Matheson: Weve had this official tour [of Bostons FBI office] and as were leaving, I notice a picture across the room, pasted to the wall, of a person in a mask, from the CC TV. After shooting one guard outside the car and one inside the bank, they escaped in a rental truck. Stockard: Obviously youre making a movie so you mythologize it a little bit. Then they look up to find a Boston cop reading a newspaper in his police car. Chuck Hogan (author, Prince of Thieves): When the book came out, I was scheduled to do a reading at the Charlestown Public Library. But instead, Affleck went with something more bittersweet. ). An earlier version of this piece misspelled Roslindale. It really wasnt gonna work. I was like, Im not gonna do another movie in Boston. The blue-collar neighborhood produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than anywhere else in the world, according to the movies prologue. During the Cold War he had a great joke: The Russians wont invade Boston, theres nowhere to pahk! I thought, Yup, theres a lot of truth to that. That was our greatest hurdle. Hes not someone that blends in easily. Hamm: I met with Ben and he was like, You know, I think were gonna have plenty of Boston accents in this. I was like, You know what, youre absolutely right. Once I started meeting all the Federal agents in the [FBI] office, very few of them are actually from Boston. All three were from Charlestown. At one point we even had Brad Pitt ready to do it so it was really close. And I was like, Who the hell is this guy? Im like, You know what, if its terrible, Ill get a great story out of it. I sit down and I watch it, and it was really bewildering. The story was much clearer and cleaner. That was sort of the trick. For his turn as Jem, Renner was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, though he lost out to Christian Bale, who played the troubled brother of boxer Micky Ward in yet another movie set in Massachusetts: The Fighter. Which was nice. Many of them testified that they had grown tired of a life of stealing, of drugs, of broken relationships.. Just finding a place to park the trucks. FINDLAY, Ohio (WTVG) - Authorities arrested a man in Findlay Monday on bank robbery charges. The way we did that was to make the days inexpensive. Fury of the Gods Brings Back the "Shazamily": Inside DC's New Superhero Adventure, Scream 6's Brutal NYC Trip: "You Can't Trust Anyone" This Time, Cocaine Bear Is Not Just About a Killer "Coked-Up" Bear, It's Also an "Underdog Story", How Marvel's Wastelanders Podcast Created an Exciting Story with No Visual Safety Net, The Town: Ben Afflecks Heist Movie Love Letter to Boston. Hes like, What the fuck are you doing? Affleck: I certainly didnt want to set myself up to fail, say yes I could do something, shortchange myself [and] produce a substandard sequence because I didnt have the time. And they led me into this little alleyway. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Its gentrified and diverse now, a local TV show host told The Christian Science Monitor. Five men accused of a series of bank and armored car robberies around New England were convicted yesterday on charges that will send them to prison for life without parole. An alternate title for the film could be Ben Afflecks Boston, and no one would have had it any other way. Welliver: The upside of that is everybody is rooting for him. We went back to his hotel room right after. And they were like, Just so you know, weve had some calls and threats of violence. People didnt know what the book was, I think they were expecting something that would really knock Charlestown. Its this movie and its already got a script. He was a local hockey star who got drafted by the NHL, but started beating on his own teammates and got sent back home. But it isnt. I feel like were still in the black. There was one of my endings and Ben wrote a couple endings, and thats Bens ending that they used. Hes been forever. He knows how to get a story from one place to another and connect all the dots in between so that you are in it and immersed in it and believe it and its thrilling and its really entertaining, as well as being serious. They went to jail because there were cracks on the pavement, leaks on the street. Aaron Stockard (cowriter): Ben called me up and said, I know what I want to direct next. MacRay, who is a recovering addict with mommy issues, is more of a sociopath than Jem, who is only living the way the streets taught him. Then they realized that were shooting a movie. Owen Burke (Desmond Elden): I was going to a community college in Charlestown, I was working under the table, I had just gotten past some legal trouble in my teenage years. Craig: Adrian wanted 90 shooting days and $90 [million] to do it. And hes like, Wheres that from? And shes like, Oh, he was here. Affleck: The day that were shooting the shoot-out with Jeremy, where he gets killed out in front of the McDonalds behind Fenwaywhen you do these stunts with cars, you have to really clean the streets immaculately