More Hollywood in Jersey City

Filmmakers can sometimes have dreams beyond making the next movie. Sometimes they are about being the next big movie mogul.
Coppola formed Zoetrope Studios, Lucas created Lucasfilm and Spielberg co-founded Dreamworks SKG.
Garry Pastore, Deborah Mello, and Chuck Abate, who run Hudson Film Group in Jersey City, a small production company, are the next filmmakers dreaming big.
The pair is working with Hoboken music producer Rob Grenoble, who owns the Water Music Recording Studio at Ninth and Madison streets in Hoboken, to create a $25 million entertainment complex in Hoboken that will someday expand into Jersey City. The complex would be built as part of Grenoble’s planned expansion of his studio, which will include several floors built on top of his current studio. The studio started in 1980 and has seen acts such as Yo La Tengo and Matthew Sweet record there.

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Hudson Film Group is looking to create a $25 million entertainment complex.
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Pastore, who is the cousin of actor Vincent Pastore – who played “Big Pussy” on the Sopranos – said he has been “in discussions” with Hoboken officials such as the city’s Director of Cultural Affairs Geri Fallo about support for his project, and is looking to approach financiers about bankrolling it.
Last week, Pastore said he sees this complex as a place to shoot feature films and live television, to mount live theatre, and as a post-production sound facility for film as well as a recording studio.
He believes the project is part of the “big picture” in terms of bringing arts to Hudson County.
“People have to see art in their community, and I think this complex will make us culturally competitive with Manhattan,” Pastore said.
Pastore brings a background in film as both as an actor with small parts in films such as “Goodfellas” and “Donnie Brasco,” and as a set dresser on “Spider Man” and the TV show “30 Rock.”
If Pastore and Mello succeed in building the complex, they have 10 scripts ready to produce to get business in there. Currently, they are working on a documentary film, “Waiting for Budd,” which is about the Hudson Film Group’s staged reading last month in Hoboken of the 1954 Oscar-winning movie, “On the Waterfront.” In the 1950s, the film was shot in the mile-square city.
The film will also be a tribute the movie screenwriter, Budd Schulberg, who attended the reading in Hoboken and passed away a week later.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.