Hollywood in the Hub

Whitey Bulger Sparks New Interest in Tours and Future Movies

2011-06-28T10:16:00.001-05:00

Now the next chapter is ready to be written as the Whitey Bulger arrest has certainly sparked up a big interest in Boston crime movies. From The Departed to Mystic River to The Friends of Eddie Coyle to The Town, Hollywood has loved to use Boston as a backdrop for crime dramas.

Watch Video Featuring On Location Tours:
Boston Arrest Sparks New Interest in Boston, NECN

Now that Bulger has been arrested after being on the run for 16+ years, expect Boston to continue to serve as the crime drama/mob movie hub for Hollywood producers for years to come. Only time will tell which movie spin we will we see next. Will it be The Departed part 2 that builds off of the original? Or will we see more accurate portrayal of Whitey's life told from the point of view of:

- One of his crew. There have already been plenty of books written by former associates that Hollywood could adapt.

- Whitey's girlfriend, Catherine Greig - Will she sell her story to Hollywood? We haven't seen this story before so my guess is Barbara Walters will be all over this interview in a few years.

- Whitey himself. According to several sources, agents found a manuscript in the apartment they raided in California. Could this serve as both Whitey's confession while also sparking a movie production?

More Information

Watch Video Featuring On Location Tours: Boston Arrest Sparks New Interest in Boston, NECN
Read: Hollywood loves Boston’s seamy underbelly - The Boston Globe

Hollywood celebrities are spotted in Boston - Boston.com

2011-05-11T00:05:00.000-05:00

Mark Wahlberg was in town today filming a scene for a new movie called Ted in the Boston Public Garden along the Boston Movie Mile. Check out more: Hollywood celebrities are spotted in Boston - Boston.com

Kevin James is Back - Open Casting March 26th

2011-03-25T13:55:00.001-05:00

Kevin James can not get enough of Massachusetts. After filming Grown Ups, Mall Cop and the upcoming Zookeeper, James is back to film Here Comes the Boom.

If you wanted to get involved, Boston Casting is holding an Open Casting Call on the South Shore for the film this Saturday. Boston Casting is looking for people of ALL TYPES (ages 18+) to be extras on the film that is shooting late March- early June. Anyone interested should bring a current photo.

Open Call Information:

Saturday March 26th

10am- 3pm

South Shore Casting Studio

Hanover Mall

1775 Washington Street

Hanover, MA 02339

People who have already attended an Open Call for this film do not need to attend another one. For more information, visit www.bostoncasting.com

Governor's Trip Shows Movie Location Tourism Picking Up Steam

2011-03-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Governor Deval Patrick recently took a trip overseas and received repeated requests about tours for movie location sites in the Baystate. Here at Boston Movie Tours, we've seen that recent Oscar nominees The Town, The Social Network and The Boxer have been big drivers for the guests interested in the 2011 season.

“We’ve had a number of questions about tours of destinations that have been used in the movie industry,” said the governor. The governor says there’s a lot of interest in seeing the spots that have shown up recently on the big screen.

Listen to the interview:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/03/22/governor-europeans-interested-in-touring-states-movie-sites/

Boston Movie Tours Ranked #4 in United States

2011-03-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

Boston Movie Tours recently took in 4th place of nationally ranked movie location tours.

TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel site, recently announced the top ten movie tours in the U.S., according to TripAdvisor travelers and editors.

Offering an entertaining and educational behind the scenes look at where some of the hottest films in history have been made, these tours are ideal for silver screen connoisseurs and star-gazers alike.

Read the Full Article
http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/tripadvisor/42943/

Great Boston Movie Video

2011-03-17T13:03:00.000-05:00

Just saw this great montage of Boston movies on Funny or Die. Check it out. First time I've seen Good Will Hunting, The Departed, The Boxer, The Town and others all in one video.

