Welcome to Southie-wood.

Developer Tim Pappas is floating plans to build an L.A.-style movie production complex on a vacant lot he owns at the corner of West First and E streets, according to state Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston), who was briefed on the proposal.

Pappas, who has dabbled in movie making himself even as he rolls out upscale Southie condo projects, is looking to cash in on the Hub’s new reputuation as a mecca for Hollywood filmmakers.

Massachusetts became a top filming destination after the passage of a bill that provides millions in tax credits for productions that shoot locally.

However, the current boom is limited by the state’s lack of movie production facilities, forcing movie crews and producers to fly back to L.A. after a few weeks or months.

“We highly encourage the cultivation of infrastructure, because that will solidify our position as a leader in film production,” said Rich Krezwick, managing director of the Massachusetts Sports & Entertainment Commission.

The Southie developer’s push comes as two other would-be studio complexes make pitches.

A former top Paramount executive is crafting plans for a massive “Hollywood East” film complex in Plymouth.

Meanwhile, a group of movie industry veterans has proposed building a $300 million complex in South Weymouth, but is now re-evaluating its plans after a hoped-for tax-credit bill fell through on Beacon Hill.

Pappas, by contrast, plans to start off small, with one or two sound stages, with the option to expand if the market demand is there, Wallace reports.

Pappas could not be reached.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who was briefed on the plan, had encouraging words. “He thinks the idea could be viable,” said Dot Joyce, adding the mayor urged Pappas to take his plans to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

NECN’s “This Week in Business” hosts Paul Guzzi and Nick Nikitas discuss the impact of the film tax credits with Massachusetts Film Office Executive Director Nick Paleologos.

JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ
Hartford Courant
July 24, 2008

Now more than ever, we need a break — an occasional respite from our everyday lives. Yes, a “daycation” — a day spent away from the office or job site, and away from chores, just to relax and play. Once again this summer, we are taking one day a week to suggest a nearby escape. Enjoy!

BOSTON — Our tour guide is about to give us the scoop on John Kerry’s 12-room townhouse, here at the corner of the city’s tony Louisburg Square, when a gray head pops out from the Democratic senator’s ground-floor window, flashing a watering can and a smile.

”Hello,” she says in our direction, tilting the can over a row of windowsill flowers.

We wave awkwardly to this woman we don’t recognize but know for sure is not Teresa Heinz Kerry. Shucks. And then the wobbly, broken window screen slams down.

It startles us; it startles her. And as she fumbles to push it back up, our tour guide — momentarily and uncharacteristically speechless — motions us farther along and out of earshot.

”We’ll just come over here, and I’ll talk really quiet,” Nicole Mayne tells us on this cinematic stroll through the city with Boston Movie Tours.

In a hush, Mayne tells us the house is estimated to be worth $9.8 million. “At least,” she says, her eye on the woman who is now leaning out of a second window, “that’s what’s in my script.” As is the tidbit of how the Kerrys succeeded in having the city move a pesky fire hydrant from their front sidewalk to a less visible spot just around the corner.



But wait — this is a movie tour. Lovely as it is, what’s John Kerry’s house got to do with Boston moviemaking?

Well, nothing, really. It’s the house across the street that brings us here. No. 22, the backdrop for a scene in the 1968 movie “The Boston Strangler.” There it is, looking near exactly the same in Mayne’s handy binder of photo stills — a red-brick building, yellow fire hydrant and all. (Apparently not everyone has the same pull with hydrants as the Kerrys).



Onward we go this Friday afternoon, in search of the next bit of Hollywood history tucked away in the nooks and crannies of Boston’s cobblestoned streets and storied buildings.

It’s a lively 90-minute walking tour that, for $20, tests our knowledge of cinematic trivia while showcasing the city’s past and burgeoning new film scene.

And it is burgeoning. While movies referenced on the tour date back to the 1960s (Think “The Thomas Crown Affair” starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway), the string of movies filmed here in recent years is striking: “Good Will Hunting,” “Mystic River,” “The Departed,” “Fever Pitch,” “Gone, Baby Gone.”



In fact, the tour company reports that Boston has been home to more than 400 movies and television shows. Add to that the seven major movies that have been shot in Massachusetts just this year alone — a boom credited to the aggressive tax incentives the state passed to lure filmmakers — and suddenly it doesn’t seem so crazy that Boston fancies itself Hollywood East.

