Delta Films
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Taunton - Who’s to say Steven Spielberg won’t make his next movie here?
Although it’s too soon to state with any degree of certitude that it will
come to pass, the fact is parts of Taunton and North Dighton are being
considered as location sites for a major cinematic production about the
Civil War and the 16th president of the United States.
As for it possibly being a Spielberg production, the famed director in the
spring of 2008 went on the record that he was seriously considering
making a movie based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Team
of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
Liam Neeson — who had acted in Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” —
reportedly was anxious to portray Lincoln. Sally Field, it was also
reported, was being offered the role of his wife, Mary Todd.
A little over two weeks ago, a Boston-based, professional film-location
scout met up with Dick Shafer, Taunton’s economic development director,
and spent the better part of the day looking at potential movie set
locations in Greater Taunton.
These included Riverfront Park in the Weir Village, the Gertrude M.
Boyden Wildlife Refuge off of Cohannet Street and the Three Mile River
near the former Dighton Industries complex on Spring Street in North
Dighton.
It was the latter, Shafer said, that most interested Jeff MacLean, the
proprietor of New England Locations — a company whose résumé boasts
of having found sites for such movies as Martin Scorsese’s gangster tale
“The Departed” and the Disney Pictures drama “A Civil Action.”
Shafer said Three Mile River’s natural setting behind the industrial
complex — with Taunton on one side of its banks and North Dighton on
the other — impressed MacLean as a place where a famous Civil War
scene involving Lincoln could be recreated.
According to Shafer, the timeline is connected to the historic burning of
Richmond, Va. in 1865 by Confederate troops, as they abandoned what
had been the Confederacy’s center of government.
Less than two days after the devastating blaze, President Abraham
Lincoln landed on the banks of the James River to inspect the smoldering
ruins of that once grand, Southern city.
Shafer noted that MacLean especially appreciated the extent to which the
Three Mile River and its surrounding woods at that juncture remain
unadorned.
The only sign of modern technology are some power lines, but those,
Shafer said MacLean told him, could easily be removed from the finished
product by means of digital technology.
And by the time shooting starts in the spring, Shafer added, leaves on
the trees will have grown back in, further obscuring any sign of
contemporary 21st century existence.
MacLean, Shafer said, didn’t make any bones about the fact that the
movie in question is to be a Civil War-era saga, and that the director is
someone who is quite well known.
“A famous director, somebody as big as Scorsese,” Shafer said, referring
to the director who in 2008 recreated a Nazi concentration camp in
Taunton’s Whittenton Mills industrial complex.
That Scorsese movie, initially titled “Ashecliffe,” is scheduled to be
released next October under the name “Shutter Island.”
Also in 2008, actor Bruce Willis was in the Silver City on the grounds of
the state-owned Paul A. Dever School off of Bay Street, shooting scenes
for a movie to be called “The Surrogates.”
Shafer said MacLean was referred to the Taunton region by the
Massachusetts Film Office — and Taunton, in particular — because of
Scorsese having worked here.
He also said it’s no surprise that more big budget movies are being filmed
in the Bay State. In 2008 Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law a 25 percent
film credit; since then “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Ashecliffe”, among
others, have been made in Massachusetts.
Mayor Charles Crowley has turned into something of an advocate for more
movies being filmed here in Taunton.
Besides the usual publicity, he points out that small businesses on the
periphery of those movie sets benefit financially, when crew members
spend money on food and other products and services.
“We welcome it,” Crowley said about the possibility of scenes in a movie
about Abraham Lincoln could be shot in or near Taunton.
But he was quick to caution that the project is still “in its infancy stages.”
Crowley, a local historian of note, claims that he is a distant relative of
Lincoln, whose bicentennial birthday will be celebrated on Thursday, Feb.
12.
Before he was elected president, Lincoln visited Taunton as a
congressman in September of 1848, while campaigning for presidential
candidate General Zachary Taylor.
He spoke at two locations in the city, most notably in Mechanics Hall at
the intersection of Danforth and Hopewell streets in Whittenton, across
from where the Reed & Barton company stands, Crowley said.
Shafer said that MacLean also paid a brief visit to the city’s Old Colony
Historical Society, where he inspected documents and memorabilia related
to Lincoln and his visit to the city.
Peter Merrigan, facility manager of 620 Spring Street Industrial Complex
— the North Dighton propoerty that once contained Mount Hope Finishing
and, following that, Raytheon Co. — said that he met with MacLean and
gave him a tour of the site.
Roughly half of the sprawling complex, including a section directly facing
out onto the river, is now being demolished, he said, as a means of
cutting energy costs.
Merrigan said he assumes “there’d be no problem” if a movie company
wanted to negotiate an agreement with the owners (known as Landman
Omnibus 13 LLC), so that they could rent the land in order to film there.