Boston Movie Trailer - watch more funny videos

Charlie Sheen: Live in Boston - Culture Desk - An Entertainment and cultural blog by The Boston Globe

2011-03-16T17:21:00.000-05:00

Mr. Charlie Sheen is bringing his 1-man show to Boston on April 12th which got me thinking..... In how many Boston movies has Sheen appeared? Sheen has appeared in dozens of movies but the closest Boston connection is Being John Malkovich. The Back-to-Boston Connection: It's a stretch but the real John Malkovich lives in Cambridge. If you want to check our Sheen's rants, head on over to Boston University to pick up tickets.

Charlie Sheen: Live in Boston - Culture Desk - An Entertainment and cultural blog by The Boston Globe

Kevin James About to Film Soon - Casting Call this Saturday

2011-03-11T10:44:00.000-05:00

Boston Casting has an open casting call for extra this Sat for a feature film starring Kevin James from 10am -3pm. If you are looking to be an extra, here's your chance. Must be 18+. Go to bostoncasting.com for more info.

Sarah Jessica Parker filming at Faneuil Hall - The Names Blog - Boston.com

2011-03-11T00:23:00.001-05:00

Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker hit the hub today to film a scene at Faneuil Hall. Parker is filming a new movie called "I Don't Know How She Does It."
Get the details from The Names Blog - Boston.com

2011 Schedule Coming Soon. Opening in May

2011-03-07T12:01:00.000-05:00

Boston Movie Tours is opening in May this season. We plan to have a few tours sprinkled throughout April so check this site for the latest updates.

Four Boston Academy Awards

2011-02-28T07:00:00.001-05:00

Boston area movies represented the city well taking home four awards.

Christian Bale won for Best Supporting Actor. Bale was awesome but personally, I was rooting for Jeremy Renner in The Town. Loved The Town for being a true Boston movie.
Melissa Leo for Best Support Actress in The Fighter
Aaron Sorkin won for adapted screenplay for The Social Network
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter win for Best Editing for The Social Network

Katherine Heigl set to shoot movie in Boston - The Names Blog - Boston.com

2010-10-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

According to the Boston Globe, The Age of Adeline is tentatively scheduled to start shooting in the Boston area in the spring 0f 2011. Katherine Heigl from Grey's Anatomy stars in this movie about a woman who doesn't age that is faced with a decision when she meets the man of her dreams...give up immortality for the man she loves.

Katherine Heigl set to shoot movie in Boston - The Names Blog - Boston.com

Film School Just Got Easier

2010-10-19T09:50:00.007-05:00

The Harvard Bookstore held an event promoting 101 Things I Learned in Film School last night. Co-authors Neil Landau and Matthew Frederick were both on hand to discuss the best-seller which proves to be a straightforward and interesting read. Landau said of his book, "you can turn to any page and cure writer's block." The book's format has really popularized the 101 Things I Learned series created by Frederick.

His first book 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School actually sprung from his own frustration while living in Cambridge, MA. "There's too many damn architects," Frederick said, prompting him to turn to writing. "Then [the architects] all bought the book!"

Matthew Frederick is an architect and urban designer in addition to his writing credits. He is currently working on several new book projects, including Copernicus Goes to Suburbia and Radical Urbanism. Other topics he has co-authored/co-learned 101 Things in, include business school, culinary school and fashion school.

Neil Landau is a screenwriter whose film and television credits include Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead, Doogie Howser M.D., Melrose Place, The Magnificent Seven and The Secret World of Alex Mack. He has developed scripts for a number of production companies such as Disney, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. And he also teaches at UCLA's School of Film, Television and Digital Media.

101 Things I Learned in Film School

2010-10-18T15:02:00.005-05:00

How does effectively set a scene? What is the best camera angle for a particular mood? How does new technology interact with scenes? And how does one even get the financing to make a movie? these basic questions and much more are covered in this book on the film industry and making movies as a profession. With insights for someone who wants to make movies as a full time career, or just someone who is just interested in film, 101 Things I learned in Film School, offers an inside view of the art and craft of filmmaking.