”Boston is really becoming a movie-making destination,” says Jeff Coveney, who launched the Boston Movie Tours in 2005. “The branding of Boston and Massachusetts is starting to [evolve] as more than just a history-based location. It’s now also a Hollywood- and celebrity-based location.”

Which means Coveney and his roster of six tour guides aren’t lacking for fresh material. They keep up with the reported comings and goings of celebrities, and scout every film crew that rolls into town for new tidbits to infuse into the dozen or so walking and bus tours the company leads in a week.

”As they make more movies, we have more stuff to talk about,” says Mayne, 23, a Massachusetts native and herself an aspiring actress. (Look for her brown, curly ponytail in a stunt scene in the upcoming, Boston-based Kevin James movie, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”)

”And I think what we’re doing kind of goes hand in hand with that. It makes this whole idea of this filming movement that’s coming to Boston — of this Hollywood East — seem a little more permanent.”


Bogus Bucks
We begin our tour in Boston Common, with Mayne first defining for us the term “Boston movie.” On this tour, that could mean one of three things: a movie filmed and set in Boston; a movie filmed in Boston but set elsewhere; or a movie filmed elsewhere but set in Boston.

It’s at this point that she also introduces the concept of Boston movie bucks — bogus money earned for every trivia question answered correctly, with the biggest bucks-holder winning a prize (usually movie tickets or film-industry swag).

We make our way toward Beacon Street, stopping within view of the gold-domed Massachusetts State House. Mayne opens her binder of film stills to one showing a pack of men in rugby uniforms, congregated on the very spot we’re standing.

“The Departed!” says a college-aged guy in our group, visiting from Cleveland with his brother and parents. He’s answering a question that Mayne hasn’t yet asked. But that’s how the game is played, and so she congratulates him and hands him a buck.

” Matt Damon!” he fires again, gesturing to the arrow scrawled on the photo in marker, pointing to one particular player in the scrum.

He shouts a few more movie facts, and before I know it, he’s got a pocketful of bucks. That’s when I realize I’m playing with a significant handicap; I haven’t been to the movies much over the past two years. I need to come up with an alternative buck-building strategy.

We make our way outside the park and to a bronze sculpture depicting a Civil War colonel on horseback. Mayne asks our group if we know who it is.

“Robert Gould Shaw!” I say, reading the inscription on the monument, my palm out to accept my buck.

Mayne shakes her head. “No bucks for reading!”

Then the Cleveland brothers step in. “Glory!” one says, recognizing the statue from the closing credits of the 1989 Civil War film.

Denzel Washington. Morgan Freeman. Matthew Broderick. The brothers clean house, naming the film’s starring actors. We stroll on, my sad little pockets still empty.

We arrive at the nearby Boston Atheneum, an exclusive, members-only library. Mayne gives us a little bit of the Atheneum’s history before opening her binder to a still of two familiar-looking actors hunkered down at a library table, a scene shot just inside the building set at Harvard. The university, she tells us, is averse to letting disruptive film crews on campus.

I feel a swell of excitement. I so know this. It’s on the tip of my tongue, this distinctly mid-90s film — the height of my movie-going. It’s all me.

Brendan Fraser! Joe Pesci! And the movie? Umm. Umm. Oh! “With Honors!”

I happily stuff a trio of bucks into my pocket.

We wind our way through Beacon Hill, seeing the quaint shops, charming alleys and hulking office buildings that appeared in movies such as “The Verdict” and “Blown Away” and in television shows like “Boston Public” and “Ally McBeal.”

Along the way we collect our bucks, and a host of interesting city and cinematic trivia. We arrive at our last site, Cheers! — the standard tourist tavern stop and setting of the popular 1980s sitcom.

We hand over our bucks, and no surprise, the Cleveland brothers cash in with what Mayne tells us is a record number of points earned on any of her tours. Still, the rest of us shlubs don’t exactly go away empty-handed. Our tour pass gives us a discounted meal at the tavern. I don’t care if it is a little cheesy. I elbow my way past the tourists snapping photos under the pub’s famous sign and flash my Boston Movie Tours pass to the host inside like the winner I know I really am.

For more information visit www.bostonmovietours.net

Contact Joann Klimkiewicz at jklimkiewicz@courant.com.

For more photos of scenes from the Boston Movie Tour, visit www.courant. com/bostonmovies

Lisse Grullemans had her eye on a blue and gold striped dress by Derek Lam, but could only lust in vain. It hung outside her Boston office at Barneys New York for weeks until the costume designer from “The Proposal” came calling.

