and starring Ben Affleck. Affleck has been filming scenes around Boston’s historic Italian neighborhood adjacent to Suffolk, as well as shooting a number of scenes where the film takes place, in Charlestown.
The Town is based off of The Prince of Thieves, a Chuck Hogan novel about the bank heists of the 90’s, when Irish mobsters killed adversaries in cold blood without fearing retaliation.
The Town involves four masked men from Charlestown led by Doug McCray (Affleck) that attack a Boston bank at gunpoint. At the bank, the men hold bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage. However, McRay unexpectedly ends up falling in love with his captive. McRay then desires to leave his life of crime, but before he can do that, the crew tries to rob Fenway Park while an FBI agent (Mad Men’s John Hamm) watches their every move.
Notable North End filming locations include Pizzeria Regina on Thatcher St., and New Spin Laundry on Salem St. which was transformed into one of the banks under attack. Striving for accuracy, Affleck did a great deal of work out of the infamous square mile where the film is based. According to the Boston Phoenix, Affleck held casting calls at the Charlestown community center and used a number of vital Charlestown landmarks in his film, such as the Monument Laundromat on Bunker Hill St. and the Foodmaster Grocery store on Austin St.
Shooting also took place at Fenway Park before the crew made it over to the North End. On Sunday, the entire Charleston Bridge was shutdown all day to film scenes in the movie.
The Town is part of an ongoing trend involving a number of films being shot and/or set in the Boston area. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (Stage 6 Films, 2009), the much anticipated sequel to the Irish-gangster cult film of the same name is going to be released later this month. Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island (Paramount, 2010) is going to be released this February, and Mel Gibson’s crime thriller Edge of Darkness (GK Films, 2010) is another Boston-set film that will be released this winter.
It w id&f those do or die moments because we always thought we were going to break up relatively quick and then we’d have another one of those moments where we’d be like, ‘All right, let’s do it, let’s write another record.’”
Have Heart will be joined by Cruel Hand, Bane, Shipwreck AD and Foundation. Doors open at 3P.M.