Harvard Book Store is very pleased to welcome screenwriter Neil Landau, for a conversation about his best-selling book 101 Things I learned in Film School. Joined by creator of 101 Things I learned series, Matthew Frederick, tonight, October 18, 2010, at The Harvard Bookstore @ 7pm. Event is free, no tickets required.

Here is the link.

Boston Movie Tours will be in attendance tonight to catch the conversation... and we'll also be giving away a couple tickets to our tours at the event!

Conviction In Theaters Today

2010-10-15T15:07:00.006-05:00

Today's release of a new Massachusetts-set film is met with some controversy. Conviction is the big-screen telling of a story based on true events that took place here in the Bay State. The movie, however, was not locally shot.

Hilary Swank plays a working mother who puts herself through law school in order to represent her brother at trial. Her brother played by Sam Rockwell was wrongfully convicted of murder. The movie also stars Boston Movie Star Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting).

This story is told through the eyes of Swank, or rather her character's point of view. The controversy that has surfaced has been from the victim's family, who apparently were never contacted by Swank who also produced.

Conviction is in theaters today. The official trailer can be seen here.

Matt Damon's New Movie Hereafter

2010-10-13T15:09:00.006-05:00

Hollywood in the Hub star Matt Damon teams up with director Clint Eastwood (again) in their new Warner Bros. film Hereafter. The movie hits theaters nationwide Friday 10/16 and should do well at the box office. Check out the official trailers.

The last time Eastwood directed Damon was in 2009's Invictus, which actually earned Damon an Acadamy-Award nod for best supporting actor (Christoph Waltz / Inglorious Bastards). But Clint has a talent for bringing out the best in his performers. He directed Sean Penn to a Best Actor Oscar for the Boston-made Mystic River. So maybe Matt will ~Hereafter~ get a chance to add to his own collection of Oscars!

Brad Pitt in his First Boston Movie "Moneyball"

2010-10-05T17:40:00.000-05:00

Men, watch your wives. It's being reported by boston.com that Mr. Brad Pitt is in town scouting Fenway Park for his next movie Moneyball. We've been waiting for Pitt to join the superstar ranks of Boston filming. This is the first movie filmed in Beantown that Pitt is appearing in.

Moneyball is based on the book of the same name about how Oakland As GM Billy Beane uses new school methods to put together successful baseball teams. In the book, the Red Sox Kevin Youkilis is referred to as the Greek God of Walks for his knack of getting on base via walk. The funny thing is Youk isn't greek.

Catch up on the details: Brad Pitt playing "Moneyball" at Fenway Park - The Names Blog - Boston.com

Affleck won't direct Superman film

2010-09-28T23:36:00.000-05:00

Fresh of starring and directing in Boston's The Town, Ben Affleck won't be jumping aboard the Superman train.

Read all the details on Boston.com

The Town's On Top!

2010-09-24T14:03:00.004-05:00

Moviegoers across the country made the Ben Affleck film The Town the highest grossing movie of the past week raking in roughly $30 million. And it's still going strong here in Boston anyway...

I know because the 8m show I went to see last night sold out as I waited in line for tickets. So my friends and I got tickets for the 9pm, which also sold out. Now of course the "stadium seating" in the theater really had no comparison to the actual stadium seats of Fenway Park like when I first saw the flick. And of course the popcorn was the opposite of free, no peanuts, no crackerjack, and no Ben Affleck... but the movie was maybe even better than I remember it.

So twice in two weeks I've seen The Town (I still haven't robbed a bank), and I was treated to two completely different sets of previews. Last night we literally were shown 20 full minutes of previews! 20 minutes is the length of a sitcom without commercials! ARGH! I honestly can't name half of the movies that were previewed, and I probably won't see the half I remember...