“They got it for Sandra Bullock,” Grullemans recalled. “She loved it.”

While no one’s filming “The Dress That Got Away,” Hollywood is making more movies around the Hub these days. And the mantra for local store owners is: Come. Film. Shop.

“It’s been wonderful for the city and it’s great for us,” said Grullemans, who, as assistant to the vice president at Barneys, has coordinated pulls for about eight costume designers for everything from Ricky Gervais’ “This Side of the Truth” to the Kate Hudson/Anne Hathaway comedy “Bride Wars.”

Nick Paleologos, director of the Massachusetts Film Office, said eight films already have shot here this year - the total for 2007 - and expects the retail payoff to continue.

“When you think about the low-hanging fruit we’re trying to grab, that’s it,” he said.

At the edgy Newbury Street boutique Stel’s, owner Tina Burgos was playing around with pieces she thought costumer Lindy Hemming might like for “The Edge of Darkness,” the independent film set to star Mel Gibson. Producers have been scouting Boston properties, but Burgos, who helped two costumers during the last year, said most movie business is “luck of the draw.”

“I’m finding it’s a very small industry,” she said. “Part of it is relationships. Hopefully, they’ll recommend us and come back.”

Ursula Stahl, owner of the eco-chic Envi on Newbury St., said her boutique’s entry into Hollywood has been a walk-on role. Still, Jayma Mays, an actress who shot the Kevin James comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” this winter, shopped in the store in March, as did the costumers from “Bride Wars.”

“From what we could gather, it was for Anne Hathaway’s character,” Stahl recalled. “They bought a vegan line of shoes called Beyond Skin and a couple of clothing items.”

Even vintage shops are getting in on the act. Bobby Garnett, owner of Bobby from Boston in the South End, said the bump in local movie-making is prompting him to finally launch a Web site and to advertise in trade publications. Garnett has more than 30 years experience, but his best connections are mostly on the West Coast.

He helped costume designers Sandy Powell and Lisa Padovani on outfits for the cast of Martin Scorcese’s “Ashecliffe.”

“It was mostly stuff like mid- to late-40s. Mostly uniforms. Doctors, patients, orderlies, all that kind of institutional stuff,” Garnett said.

Padovani, who just received her first Emmy nomination for the pilot of “Mad Men,” said she picked out a peacoat and boots and vintage nor’easter hats from Garnett to outfit the principal characters.

“He had a very large-sized raincoat that fit my actor, that worked out really well. Sometimes you can’t get it from rental places because it’s been used so much it falls apart,” she said.

Costumers such as Padovani are a self-sufficient bunch, and retailers said they only offered logistical (alterations, dry cleaning), not stylistic assistance.

“They’re usually on a mission,” said Stel’s Burgos. “They know what they’re looking for.”

Boston, with films like the Oscar-winning “The Departed,” has become a filmmakers haven, while the Berkshires — well, we’ll always have the forgotten Williamstown-filmed “A Change of Seasons.” With the region’s talent, low costs and natural beauty, however, the Berkshires should be attractive to directors, producers and studios, and it is encouraging that a concerted effort is in place to make them welcome here.

Massachusetts was long behind the curve in bringing filmmakers to the state, but that has changed as the Massachusetts Film Office, under the direction of former legislator Nicholas Paleologos, has become better organized and more aggressive. Mr. Paleologos was in the Berkshires Monday to meet with those in the community who want the county to share in the economic benefits brought by Hollywood. Roughly $500 million has been spent making movies in Massachusetts in the last two years, virtually all of it in Boston and vicinity.

The Berkshire Film and Media Arts Commission appears poised to play a key role in this process. The commission is working on creation of a Berkshire Production Guide, which would do a lot of the drudge work for film companies by providing information on hotel rooms and catering services, accessing necessary trade workers and clearing red tape. The county already has a burgeoning arts community in place to draw from, beautiful locales and far lower costs than Boston.

The movie industry is booming, with the box office take up a remarkable 20 percent from a year ago — which follows a pattern associated with tough economic times that goes back to the Depression. With the economic dividends of movie-making comes the long-term benefits of being immortalized on film as a locale. With the help of the Film Office, the Berkshires should become a movie industry player.