because these drivers are precision drivers. Affleck: With Jeremy Renner, somebody said to me, Theres this guy, hes got this movie coming out that you should see, its supposed to be really good. They wore wigs, fake bears and masks; in the film, brilliantly, these became nun masks and habits. Its just great that hes from here and hes back. And this woman looked at me and shes like, Hes not from heah! OK, hes from, like, three miles away. In the history of crime, the best crew was headed by John Dillinger. Hamm: Theres nothing weirder than an empty stadium. Stockard: As much as it felt like, We know this story, we know these people, there was also this entire world for us to discover. And they told us all these stories, and all these fascinating things, and built up what this mythology was. And so I think at first we were sort of like, Oh, how can we not be Heat? And at some point we said, Look, embrace Heat. And I thought, Not only is she the best actress for the part, shes gonna be able to really surprise people.. And that looks like a detail youd come up with writing a script. For instance, the shot in which a cop supervising a traffic stop takes one long look at a carload of nun-masked robbers and turns the other way? He was in his early 20s. The whole reason Matt and I wanted to do Good Will Hunting was kind of as an acting reel so that we could get jobs as actors. I had never even been in a drama class or nothing like that. This database contains birth information from several towns included in the Massachusetts (U.S.A.) Town Vital It was kind of a moment for them. He grew up in Cambridge,which was close enough to Charlestown for him to know a little about it. And everyone was like, Ah, you cant, really. Carter: That scene at the end, where you see [Jem] running across the street trying to get away from the cops, and the cars, obviously those are stunt drivers, theyre stopping really quick. The productions biggest scoop, location-wise, was being granted permission to shoot the Fenway Park heist scene in the real Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Unfair or not, Charlestown had a reputation. And then he was out, so we were using him again for research. Theyre stopping at an exactly certain point and if they go too far, peoples lives are at stakeits a very serious thing. The gentrification of Charlestown is the huge pile of rotting wood fueling The Towns bonfire of crime. Carter: A woman named Ginaya Green, who was a 20-something- year-old, born and raised in Charlestown, let me come and take photos of her bedroom, and her house, and her decor. Titus Welliver (Officer Dino Ciampa): I called the production office and I got [Carter] on the phone and I pretended I was a Boston detective. Violence, unsolved murders . He had really bad scars. I wanted to be a part of that. But he pointed out the quote. Thats where I got my best stuff. Now, William shares his story after his Caught in Providence case went viral. Its not just an accent, its more of an attitude. They blew it up and both sides of the street, all the brick buildings were totally covered in soot. It was really more of an erotic thriller: The criminal who falls in love with the captive kind of thing. Witt: You dont want to go, like, Quantum of Solace at the beginning where you really dont even know where you are, where you shot it. Although it certainly felt like he was. Slaine: I worked at Fenway Park when I was a kid, so to go in there and be shooting machine guns was pretty cool, pretty surreal. They were shooting a scene. Cooper: I dont know Jeremys height, but Ben is a pretty big boy. Theyre so proud of him and theyre so happy. There have been dozens of films and television shows filmed in the Bay State over the last decade, but by the time the 2010s came to a close, the popularity of the No R genre had faded. Affleck: The Bruins have been extremely shortsighted and wrong with their policy, where if theres swearing or violence, you cant use their logo. But John is obviously a much bigger guy. Carter: Someone was getting married. All they see are yuppies. And then a few months later I got a call and they were like, Oh, we want you to come back in and audition for the director. I show up at this office in Cambridge to go in and read and all of a sudden I see Ben Affleck walk in. But it was very real. Affleck had a personal stake in the film that went beyond proving himself as a sophomore director. Salon Professionals. Los Angles police on high alert for grand theft and planned robbery in town. Dont run away from it. We love that movie, dont be afraid of doing things that they did that worked. Citizens Bank, located at 315 Hanover St., was robbed at 9:10 a.m. and a Santander Bank at 287 Hanover St., was robbed a mere 4 minutes later. Its not a super cheap movie but its not expensive like a studio movie. They really loved the idea of putting these masked avengers in minivans. Craig: I hadnt really processed the new ending. 