American Gangster Set Visits
From
Anon: For 3
days AG was filmed in lovely Brooklyn New York, and the weather
was perfect for it. It was filmed in and about The Marlboro housing
projects, Stillwell Ave, Ave V, wests 11th and 12th streets.
A number of movies have been filmed in the area, such as The French
Connection, Saturday Night Fever and the opening of an old tv show
called Welcome Back Kotter. People can now point and say "American
Gangster" was filmed
here.
The Marlboro projects was used in place of The Steven Crane Projects in Newark NJ. They placed signs saying so whereever they filmed. There were tons of vintage cars everywhere, many burned out cars and lots of fake garbage littered in bunches along the sidewalks. A number of rappers seemed to have a few roles in the film, all of whom drew big crowds of people. Residents of the area can be seen sitting in lounge chairs, camera in hand awaiting any action.They also used the exterior of a house on Ave V, directly across from one of the entrances of the projects. For some reason they wrapped early on Thursday night, apparently a popular rapper was there and did a few songs.
The Ave W side of the projects is where
the trailers were, Russells trailer was the big one on the corner of
Stillwell and Ave W. For anyone who remembers an old Russell interview
on Andrew Denton, I'm hoping his is bigger then Denzels!, I thought
I saw a sherpa stranding next to it one afternoon. Denzel is set to
start his filming in September. They were moving on after this shoot
to the Brooklyn Navy Yards, that's the area below the Gowanus Expressway,
near Industry City and close to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Russell
looked great, he wears the clothes of the seventies well, not an easy
task considering the decade.
I hope they come again to shoot more here, maybe on MY block the next time? Ahh fagettaboutit!! |
| From Gail: Saw some filming of Amer. Gangster on 125th St. Turned one corner and was taken back to a night in the 70's. Stayed behind the imaginary line but leave it to me to step in just... alittle further. Watched some filming. Unfortunately the intersection being used was a busy one which made it hard to hear dialogue. The set people did their job when it came to detail. They used a gas station (just pumps+ the guy that used to clean your windows, front and back) It sat below The Cotton Club, an old-time musicians club. It was cool!!! Oh, by the way, for anyone wondering, No, no RC. Too bad, I would of asked him to sing. Saw someone who looked like DW and some rapper dudes. |
I got there at about 3:15 PM and
nothing was going on. I waited around for about 20 mins and then
gave up and headed home. On the way I saw a PO from the Movie and
TV Unit who told me they were only on a lunch break and would be
back around 4 PM. Thank God I asked. This gave me some time to
pick up a disposable camera.
When I got back to the project/set
I sat on a bench and struck up a convo with Gill the Intern who
told me DW would not be starting shooting until 9/11. RC is filming
solo now, then with DW and then DW solo. Also that earlier in the
day they were shooting exterior shots and now they were going to
shoot interior shots. When my friend arrived we walked around to the front
of one of the buildings and low and behold he finally came out.
He was wearing the dark shirt with the white piping and jeans and
I think brown boots. On and off Mickey gave him a tan leather/pleather
Eisenhower length jacket to wear.?
We know he noticed
us because we were the only middle aged white ladies there. Everyone
else was looking for the rappers. We waved and he waved back. They
discouraged picture taking, tho God knows why, with all the pictures
out there on the net. Me with my crummy disposable they said no
flash. At one point he was sitting under a tarp type thing
talking to Flashy
Freddie, (MySpace) I think his name was, a rapper turned
actor.
Later on I met a security guard who bumbed two cigarettes from me in exchanged for 3 bottle of water. I also met a stand in/future actor for Steve Ortiz who's name was also Steve. Just before I left, around 7PM,
RC came out again and they were shooting a scene in an ambulance. All in all it was interesting
and tedious. All the people there was very friendly and it is quite
an open set.
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