By Don Conkey
The Patriot Ledger
July 8, 2008

PLYMOUTH — While touting a grant that will award Plymouth close to $1 million for road repairs, Gov. Deval Patrick said he believes Hollywood East will help boost Massachusetts’ place in the national spotlight.

“A little glamour does not hurt us. We can handle that,” Patrick said Monday. “It is calling attention to ourselves. A way for people to know that we are here, and open for business.” Plymouth Rock Studios, informally known as “Hollywood East,” recently struck a deal to buy Waverly Oaks Golf Club in Plymouth as the site for a movie and television production campus.

Patrick said that on a recent trip to California, he came away with the impression from film studio executives “that Massachusetts is very much on their radar screen as a destination for movie production,” as opposed to mainly being thought of only as a place to film movies.

The Legislature increased tax credits for movie and television production companies in an effort to lure the industry here. Movie making has now reached an unprecedented level in the state.

Also Monday, Patrick talked about a $950,000 Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion (MORE) jobs grant for Plymouth. “The MORE Jobs Program provides resources to support partnerships between local municipalities and the private sector to foster development and help create hundreds of new jobs,” Patrick said.

The money will be used to pave Wareham Road and create a Bourne Road connector in South Plymouth, both of which are intended to reduce traffic around the River Run housing development. Wareham Road is now a gravel road. Patrick’s office estimates that 9,300 vehicles travel on roads near the River Run development daily. The Bourne Road connecter is expected to alleviate traffic congestion on local roads, which threatens the rural characteristics of the Halfway Pond area, Patrick said. “This is not a grant for River Run. It is a grant for the people of Plymouth” and the area in general, Patrick said.

In addition, the administration has awarded a Workforce Training Fund grant of $49,300 to Suncor Stainless Inc. of Plymouth. That grant will be used to train about 140 employees at the company, which manufactures stainless steel and titanium products.

Don Conkey may be reached at dconkey@ledger.com.

By Derek Gentile
Berkshire Eagle
July 8, 2008

LENOX — Since January 2006, film companies, major and minor, have spent a total of $545 million in the state to make movies, according to Nicholas Paleologos, the director of the Massachusetts Film Office. And state and local officials, as well as the business and local filmmaking community are aiming to tap into that bounty. “If all this money is going into the Boston area,” said state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox, “why can’t the Berkshires share in some of that?”

Paleologos met yesterday with representatives of the Berkshires community to discuss efforts to draw film projects to the area. John Whalan, a spokesman for the Berkshire Film and Media Arts Commission, a nonprofit coalition seeking to connect the Berkshires to the Hollywood film community, said his group is looking to market the Berkshires, in part by creating a Berkshire Production Guide.

Such a guide, Whalan said, would not only identify locations in the Berkshires but provide filmmaker-specific information such as the number of hotel rooms available at any one time, the number of electricians, the amount of bureaucratic red tape that must be dealt with in a specific community, catering services available, and other factors. This is already under way, said Whalan, as his group is working with the Berkshire Visitors Bureau and the Massachusetts Film Office to garner this information.

Such a guide, said Keith Girouard, another commission member, would not only provide filmmakers with information on the resources available in the Berkshires, but consolidate the information locally for Berkshire filmmakers. “There are a lot of people in the movie business, in the entertainment business as a whole kicking around in the Berkshires,” he said. “And a lot of them have only a glancing knowledge of each other. One of the foundations for this guide would be to bring those people to each other’s attention.”

In addition, said Whalan, his commission wanted to collate information on the “hard assets” in Berkshire County. Presently, he said, there is a film production studio at Shakespeare and Co. that is the envy of any such studio in the state. However, there are not a lot of people who are aware of that, he said.

The group, said Whalan, is seeking funding sources for carrying out the research and assembling the Berkshire Production Guide. He estimated the commission might need a budget of about $150,000 in its first year. Paleologos lauded the Berkshire Film and Media Arts Commission, noting that no other specific county in Massachusetts has anything like this. He agreed to work with the group. He pointed out that filmmakers looking to find locations that are no more than 30 miles apart. Once that threshold is crossed, he said, filmmakers generally begin asking questions such as the amount of stage space available, whether or not there is enough housing for the actors and crew, and other factors. A “one-stop shopping” guide would be very valuable, he said.

Pignatelli added that educating communities on the economic potential was also crucial. “If this becomes what I think it can be, we’re not just looking at a few box trucks in town for a few days,” he said. “We’re looking at film crews here for months at a time, using local services and goods. This could have a broad impact on the Berkshires. “But we need to communicate this,” he said. “And we need to work together. In the end, we are still 32 very parochial communities.”

