Dumbo NYC

I can’t keep up with these filmings in Dumbo. Two film crews are taking over a few streets today. One titled “Tag” will be filming through 10pm tonight on:

• Pearl Street between Front and York Street
• York Street between Adams and Bridge Street

The other titled “Kidnapped” will be filming until 11pm tonight on:

• Washington Street between York and Water Street

Check the street for no parking signs and if you forgot to move your car, it’s probably towed.

Filming for the TV drama, Castle (2009) is taking place on the following streets in Dumbo Brooklyn on Monday, June 9, 2008 from 5am - 11pm:

• Jay Street between Front and John Street
• Water Street between Bridge Street and Anchorage Pl
• Pearl Street between Front and John Street

Check the street for no parking signs and don’t forget to move your car so it won’t get towed. If anyone will be around to take some photos, please email them to me for posting here.

{Castle, IMBb}

The Brooklyn International Film Festival, a 10 day International event for independent film makers is taking place this week. One of the highlights is a film called The Collective, written and directed by husband and wife team Judson Pearce Morgan and Kelly Overton. Kelly also plays a woman who goes to NYC to look for her sister who disappeared. Her search leads her to a clandestine society, where the film takes us through some dark, mysterious, and thrilling scenes. Several of the scenes were filmed in Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights last year.

A second screening will take place on Thursday, June 5 at 8pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum. (Details here) We caught Judson for a few questions.

DumboNYC: A lot of scenes in THE COLLECTIVE were filmed in and around Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo. Were you and Kelly living in the area at the time?
Judson: Yeah, we were living on Clark St. in Brooklyn Heights. We would go on walks on the promenade to brainstorm as we wrote the movie and naturally be inspired by the beauty of the area and the city.

DumboNYC: Was the filming in the area for convenience or specifically for the scenes in the movie?
Judson: There were a few sequences in the film where the lead character, played by Kelly, is sent on a wild goose chase around the city by a group of her sisters friends, Dumbo and the surrounding area were the perfect locations to send a girl who isn’t familiar with the city, to get her out of sorts. It was a combination of the story needs and the sheer cinematic quality of the streets overlooking Manhattan and the bridges.

DumboNYC: Have you written a follow up to the movie? What’s next for you and Kelly?
Judson: We are in the gearing up for our next film, a modern day take on the story of the prodigal son. But, we are proud to announce that THE COLLECTIVE will be getting distributed, so anyone who misses it on the festival tour will be able to pick it up when it gets a broader release later this year or early 2009.

Thanks Judson and hope we’ll be seeing more of your films!
More info on the Film festival: wbff.org
thecollectivemovie.com

Holly over at the 801a blog posted a bunch of pics, including some of Denzel Washington and James Gandolfini from the filming of The Taking of Pelham 123 (earlier post about the film).

Lots more pics on 801a.

{First Look at Denzel Washington in Pelham 123 Remake, BeyondHollywood.com}

Fellow Dumbo blogger, Dtourist snapped this photo of Dan Rather in Dumbo on Water Street on Monday. Brooklyn Heights Blog also saw Mr. Rather earlier this month on the Promenade. Maybe he’s using Brooklyn as his on-the-street reporting for his show on HDNet? Anyone know what he’s been up to in the area?

A few shots of Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher taken at the movie shoot location on Pearl Street in Dumbo Brooklyn yesterday. It was for the filming of “What Happens in Vegas“, for release in 2008. Click photos for larger version:

{What Happens in Vegas Film Shoot in Dumbo on 4Sept07}
{IMDB: What Happens in Vegas}

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the comedy previously mentioned on DumboNYC, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as firemen, pretending to be a gay couple in order to receive their pensions, have posted the movie trailer. Rob Schneider and Jessica Biel also star in the movie. The movie was filmed around New York City and many of the scenes in Brooklyn, including Prospect Heights, Park Slope, and Dumbo. The trailer has several shots on Washington Street and Front Street in Dumbo.

