The
Town
Trivia:
'It'll be just like one
of my sunny days'
(Total Trivia Entries: 28)
Apparently Ben Affleck wasn't the first choice to direct this movie! Scroll down to find out more from The Town
trivia.Written by:Peter Craig (screenplay)
Ben Affleck (screenplay)
Aaron Stockard (screenplay)
Chuck Hogan (novel "Prince of Thieves")
Starring:
Ben Affleck - Doug MacRay
Rebecca Hall - Claire Keesey
Jon Hamm - FBI S.A. Adam Frawley
Jeremy Renner - James Coughlin
Blake Lively - Krista Coughlin
Slaine - Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan
Owen Burke - Desmond Elden
Titus Welliver - Dino Ciampa
Pete Postlethwaite - Fergus 'Fergie' Colm
Chris Cooper - Stephen MacRay
Victor Garber - Assistant Bank Manager
Danny DeMiller - Eskimo Story Speaker
Tony V. - Vericom Crew Chief
Isaac Bordoy - Alex Colazzo
Corena Chase - Agent Quinlan
Casting:
Apparently, Jeremy
Renner (James 'Jed' Coughlin) decided to surround himself with actual
convicted bank robbers in Charlestown for research reasons and to help
him get the accent right.The Town was originally set to be directed by Adrian Lyne, but apparently he had a falling out with Warner Bros., so they asked Ben Affleck to step in.
Director, Ben Affleck, was most concerned that the actors not have phony sounding Boston accents. When Blake Lively read for the part of Krista, apparently she sounded so authentic that he asked her what part of Boston she grew up in. In fact She was born and raised in California.
In the novel, Krista was supposedly to be in the late 30's, but Ben Affleck decided to cast Blake Lively because he was very impressed by her performance in her previous film, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.
Apparently Ben Affleck asked Blake Lively to visit the locals in the town of Charlestown as part of researching her role. Lively spent one month hanging around with locals, their apartments, and bars before filming began.
When directing the movie, sometimes Ben Affleck would wear the skull mask. Rebecca Hall, who plays Claire Keesey, found it difficult to take directions from him when he wore the mask.
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Screenplay & Production:
The movie is based Charles Hogan novel and he got the idea for his novel in 1995, based on a series of bank robberies and armored car robberies by Townies focused attention on Charlestown which took place in the early 1990's. In one heist in Hudson, New Hampshire, two guards were left dead and the movie mentions a New Hampshire armored-car robbery.The author of the novel, Charles Hogan, has been quoted as saying; "It was just so remarkable that this one very small community was the locus for bank robbers." But he was very aware that crime was only one part of the community, and he didn't want to make all residents of the neighborhood look like criminals.
In late August 2009 filming began in Boston.
For the first robbery the interior scenes were filmed in the former MASSBank branch located in Melrose, Massachusetts and the exterior shots of the bank are of Cambridge Savings Bank in Harvard Square, taking on the name Cambridge Merchants Bank.
For the scenes showing The Charlestown ice arena, filming took place at the Harvard's Bright Hockey Center in Allston, Massachusetts.
In the scene in which Dez is killed, according to Ben Affleck, there was a cut of the scene which featured a bloodier version where blood spatters the ambulance. However, the MLB decided that the scene was too violent and Affleck used another cut of the death scene which featured less blood.
For the casino scenes filming took place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.
For the prison visiting room scene filming took place in the visiting room of Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Cedar Junction in Walpole, Massachusetts.
Apparently every Boston Police cruiser shown in the movie comes from the fictional district A-8, which also existed in Boston's Finest (2010)
The studio initially wanted the movie to have the novel's ending, which was a darker ending in which Doug (Ben Affleck) is mortally wounded during his shootout with Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) and ends up dying in Claire's (Rebecca Hall) apartment in her arms. This darker version of the ending was filmed but test audiences approved the theatrical version of the ending in which Doug survives.
The movie was shipped to theaters under the code name "Criminal Intent".
The movie's premiere was held at Fenway Park and the cast walked a red carpet along the first baseline.
Ben Affleck's childhood friend, Matt Damon apparently slipped into the press line at the premiere in Boston, hidden under a Boston Red Sox cap.
At the movie's premiere, director and start of the movie, Ben Affleck made the following statement; "Charlestown isn’t full of bank robbers and Dorchester isn’t full of bad guys and Southie isn’t full of math geniuses or bad people."
Slaine (Gloansy) was apparently worked as a concession seller at Fenway Park when he was a teenager. He described going back there to shoot the film as "surreal."
For the trailer of the movie, a voice says "There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. Most of these professionals live in a 1-square-mile neighborhood called Charlestown." According to the FBI, in the first quarter if 2010 there were only 23 reported bank robberies in the entire state of Massachusetts, compared with 49 in Illinois and 136 in California.
The movie ends with the following written disclaimer; "Charlestown’s reputation as a breeding ground for armed robbers is authentic. However, this film all but ignores the great majority of the residents of Charlestown, past and present, who are the same good and true people found most anywhere."
The original cut of The Town was 4 hours long. After realizing that a 4 hour long movie would never appeal to wider audiences, Ben Affleck cut the film down to 2 hours and 50 minutes in three days. After screening that version, the studio and producers loved it but still thought it too long. Affleck and producer Basil Iwanyk eventually had to cut personal favorite scenes to make the film work for wider audiences. The film then went through even more change at a studio standpoint when they wanted the film at no more than 2 hours and 10 minutes. Eventually, Affleck cut the movie down to 2 hours and 8 minutes, trimming action sequences, character development and dialogue.
While happy with the theatrical cut, Ben Affleck has stated that an Extended Cut
will be
featured on the DVD and Blue-ray with deleted
scenes
on top of that. He also stated that, while the theatrical cut of The
Town is a close adaptation of the novel on which it's based on, 'Prince
of Thieves', the extended cut is more of a mirror of the novel, staying
truer to the book. Take a a look at this behind the scene footage of how they made the film feel authenticate.
Interview with Ben Affleck, who wrote, directed and starred in The Town:
Interview with Jeremy Renner:
Interview with Rebecca Hall:
Still want more, then watch or buy either theatrical or extended cut on DVD or Blu-ray
.
Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840361/trivia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Town_(2010_film)
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