By DIANE VALDEN
ANCRAM—Frankenstein and his bride will be taking a little spin through Ancram next week.
But unlike many who travel through town to admire the countryside, this will be no pleasure trip for the pieced-together couple…they will be too busy trying to outrun the cops.
At least that’s part of the storyline revealed by Warner Bros. Picture representatives who appeared before the Ancram Planning Board in April and May to ask for special use permits to film a few scenes for a major motion picture now in the works called, “The Bride (Shotgun Wedding).”
The film is written and directed by actress/filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose first foray into directing was a psychological drama, “The Lost Daughter” in 2021.
Her new “highly anticipated film,” slated for release in October 2025, is “a film noir love story” that “follows Frankenstein from the creation of his true love to a whirlwind romance as they run from Chicago to New York City in the mid-1930s landscape,” according to a letter handed out to Ancram residents who live near the filming locations.
The film boasts an all-star cast, including Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s monster, Jessie Buckley as “The Bride,” along with Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard and Julianne Hough to name-drop just a few.
Jacob Metsa and his associate, with the Warner Bros. Pictures Location Department, told the Planning Board in April that the production seeks permission to film in Ancram for two days next week, May 14 and 15 from about 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Though they plan to film for just two days here, they are applying for two-month-long permits (May and June) in case of inclement weather or actor health issues. They also ask to be able to renew their permit in case they need to reshoot something before the film comes out.
They told the board they are working with the Hudson Valley Film Commission on the project and have been in contact with Columbia County Tourism.
Mr. Metsa said they started filming in New York City in April. To help them achieve the period look, he said they had to “cut down light poles on the upper west side of Manhattan.” They will be filming for 53 days and have been in production for six months already. They will be filming in four different upstate New York counties and five different towns.
In the film production company’s four-month-long quest to find present-day roads that can pass for the roads of the 1930s, they decided on Ancram.
They hope “to portray country roads in the mid-west” and shoot chase and other location scenes here. “The movie plot line is a film noir love story of people running through the country,” said Mr. Metsa, who remembered the Ancram landscape from having stayed nearby at a friend’s house six years ago. He said the scenery “works perfectly” for their purposes.
He assured the board that in the event of an emergency all filming halts and the way is cleared for emergency personnel and vehicles to get through. He said, that’s “standard protocol. For us it’s safety first.”
The crew has picked out two locations, one on private property at 89 Crest Lane and the other on Nivers Road, a public town road.
According to the 25-page spiral-bound application document submitted by Warner Bros., at the Crest Lane site all filming will be done on private property on an existing farm road, not the public road. There, The Bride and Frankenstein are driving in a 1930-something Cadillac on a rural road, when they spot two police cars (also 1930s vintage) in the rearview mirror. One or more of the sirens is activated. The couple pulls over, a confrontation occurs between them and one of the cops. The Bride gets into a fight with the officer, whose partner emerges from the other police car and shoots her. Frankenstein shoots the partner. “Injured, the couple drives off,” says the scene synopsis.
The three guns used in the scene are 1930s-era revolvers that will be plugged. The sound they make is similar to loud clap. The film company representatives told the board that an armorer and police will be onsite to check the weapons “especially because of what has happened in the last few years.” The statement refers to the fatal shooting that occurred during the filming of “Rust” in 2021.
At the Nivers Road film site, where the crew has to remove some electric fencing on private property to stay in keeping with the 1930s period, the filming will be on the town road. It’s the old Cadillac again, there is a dialogue scene inside the car. The car comes to a stop, makes a U-turn and takes off in the other direction.
But the filming is only a small part of all the associated activity going on, personnel and the equipment required to make a motion picture.
The application lists four other locations besides the filming sites on a Google map: two for Base Camps for parking of equipment trucks and campers at the Ancram Construction Company at 1237 County Route 7 and an auxiliary lot at 1241 County Route 7; Crew Parking at Millerhurst Farm, 3226 State Route 82, Ancramdale: and Catering at Camp Anne, 228 Four Corners Road, Ancramdale. The plan is to “shuttle crew and talent in 15-passenger vans (10 vans circling between all locations when needed.)”
The application lists dozens of vehicles of varying types including eight tractors and trailers (at least one containing restrooms), a fuel truck, six box trucks and a craft service vehicle; plus two van generators, four equipment tractor trailers, 10 to 15 passenger vans, and an “Utimate Arm” (a camera on a long arm mounted on top of a vehicle) along with other camera, audio, lighting and electric gear.
The production carries millions of dollars in liability insurance and Workers’ Compensation.
Both the Sheriff’s Office and State Police have been approached to provide pedestrian and traffic control during the production.
The Planning Board conducted a public hearing on the filming application permits at its May 2 meeting. No one objected and both special use permits were approved.
So, if you happen to see a square-headed, scar-faced dude and his blonde bombshell companion with an ink-stained face riding around in an old Cadi next week, be sure to wave, they are just folks passing through. Lights, camera, action.
To contact Diane Valden email dvalden@columbiapaper.com