{“I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” on YouTube}
{“Chuck and Larry” Movie Shooting in Dumbo Today, DumboNYC}

  Shot on location in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of fashionfightspovertydc.

On October 27th, during the United Nations’ week-long 61st Anniversary Celebration, policy makers, designers, models, celebrities, humanitarians and other stylish Washingtonians joined together to work towards making poverty history.

Legendary hip-hop artist Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels teamed up with fashion stylist and designer Elizabeth Muir for photo shoot in Dumbo Brooklyn to create a socially aware look for the United Nations (U.N.) Fashion Fights Poverty look-book being produced for the U.N. Fashion Fights Poverty Event held this past weekend.

“In its second year as part of the United Nations Association’s United Nations Week, Fashion Fights Poverty (FFP) hopes to contribute to the exciting and very necessary debate on the role of fashion, design and - dare we say, consumption - in our collective responsibility to work towards eradicating poverty.”

The great part of Darryl McDaniels is not only is he a hip-hop legend, but he’s involved in charity events and community events to raise awareness on issues like poverty.

{fashionfightspoverty.org}
{DMC Official Website}
{Fashion Fights Poverty Flickr photo set}

Mary J. Blige (opened by Pharell Williams) played at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Dumbo Brooklyn tonight presented by Pepsi Smash Live and Power 105.1 Radio. We happened to stop by hoping to get in and luckily got tickets from a woman who gave away her tickets. Mary J. Blige played for a good hour and the backdrop of Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge was a great location for the native New Yorker to perform some of her best hits: Take Me As I Am, Baggage, Be Without You, I’m Going Down, One (U2), Love is All We Need, No More Drama, Real Love, Family Affair.

The roster of Hollywood A-listers, music-industry powerhouses, authors and artisans who reside in the Borough of Kings is top-notch.

Wander over to the Grand Army Plaza subway station in Park Slope and you might catch Jennifer Connelly looking “beautiful and fragile, with no makeup on and dressed in jeans, a brown sweater, and sleeveless green vest,” as one fellow Brooklynite described her, as she takes her eldest son to school weekday mornings.

Over on Atlantic, see Heath Ledger - who, with Michelle Williams, is raising a daughter, Matilda, in Boerum Hill - ducking into a deli Sunday morning for bottled water.

Later in the week, Williams may pop by Smith Street lingerie store Andie Wee while actors Emily Mortimer - spotted having trouble finding her wallet in Cobble Hill’s Pacific Green grocery - and Alessandro Nivola push a stroller along the sidewalk outside.

Randy Harrison from “Queer as Folk” stops by Starbucks on DUMBO’s Front Street for a java fix. Over in Clinton Hill, Adrian Grenier hangs out - sans Entourage. Sopranos actor John Ventimiglia - you know him as chef Artie Bucco - drinks at Boat; Ledger frequents Ceol.

..and some music entertainment in the area:

These days, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville still produce some of the hottest young rap talents and, further west in DUMBO, artists who’ve made it, like Mos Def, have set up house. There’s even been rabid rumor-mongering that the king of hip-hop himself, Kanye West, is on the cusp of moving into the neighborhood.

The borough is a crossroads where Busta Rhymes, who lives in the posh Gretsch building overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge, may cross paths with the guys in They Might Be Giants. Actor Rosie Perez, who lives in Fort Greene and was spotted attending an anti-Ratner rally in Prospect Park last month, may mix with Park Sloper John Turturro, who parks his car on Union Street and takes his kids to the park on his days off.
…
“Paul Giamatti lives in Brooklyn Heights,” says one gawker. “Last Halloween he painted his face like a lion and cruised around with his son. They’re always at the playground in DUMBO or on Montague Street. I saw him and his wife a few weeks ago swimming at the YMCA on Court Street. Their kid was obsessed with some rubber ducks in the pool.”

{Welcome to Brooklyn, Hot Celebs Put Down Roots in Hippest Borough, NY Post}