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Wednesday, November 12, 2003
HBO's 'Empire Falls' to wrap this month
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Maine's Hollywood autumn will soon be over. The cast and crew of the HBO movie "Empire Falls," who have been creating excitement across the state since early September, are scheduled to wrap up filming by Thanksgiving. The film, based on Richard Russo's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel about life in a Maine mill town, is scheduled to be aired on HBO in 2005. The film brought its stars - including Paul Newman, Ed Harris and Helen Hunt - to dozens of Maine locations, from coastal York County to rural Norridgewock. More than 2,600 local people were used as extras, including about 650 who were used for a football-game scene at Skowhegan Area High School in late October. Lynn Kippax, the film's location manager, said Monday that the remaining scenes will be shot only in Waterville and Skowhegan. So for people who have not yet had a chance to see any of the stars, or any of the filming, only a few chances remain. The crew will be shooting today, for instance, at Waterville High School, which is currently sporting an "Empire Falls High School" sign out front. This week the crew also has plans to shoot at the Second Baptist Church on Water Street, Kippax said. In the coming week or so, scenes will be shot in Skowhegan at Patrick's Pizza Joint on Water Street, site of the movie's "Empire Grill" restaurant. Shooting will also be done soon at the Skowhegan Redington-Fairview General Hospital. Kippax said he couldn't say for sure what days each scene will be shot, because weather and other factors can change the schedule abruptly. Of the film's large ensemble cast, only Harris, William Fichtner (Jimmy Minty) and Danielle Panabaker (Tick Roby) are still in Maine, Kippax said. Stars who were in the state earlier this fall for the filming include Newman (Max Roby); Joanne Woodward (Francine Whiting); Hunt (Janine); Dennis Farina (Walt Comeau); Aidan Quinn (David Roby); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Mayne); and Robin Wright Penn (Grace Roby.) At all locations, onlookers have been welcomed by the cast and crew, as long as they don't interfere with the shooting. In Norridgewock, Harris, who plays lead character Miles Roby, stopped to chat and laugh with people watching the filming. "This should be fun for the people of Maine, (the film crew) is their guest," said Kippax. "So we've been trying to create as much access as possible." People who worked as extras on the film got $6.75 an hour, plus the chance to see a movie set up close. The Waterville and Skowhegan high schools each earned about $23,000 for the hundreds of extras they sent to the football game at Skowhegan. The amount that would have been paid per extra was instead donated to the two schools. Most of the filming has been in Waterville and Skowhegan, because those two old mill towns have the sort of downtowns, mill buildings and older housing stock depicted in Russo's book. Russo, who lives in Camden, also wrote the screenplay for the film. While "Empire Falls" has been in Maine, there have been only a couple of notable problems. Some merchants in Skowhegan claimed that the filming was making it tough for customers to get to certain stores. But as filming continued, town officials there say the problems eased. Quinn, who plays Miles Roby's brother David, was arrested at 2 a.m. on Oct. 25 in Waterville and charged with drunken driving. Quinn, who lives in New Jersey, was released on bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 19 in Waterville District Court. Police said Quinn was stopped on Kennedy Memorial Drive and had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit, but they would not say what it was. The Maine Film Office, which along with Russo worked to have the film made here, has estimated that the film's economic impact on the state could be as high as $250,000 a day. That number takes into consideration direct spending by the film company, as well as money spent later by local businesses. Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com
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