The Fighter I will see. I hadn't seen a trailer for the movie since March when I actually got to watch about 15 minutes of real footage and another half hour of back story/research the filmmakers put together. It was awesome. And in the trailer from last night, I saw a clip from the same stuff I'd seen 6 months ago. It's of Mark Wahlberg and his dozen or so sisters cursing and fighting each other on a porch. The Berg plays Irish Mickey Ward, a Lowell born and bred boxer trying to reach the top. His brother in the movie is played by Christian Bale and both looked in absolute peak physical condition. The movie was primarily shot last year in Lowell with re-shoots happening out in L.A. It hits theaters this December!

Ben Affleck Premieres The Town at Fenway Park!

2010-09-15T12:57:00.009-05:00

Ben Affleck's The Town gave many Bostonions something exciting to watch at Fenway Park this September, sorry sox. And not just the movie, but the people-watching and "star"-gazing was a thrill too for many here in the Hub.

Over the past few years Fenway Park has frequently undergone venue transformations. The Winter Classic brought a hockey rink. There was "Football at Fenway" this summer. And a number of concerts have been played recently by such acts as Dave Matthews Band, Paul McCartney and Aerosmith. Last night's premiere of The Town was my favorite or these transformations.

A movie screen was erected about the visiting team dugout and the lucky guests were all seated on the third-base line. The buzz in the air was invigorating, like that heard inside a happy beehive with a surplus of honey. It was electric. I know for me, every first time I walk up that ramp from the concession area into the park itself I'm always overloaded with that Fenway Feel. This time was no different. As my eyes looked up the ramp they saw not monster green, not sox red, but movie screen white. The buzz just grew.

The evening of entertainment really got underway as some VIP's were ushered to their seats after their pictures and interviews were taken on the field. The girl sitting behind me had just unbelievable vision, pointing out celebrity after celebrity from pretty far away. She literally was doing her own E! on the Red Carpet commentary. "Now we have Tom Brady in his classic Sculley Cap, looks like he's here with Giselle... And that's Matt Damon with his wife..." and so on and so forth. Really everyone from the film was in attendance including principals Blake Lively, and Jon Hamm. But really everyone from the film was in attendance, including local actors and local film crews. Affleck said in his pre-screening address that he was excited to give the screening in the Hub so all the awesome Bostonions that contributed could enjoy watching their work with their families and friends on such a grand scale. He also said that "Matt Damon will be signing autographs after the show". Good times.

Ben Affleck's pre-screening talk not only touched on the talented movie makers here in Massachusetts, but also included a dedication of sorts to the people of Charlestown who weren't really depicted in the film. That even though The Town focuses on the evil and the ugly side of its population, Charlestown is home to mostly hard-working, honest people who do not deserve the bad rap the movie gives it.

Finally, the movie, with no real spoilers!! First of all, welcome to a true Boston movie in every way possible! The accents were perfect, spot on. Not just the accents, but the truth behind them. Very real, and when you get that from a movie right at the start, it's just so much easier to get into the world that you are about to be a part of for the next two hours. The characters in the movie were clearly defined which made their interactions and dialogues that much more captivating. And even though there were some occasional plot twists or reveals, you could always tell exactly the goals of each character and knew where each stood. The character's each had a foil or two, had a parallel character or two and I'm very interested in seeing it again to study some of their relationships in better detail.

The settings make this a real Boston movie. If they had not set up shop in Charlestown for the majority of their filming, The Town would just be the punch line to the joke, "Where does Gigli live?". Haha. But the movie fans in Fenway, myself included, felt a real connection to the Boston we were seeing. Not necessarily to the crime per se, but to the city we live in, work in and see everyday. From Bunker Hill to Harvard Square and from the Old North End to Fenway Park itself, The Town for us really could have been called "Right Over There".