“We’re in the business of making deals,” Merrigan said
Although it’s too soon to state with any degree of certitude that it will
come to pass, the fact is parts of Taunton and North Dighton are being
considered as location sites for a major cinematic production about the
Civil War and the 16th president of the United States.
As for it possibly being a Spielberg production, the famed director in the
spring of 2008 went on the record that he was seriously considering
making a movie based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Team
of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
Liam Neeson — who had acted in Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” —
reportedly was anxious to portray Lincoln. Sally Field, it was also
reported, was being offered the role of his wife, Mary Todd.
A little over two weeks ago, a Boston-based, professional film-location
scout met up with Dick Shafer, Taunton’s economic development director,
and spent the better part of the day looking at potential movie set
locations in Greater Taunton.
These included Riverfront Park in the Weir Village, the Gertrude M.
Boyden Wildlife Refuge off of Cohannet Street and the Three Mile River
near the former Dighton Industries complex on Spring Street in North
Dighton.
It was the latter, Shafer said, that most interested Jeff MacLean, the
proprietor of New England Locations — a company whose résumé boasts
of having found sites for such movies as Martin Scorsese’s gangster tale
“The Departed” and the Disney Pictures drama “A Civil Action.”
Shafer said Three Mile River’s natural setting behind the industrial
complex — with Taunton on one side of its banks and North Dighton on
the other — impressed MacLean as a place where a famous Civil War
scene involving Lincoln could be recreated.
According to Shafer, the timeline is connected to the historic burning of
Richmond, Va. in 1865 by Confederate troops, as they abandoned what
had been the Confederacy’s center of government.
Less than two days after the devastating blaze, President Abraham
Lincoln landed on the banks of the James River to inspect the smoldering
ruins of that once grand, Southern city.
Shafer noted that MacLean especially appreciated the extent to which the
Three Mile River and its surrounding woods at that juncture remain
unadorned.
The only sign of modern technology are some power lines, but those,
Shafer said MacLean told him, could easily be removed from the finished
product by means of digital technology.
And by the time shooting starts in the spring, Shafer added, leaves on
the trees will have grown back in, further obscuring any sign of
contemporary 21st century existence.
MacLean, Shafer said, didn’t make any bones about the fact that the
movie in question is to be a Civil War-era saga, and that the director is
someone who is quite well known.
“A famous director, somebody as big as Scorsese,” Shafer said, referring
to the director who in 2008 recreated a Nazi concentration camp in
Taunton’s Whittenton Mills industrial complex.
That Scorsese movie, initially titled “Ashecliffe,” is scheduled to be
released next October under the name “Shutter Island.”
Also in 2008, actor Bruce Willis was in the Silver City on the grounds of
the state-owned Paul A. Dever School off of Bay Street, shooting scenes
for a movie to be called “The Surrogates.”
Shafer said MacLean was referred to the Taunton region by the
Massachusetts Film Office — and Taunton, in particular — because of
Scorsese having worked here.
He also said it’s no surprise that more big budget movies are being filmed
in the Bay State. In 2008 Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law a 25 percent
film credit; since then “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Ashecliffe”, among
others, have been made in Massachusetts.
Mayor Charles Crowley has turned into something of an advocate for more
movies being filmed here in Taunton.
Besides the usual publicity, he points out that small businesses on the
periphery of those movie sets benefit financially, when crew members
spend money on food and other products and services.
“We welcome it,” Crowley said about the possibility of scenes in a movie
about Abraham Lincoln could be shot in or near Taunton.
But he was quick to caution that the project is still “in its infancy stages.”
Crowley, a local historian of note, claims that he is a distant relative of
Lincoln, whose bicentennial birthday will be celebrated on Thursday, Feb.
12.
Before he was elected president, Lincoln visited Taunton as a
congressman in September of 1848, while campaigning for presidential
candidate General Zachary Taylor.
He spoke at two locations in the city, most notably in Mechanics Hall at
the intersection of Danforth and Hopewell streets in Whittenton, across
from where the Reed & Barton company stands, Crowley said.
Shafer said that MacLean also paid a brief visit to the city’s Old Colony
Historical Society, where he inspected documents and memorabilia related
to Lincoln and his visit to the city.
Peter Merrigan, facility manager of 620 Spring Street Industrial Complex
— the North Dighton propoerty that once contained Mount Hope Finishing
and, following that, Raytheon Co. — said that he met with MacLean and
gave him a tour of the site.
Roughly half of the sprawling complex, including a section directly facing
out onto the river, is now being demolished, he said, as a means of
cutting energy costs.
Merrigan said he assumes “there’d be no problem” if a movie company
wanted to negotiate an agreement with the owners (known as Landman
Omnibus 13 LLC), so that they could rent the land in order to film there.
“We’re in the business of making deals,” Merrigan said
Film crews may be back in Silver City
by Roland Hansen
by Roland Hansen