2 hours ago. You didnt really know what was coming. The funny thing isand I found this out laterhe met John Cena for that role. Everybody in attendance loved it; no car windows smashed or anything like that. And then we put her and her cousin in the movie. Determined to get a better grip on the place, he brought in another local, his old school friend Stockard, and began an intensive period of research. But they liked it and they wanted to meet with me, and I was like, of course. I was willing to meet with anyone who was interested in hiring me as a director. Jason Bourne kills the bad guys. A U.S. District Court jury delivered guilty verdicts on 54 of 55 counts, including ones charging the five in the Aug. 25, 1994, robbery in Hudson in which two You definitely get more of that in BPD and the local cops. Slaine: I think he was just really going for authenticity. Thats what happened. And this was toward the end of the shoot. It kind of had a post-apocalyptic feeling to it. He said, Theyre looking for guys like you. And so I went over and I read a few lines, they took my picture. Crockett: I remember being on the streets of Charlestown talking to some people. After a seven-day trial, they were convicted on 54 of 55 counts of robbery, including one which resulted in the death of two armored car guards. Affleck: In a world of increasing homogenization, having this fresh place that I think stood out, it was appealing. In the 2000s, critically acclaimed, Irish Americancentered crime dramas like Clint Eastwoods Mystic River, Martin Scorseses The Departed, and Afflecks Gone Baby Gone had turned the Massachusetts capital into a Hollywood hot spot. Rebecca Halls character asking Douggie why the kids with whom she volunteerscall her a tunie? I was only comforted by the thought that no one with a Boston accent has ever actually read the Boston Phoenix. The story appealed to Affleck. I kind of got to tiptoe around and watch them shooting from afar without them knowing I was there. If the Herald said that, I mightve taken it more personally. They were excited. Ben wasnt in Boston. Its like 50 percent of why people buy tickets. We did not have legal clearance to use the logo. FBI responds to bank robbery on NW Side. And obviously it was in Bostonthat I was comfortable with. The Town was initially supposed to end with Doug paying for his sins with his life. But it couldnt be Bruins. Affleck: The hothead friend. They dont fink. Dillinger assembled a crack team and he himself would hop over the bank booths like a jack-rabbit, hence his nickname. WebThe acquaintance, Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr., was a Vietnam veteran, a helicopter pilot, and an avid and capable skydiver. The Ringers Bill Simmons, who lived in Charlestown for eight years, said on The Rewatchablesthat, of all films, this one makes me the most nostalgic for Boston. The bars in the film are real Charlestown bars:Old Sullys (for townies), where Douggie and Jem meet early on, and New Sullys (for yuppies), where Hamms FBI officer approaches Niki. But mostly a Boston accent depends on your socioeconomic status, by and large. He also ran afoul of the law himself, recruiting real ex-cons as extras and giving them guns. Crockett: I vividly remember it. And we saw the film for the first time and I must say: I was across the aisle and up two or three rows from Jeremy, and I dont know if Im letting the cat out of the bag, but I think he was thrilled watching that film. Hogan: Dick Wolf from Law & Order somehow read [the book] early. It was as simple as that. Robert Brady, 40, was arrested in Charlestown shortly after he allegedly robbed the branch at 11:21 a.m. Which I like, and its good, but I want to sort of put our perspective on it.. He wanted to tour the prison and see it. And the guy said, Oh, the guy who wrote the book that that movies based on is on my softball team. And she said, Dennis Lehane is on your softball team? And thats when I was like, Its a small circle here.. Free shipping for many products! So he uses them in that way. And it is a bit like visiting royalty there, for me, in a way that I dont get in any other town or city in the world. In March 1995, two men held the guard of an armoured car at gunpoint as he tried to delivercash to a branch of the Bank of Boston on Massachusetts Avenue. Her words had already come true. Something the character of James (Jeremy Renner), aka Jem, could appreciate. It can be a terrible experience, meaning you can interrupt somebody when theyre trying to have a nice moment, or they can be pleasant. They were about to buy it but they wanted to cut it, too. Cooper: Hes had a wonderful career, but [The Town] was a big shot in the arm for him. But the sketchy details and the cast of characters sound like a story line from The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a classic movie about low-level wiseguys in the Boston underworld, or the sequel to The Town, the Ben Affleck movie based on a group of Charlestown bank robbers. 371K. The feds, they get shuffled around all over the country. 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