Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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—CHRIS BYERS The key to Boston's success in the entertainment industry is its writers, says actress and producer Christy Scott Cashman, one of the original investors in The Kids Are All Right, the indie film starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore that was nominated for four Oscars, including best picture. "You don't have anything unless you have a good story," Cashman says. "New England is home to writers from John Irving and Stephen King to Sue Miller and Tom Perrotta. To me, this amplifies the fact that Boston is the place where story starts. "We have as many great writers here as there are blonde bimbos in LA," she adds with a COMING SOON Movies recently filmed in Massachusetts. The Heat: Sandra Bullock headlines as an uptight FBI agent partnered with a crotchety Boston cop, played by Melissa McCarthy, in order to take down a ruthless drug lord. Labor Day: The story of a lonesome single mother, played by Kate Winslet, and the escaped convicted murderer who takes refuge with her. Jason Reitman directs. Grown Ups 2: Adam Sandler reprises his role as goofy Lenny Feder, who moves his family back to his hometown. The Way, Way Back: Steve Carell stars in this coming-of-age comedy about a teenager on summer vacation who strikes up an unlikely friendship with the manager of a water park. Captain Phillips: Tom Hanks plays Richard Phillips, the real-life captain of a US cargo ship, who gave himself up as a hostage to Somali pirates in 2009 to keep his crew safe. Clear History: An HBO movie about a disgraced marketing executive who plots revenge against his former boss. Kate Hudson and Michael Keaton star. Liam James, Amanda Peet, Toni Collette, Rob Corddry, and Steve Carell in The Way, Way Back. Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in The Heat. BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 110-117_BC_F_REELLIFE_Spring13.indd 113 PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLAIRE FOLGER (THE WAY, WAY BACK ), GEMMA LAMANA (THE HEAT ) "The industry could create a lot of work for a lot of people. I know we have the potential to be a dynamo." laugh. "LA is so saturated with people who want to be in the business and who are trying to be in the business. [But] very few people are actually doing something." Here in Boston, people are doing something. Take Chris Byers, for example. It is a warm, sunny afternoon in Devens, and Byers, sporting a white hard hat and a puffy winter coat, stands atop a mountain of dirt. He's admiring what he and his New England Studios team (which includes staff, investors, and project overseers) are undertaking: a $40 million project to transform an unassuming former military base into what Byers hopes will become a filming destination for the Northeast. As bulldozers rumble nearby, he points to massive slabs of concrete, more than 60 feet high, which will eventually become the walls of New England Studios: four soundstages fit for Tinseltown blockbusters, plus administrative offices, production office space, hair and makeup departments, as well as outbuildings for set construction and electrical storage. He gestures across the street to where he plans to build a film school. "I love that it's happening, but in a way it's still surreal," he says. Born and bred in Lowell, Byers spent nearly three decades in LA working in many capacities, from stuntman to executive producer. The result is a personality that is part cocksure confidence and part salt-of-the-earth sincerity. New England Studios, which is being funded privately by a group of local investors, has been Byers's goal for the past six years. It is slated to open this summer. "My job is to get the film industry going in Massachusetts," he says, and he aims to go beyond merely locating movies here. "This industry could create a lot of work for a lot of people…. I know we have the potential to be a dynamo; we just haven't realized it yet." The next step is to encourage directors not to pack up and leave after shooting their films or TV shows but to do postproduction (editing, special effects, and so on) in purpose-built facilities here. Byers's studio—and other projects like it in the state, including a plan to develop a film studio in Westborough—could change that. (An earlier plan to develop a studio complex in Plymouth is mired in scandal and financing difficulties; it has been postponed indefinitely.) "In order for the big studios to come here on a consistent basis, they need a soundstage," says Bill Earon. His company, Coastal Capital Advisors LLC, has helped fund more than 300 projects in the state since 2007. The first largescale independent movie that Earon was involved with here was Edge of Darkness, a cop thriller starring Mel Gibson, which was shot in the Boston area and Western Massachusetts. "A 113 2/11/13 3:31 PM