This is now what I consider to be the best Ben Affleck movie, formerly Good Will Hunting. And I had GWH in my mind from time to time during The Town. Both were strongly acted and showcased a realistic Boston in their film. Part of GWH's success was the monologues, that's how the characters came to life. There really wasn't much of that this time around... and I was actually kinda waiting for it. The only real monologue is Affleck's story about how his mother left. I remember watching it thinking that the story wasn't that good and the performance wasn't particularly moving. I then remember feeling strangely satisfied that the monologue wasn't better nor the acting... because it actually fit better being the way it was. It was more real, more believable. Because this character isn't going to find the right way to say what he's trying to say. He doesn't want to tell the story, and he knows that he doesn't really know the full story. And it's more or less the story of who he is, which he's questioning anyway. I really enjoyed that. And thinking back to the stories/monologues in GWH, you have Robin Williams with a beautifully dark, well-spoken opening up to Damon on the bench, and Damon himself time and again expounding brilliant, logically reasoned intelligence and emotion through his speeches in the Harvard Bar, at his job interview and in a courtroom. Now Affleck's story about his Uncle Marty at a bar scene in GWH is so much like his character's from The Town. The GWH story is not the best story, not the funniest, not the best told or acted... but the perfect fit for the film, even if it was just to set-up Minnie Driver's story.

Anyway, that's one of the things I've thought about most since seeing The Town, that a robbing a bank. And there's such great little things in the movie that make the biggest difference in turning a good movie into a great movie, or a great Boston movie. Another quick GWH for example, "Morgan wanted to get you a T pass". In The Town we get "I learned it from my mother". See the movie, get the joke.

Speaking of see the movie, it hits theaters everywhere this Friday, 9/17. Thanks to the people at Warner Bros. and Fenway Park for making last night so special. And thanks to everyone who spent last year making this movie the best Boston movie of 2010!

BMT on hand for The Town Premiere

2010-09-13T17:51:00.000-05:00

We just got our tickets and are pretty excited to be part of Ben Affleck's The Town red carpet premiere at Fenway Tues night. We worked with Warner Brothers, Cheers and the Liberty Hotel to give away Boston trips in major markets across the U.S. The winners receive a special The Town movie tour which departs Tuesday afternoon. We then hit the red carpet about 7.

Watch the Trailer
The early reviews on IMDB are fantastic so looking forward to this heist flick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7wcayQQLQ

THE TOWN TOUR THIS TUESDAY!!!

2010-09-09T11:10:00.004-05:00

We've been waiting for another great movie starring both Boston and Ben Affleck for awhile here in The Hub, and the wait is almost over. Just 9 days from now The Town hits theaters nationwide and we couldn't be more excited to offer a special Bus Tour featuring The Town on Tuesday 9/14! Our *Special* The Town Tuesday Bus Tour starts at a special time, 12pm! Get your tickets now!!!

For more information on The Town

The Town - Coming Soon!

2010-08-13T12:20:00.005-05:00

Just saw my first and second commercials for the latest greatest Ben Affleck flick, The Town. I remember all the filming buzz from last year and can't wait to see how it all comes together on the big screen. It hits theaters nationwide September 17th and also stars Chris Cooper and Jon Hamm. The trailer is here from the official Warner Bros. website. Check out our picture from The Town filming around the Boston Common last November!

Mark Wahlberg in Massachusetts for Premiere

2010-08-04T10:06:00.004-05:00

The Other Guys drops in theaters this Friday, but some lucky folks in Hingham got to check out a special screening with the star himself earlier this week. Mark Wahlberg reportedly visited his brother's restaurant with his family and screened the movie down there on the south shore.

You've obviously seen the trailers and ads for the new flick, which actually look pretty funny. Those who watch movies with me know how hard it is for me to enjoy a Will Ferrell movie, but I'm certainly gonna give this one a shot. Especially after hearing that they shoot Derek Jeter in the movie! The movie will likely do very well in Boston!!!

Massachusetts Movie Monday Bus Tour 7/26

2010-07-19T15:46:00.000-05:00

Next Monday 7/26, we are celebrating the 5 year anniversary of Boston Movie Tours by offering special discounts on our Theater-on-Wheels bus tour. Hop aboard our bus for the cost of a walking tour. So pay the regular walking tour price, and we'll throw in the bus for a nearly 50% discount.

All tickets for Mass Movie Monday cost only $23 when you book online.

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TODAY