To reach Derek Gentile: dgentile@berkshireeagle.com, (413) 528-3660.

Plymouth Rock Studios has picked a golf course in Plymouth as the site of its $300 million “Hollywood East” project.

The studio has selected the 240-acre Waverly Oaks Golf Club property on Long Pond Road, about a mile north of Exit 3 on Route 3, said Kevin O’Reilly, a local project consultant for the studio.

The company plans to build a film and TV production studio featuring 14 sound stages, back lots, a multi-purpose theater, along with a hotel, office buildings, and an educational campus.

The company said it had been evaluating over a dozen sites in the Plymouth area. The company had originally picked a site on Bourne Road in south Plymouth, but ran into title problems. The company has already signed an agreement with the owners of the 27-hole course, which would be closed, O’Reilly said.

“I’ve talked to the Board of Selectmen and the some of the members of the Planning Board and their staff. In some ways, people think this may even be a better site than the original one,” O’Reilly said.

Officials from the company, the town, and the golf course discussed the project at a news conference today at the golf course.

The placement of a “Hollywood East” sign on the lawn of the Plymouth County courthouse caused some controversy recently because the sign obscured a veterans’ memorial. The sign is expected to be moved by Monday.

At the halfway mark in 2008, business for the Massachusetts film industry is, in a word, booming. Booming, at least, relative to its anemic past.

Seven major feature films have been shot here in the first half of 2008 (two are still filming), and another two are scheduled for the second half, according to Nick Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office. “If the actors don’t strike we could end up with 10 or more for this year - which would be a new record,” he says, noting that eight films were made in the state for all of 2007 and just two in 2006.

More movies have meant more temporary and long-term jobs.

“By the end of July, the number of Local 481 members [of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] living in Massachusetts will have more than doubled to over 500,” says Chris O’Donnell, local business manager for the union that represents film production crews. “There are more local craftspeople and technicians staffing key and second positions in all departments on motion pictures now than ever before,” he adds, crediting state tax incentives for filmmakers that went into effect in 2006.

Private film-related businesses have surged as well. Dave Waller, whose effects company Brickyard VFX has been in Boston since 1999, says that staffing at his Newbury Street office has almost doubled this year. “We’re doing the visual effects work on the Sandra Bullock film ‘The Proposal’ and Bruce Willis’s ‘The Surrogates,’ ” Waller says. “We’ve got a dozen new artists and a few [new] support staff.”

The current challenge is making sure that staffing can keep up with demand. Joe Maiella, president of the Massachusetts Production Coalition, a group that has advocated for ways to bring more film work to the state, says that “we’re putting in place some programs to build on our crew base.” Maiella says O’Donnell and Paleologos recently visited New Mexico, another state that has seen a boom in film production. The goal: Look at programs it’s using to train production crew members.

The coalition is also participating in a Workforce Development Group, which is working to keep Massachusetts communications students in state by acquainting them with real world skills and local opportunities, says Maiella, who is also senior vice president of marketing and sales for CrewStar, a Southborough payroll company specializing in film production work. The coalition is looking at ways to cross-train tradespeople such as carpenters and electricians through state career centers.

Has there been difficulty keeping up with crew needs? Sure, O’Donnell, says. “Are we more ready now to deal with increased demand in the future? Absolutely. With more productions come more members and more experienced local crew.”

Trying to lure film business to the state is a relentless task. A New York Times article earlier this month about the Massachusetts film industry noted that last summer’s boost in the Massachusetts film tax credit “was part of a fierce competition among a growing number of states to entice Hollywood to make films within their borders.”

The Massachusetts tax credit is strong at 25 percent, but this year Michigan raised its tax credit from 20 percent to 42 percent. And earlier this month, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged the California Legislature to get into the film tax credit game, too. California is “losing billions of dollars in revenues” because it cannot get its “act together” regarding tax incentives, Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying during a public meeting about his state’s troubled economy. He added that film tax incentives are a strong way to stimulate the economy. “We’re filming around 200 films here in this state, but we should be filming 600,” said the actor-turned-governor.

