Car chases and massive explosions might suggest the end of the world as we know it, but in reality, they’ll be the stuff upon which a new Steven Spielberg film will be based. The action thriller, based on the science fiction classic “War of the Worlds,” was expected to start filming this week here in Bayonne.
Paramount Pictures has already acquired the rights to use many of the properties on Kennedy Boulevard near First Street, and for several weeks, workers from the International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees have been scrambling to get houses and yards reconstructed to meet the film’s needs, including stringing up laundry lines in the back yards, constructing a building under one of the decks, and reconstructing one of the houses. Special equipment has also been installed on some of the roofs to allow cameras to be mounted for the filming of exterior shots.
During the summer, Spielberg himself surprised local resident Henry Sanchez by showing up at the door and asking to use his house for the upcoming film. The house, which is situated on a block very near the arches of the Bayonne Bridge, was apparently the perfect location for an invasion of aliens from Mars. And because significant scenes from the H.G. Wells novel feature the hero trapped in a house near the space invades, Sanchez’ house is expected to take center stage for part of the film production – the reason why the exterior and three floors of interior scenes have been reproduced at the movie studios located at the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne.
Tom Cruise will play the lead in the movie, which was adapted for the screen by David Koepp (of Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible) and Kathleen Kennedy. Dakota Fanning will play Cruise’s daughter. Other stars include Tim Robbins, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, and Camillia Sanes. The film, which is being rushed into production, will likely see release next July 4, and is expected to cost more than $100 million to make.
A tour of the set?
While Paramount Pictures did not grant permission for photographs or a visit to Henry Sanchez’ house, the Bayonne Community News got to take a short tour of the movie sets at the studio. Pictures of the sets were not permitted, and the script details are shrouded in secrecy.
From the outside of the brick building that serves as Spielberg’s film studio, little has changed in the 60 years since the U.S. Navy constructed it as a depot for supplies. And though the military has since turned over the facility to the city of Bayonne, the building still buzzes with activity: cars parked in front, stacks of building material posted at the doors. Inside, instead of crates of food and other materials waiting for shipment for some distant military engagement, an army of artists, carpenters, electricians and others scurrying through a maze of hastily constructed offices – each marked with small signs detailing their assignment, such as the art department or props.
Ray Samitz, a man in his early thirties sporting a beret, oversees the development of sets that will be used for the film. He is the only person on the crew that has read the script for the upcoming movie, so he can oversee the construction of the sets scene by scene.
“We all have precise instructions as what we have to do,” said stage manger Jeremiah Sellitti. “But only Ray has read the script.”
Good location for movie-making
A cool air swirls through the interior of the hanger-like structure. When the crew first arrived, the building was merely a shell – walls surrounding two chambers in which the crews of artisans had to construct interior sets. Sellitti said the Bayonne studios provide a lot of advantages to movie making, although there are a few handicaps, such as regulating the sounds and the need to construct everything from scratch.
Heating is not a problem since the producers of “A Beautiful Mind” (another film shot here) installed a heating system during the making of that movie.
“It was more cost-effective for them to install it than rent heat,” Sellitti said.
Issues like parking and access for bringing in equipment far outweigh other concerns, and the former Military Ocean Terminal provides wide-open space. Spielberg, who has kept many aspects of the movie production secret until the film is done, has significant security. Only city officials or people connected with operations have access to the Peninsula area.
The crew has also constructed their own offices, a cluster of walls in which departments are scattered, and operations run through an office loaded with desks – over which architectural drawings are spread and crafts people chat about details. Work benches are crowded with pieces of wood and blueprints.
The smell of sawed wood and recent painting lingers in the air as painters and carpenters rush to their various jobs beyond the office space. Although banks of lights hang from every conceivable angle, for that moment when Spielberg orders the cameras to roll, the sets are bathed in bright overhead lights.
“These lights get turned on when the action starts,” said Sellitti.
The sets under construction duplicate the exact exterior of a house located on Kennedy Boulevard, with the same brick front, same front porch and same doorway. In fact, three floors of the house have been constructed, including the basement, first floor, and second floor.
Walking up the front stairs and into the first floor, the house was completely furnished – although perhaps not the way Sanchez may have furnished his own home.
Each floor is laid out as real
Traveling through the rooms of the studio home, there is a sense of a place that has been lived in, odd knickknacks put in various corners, the details of life that most people take for granted. There are the refrigerator magnets in the kitchen, which also features a stove, sink and tables, and a slightly lived-in feeling that someone might walk back into the room at any moment. Baskets on the counter have a variety of items, even cookies. And the refrigerator is loaded with food.
“Everything in the refrigerator is product placement,” Sellitti said, holding up a pop-top can of soda.
Wooden floors had throw rugs. Rooms have sofas and chairs. There is even a pinball machine in one room. The stairs and banisters have been stained. With each floor constructed as a separate unit, these stairs, of course, go nowhere – although in touring the second floor a few minutes later elsewhere in the studio, the set of stairs continues.
“These floors are constructed so that they can be removed without affecting the building if we need to shoot a scene from those angles,” Sellitti said.
Huge screens that can be opened like a hospital bed curtain are drawn around the front and back of first floor during shooting – each bearing the massive photograph of the street, Bayonne Bridge, and other aspects that anyone looking from the porch or out the windows of the house would see.
“When we shoot a scene, we turn on lights behind the screen that make it look sunny in one section and dark in another,” Sellitti said.
Crafts people have constructed gray wooden walls on either side representing the neighboring houses. Out the back door from the kitchen, artisans constructed a deck, simulating the one out back of the original house. A few yards away, stairs lead to a similar structure with a full bathroom and children’s room complete with toy horse and globe. The basement section – labeled as Ray’s basement for the character Tom Cruise is expected to play – is complete with boiler, ventilation ducts and wooden walls painted to resemble cinderblocks.
Expect great special effects
The studio has a host of people to cover every aspect of the scene, from designing the sets wardrobe selection. Some of the costumes were purchased through various second-hand stores for many of the extras expected to be in the movie. The studio is renting space in several buildings, where many of the costumes and other effects are put together.
Walter Olander, who helps maintain the studio facility, said staff people bring in a bale of clothing and separate what they will need for various extras.
The special effects department has also been working on several dozen cars as part of the disaster effect, installing fallen light poles into hoods. The parking lot is filled with cars that will be destroyed to simulate the Martian attack, including one classic black 1965 Mustang and other cars from the 1960s and 1970s. The film is employing four stunt drivers, two of whom will act as doubles for Tom Cruise – suggesting that film will feature some high-speed chase scenes.
The special effects department has spent a lot of time stripping labels from suitcases and procuring animal carriers for dogs and cats. Cases containing breakable glass were piled up in preparation for the shoot, as well as a variety of other items. But the most telling item in this collection is the numerous devices that will be used to simulate fires and explosions – with barrel after barrel of special fire-making material sitting on the dock, as well as specially designed vehicles that will carry some of these items in and out of scenes.
Local workers recently saw some of the special effects people trying out what they call “fire guns” to be used in the film. And if anyone needed a clue as to the mood of the film, special effects also had several dozen barrels of “fog fluid.”
