By Rebecca Hyman
WickedLocal.com
September 2, 2009
BRIDGEWATER – Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will be shooting scenes from a Twentieth Century Fox movie in a cornfield off Curve Street in Bridgewater later this month. And some of the town’s police and firefighters will be tapped as extras in the film, which does not yet have a name, Twentieth Century Fox Assistant Location Manager Hyunsoo Moon said. “It’s exciting. It puts Bridgewater on the map,” Selectman Mike Demos said.
The scenes to be filmed in Bridgewater depict the aftermath of an airplane crash in a cornfield in Indiana, Moon told selectmen Tuesday night. Shooting will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24 and Friday, Sept. 25 from about 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., Moon said.
Selectmen Chairman Stanley Kravitz said the shooting will take place on the old Cumberland Farms farm, which is privately owned. There will be a lot of prep work to gear up for the two nights of shooting, Moon said. Crews are currently plowing down the corn making a pathway to simulate a crash scene where a commercial jet airliner has skidded along the ground.
On Sept. 11, production crews will move in the plane, a 727. Moon said the route through town is still being worked out. The airplane will be divided into sections to make transport easier, but the sections will still be oversized loads, he said.
“It will be logistically tough,” Moon said. Moon said there will be a crew of about 100 to 150 on the set and 44 extras. The production will also bring with it about 20 tractor-trailer trucks and quite a few cars. Moon said the plan is to park on the premises. He said the filming will involve some pyrotechnics, which may cause some noise. He is coordinating with Fire Chief George Rogers to ensure the fireworks are safe. The lighting will be minimal and probably not noticeable to neighbors, he said.
The plan is to have cleaned up the field and be out of town by Oct. 9, Moon said.
The Bridgewater Police Department will be in charge of security and traffic on detail assignments at no expense to the town, Kravitz said.
“It’s kind of a nice opportunity to have something like this happen in town,” Kravitz said.
Moon at first said the movie is set in Kansas but then corrected himself to say Indiana. According to the MTV Movies Blog, Cruise and Diaz are working on a film, at least tentatively, called Wichita.
“According to Variety, Cruise has decided to pair up with Cameron Diaz for James Mangold’s action comedy,” the on-line blog states. “Variety previously reported that the story revolves around a single chick who has terrible luck with men, but meets a mysterious, handsome man on a blind date. Now we know that the mysterious man is actually a secret agent who pops in and out of the woman’s life. The film also has several new action scenes tailor-made for Cruise, pulling it out of the romantic comedy genre and into something that can attract a wider audience,” the blog states.