Meanwhile, the website for the Massachusetts Film Office has bulked up. In addition to housing an easy-to-use directory of contact names for getting permits, it has a production guide that provides information on production companies across the state. There’s also a growing list of “Useful Links” to regional support organizations and a page that lists all Academy Award winners and nominees from Massachusetts-made films. The site is online at mafilm.org

The Massachusetts Production Coalition, which is online at massprodcoalition.com, elected 22 members to its board of directors in May, and the list is something of a Boston-area film industry who’s-who. Among them: Julie Arvedon of Boston Casting, Tom Field of The Field Organization, Mark Hankey of Picture Park, John MacNeil of Moody St. Pictures, Kathy O’Toole of National Boston, Mitch Rosenwald of Magic Box Films, Dona Sommers of AFTRA-SAG, and Tim Van Patten of Central Booking.

As quickly as this past week’s unsettled weather swept through Hull, so too did film crews from director Martin Scorsese’s latest project, an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel set on a Boston Harbor island.

Scorsese and the film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio, arrived at Pemberton Point early Monday morning to prepare for filming on Peddocks Island, which has been transformed into the set of “Ashecliffe,” a movie based on Lehane’s 2003 novel “Shutter Island.” The book is set in 1954 and tells the story of a US marshal [played by DiCaprio] who searches a Boston Harbor island for an escaped patient from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

The overcast skies were reportedly perfect for the film shoot, which includes scenes in which a hurricane deluges the island’s foreboding brick buildings and underground bunkers. Members of the production company staff also said Scorsese’s movie is among those that are rushing to wrap up filming by June 30 in case of a threatened strike by the Screen Actors Guild.

As food-service trucks, supply trailers, modular office units, and even his-and-hers bathrooms labeled “Lucy” and “Desi” from as far away as California crowded the parking area at Hull Gut, the movie stars used the high school’s cafeteria as a wardrobe and makeup studio.

Celebrity-watchers who staked out Pemberton Pier caught glimpses of DiCaprio, Scorsese, and other Ashecliffe stars early Monday morning and when filming was finished at around 6:15 that evening. Hull Police Sgt. Bart Forzese escorted DiCaprio from the high school across the street as the actor, dressed in a brown suit and wearing a 1950s-era fedora, made his way to the boat dock.
Nobody was allowed on the island while the filming was taking place.

“I’m sorry, it’s a closed set,” said Paramount Pictures spokesman Larry Kaplan, in turning down the Times’ request to observe the actors at work. “We haven’t done any publicity on this in any of our locations.”

In April, Paramount personnel spent 10 days in town staging the island for the movie. On June 17, a Green Hill resident called the fire department after seeing smoke coming from one of four boats off of Hull at 7:35 p.m.; the incident also was part of the Ashecliffe filming.
In addition to DiCaprio, the film stars Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Mark Ruffalo, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Michelle Williams. It is scheduled to be released in October 2009.
Even though the film set was self-contained – the canteen trucks provided lunches for the actors and rented trailers were stuffed with tools and supplies – the presence of Hollywood types in Hull was felt by local businesses.

Town Manager Philip Lemnios said Paramount paid the town $10,000 for the April shooting period, representing $1,000 per day for 10 days of police details and parking-lot rentals. This week, the film studio paid the town another $1,000 for Monday’s activity, plus a $500 donation to the school department for use of the cafeteria.

“The Clarion benefited immensely from the Paramount group,” said Steve Campbell, senior sales manager of the Clarion Nantasket Beach Resort Hotel and Spa. “The group has been here the entire month and also stayed for the most part of April. They are a great group to work with, and they helped us reach June occupancy of around 90 percent the entire month, when put with the rest of the hotel mix of clients.”

Campbell, a member of the Hull Nantasket Chamber of Commerce board of directors, also said the crew members “definitely dined around town while here for the entire month,” giving a boost to local restaurants and stores.

Hull was used as a staging area for the film, but Peddocks Island, with its steep cliffs and the remains of Fort Andrews, is the real star of the movie. No scenes were shot on the mainland in Hull, although other Massachusetts locations include Medfield State Hospital and a mill in Taunton.
Lehane – a Boston-area author whose previous works include “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby, Gone” – appears to have combined several aspects of Boston’s harbor islands to create his fictional Shutter Island.

In the book, US Marshal Teddy Daniels [DiCaprio] and his partner, Chuck Aule [Ruffalo], search an old fort, vine-covered cliffs, and a fenced-off lighthouse for murderess Rachel Solando [Mortimer], who “is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades – with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war,” according to the book’s plot summary.