“Motherless Brooklyn” Movie Shoot Transforms Henry Street

By on February 25, 2018 11:43 pm in 11201, Arts and Entertainment, Brooklyn Heights, Movie shoots

If you were walking on Henry Street Friday and approached the block between Pineapple and Orange streets, you may have been asked to cross the street and walk on the other side, as a movie shoot was in progress. Looking across the street, you would have seen some storefronts temporarily transformed to a decades-ago look, as in the photo, along with vintage cars parked in front of them. This was for a movie adaptation, directed and with screenplay by Edward Norton, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bruce Willis, and Willem Dafoe, and based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem.

Motherless Bklyn 2

One storefront that did not get modified was that of Fortune House, which may have looked enough like an early 1950s Chinese restaurant. The photo above shows it with a Ford Customline, from that era, parked in front.

Photos by Martin Friedman; used with permission.

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  • redlola

    they sucked up all the parking spots up and down hicks so novelty of seeing these ancient cars everywhere wore off in about 5 seconds. it is abusive to the residents of a neighborhood with already limited parking to have whole blocks sucked up for long stretches of time especially on a friday night when people want to get home and park. i’m not at all starstruck and could not care less if i never saw another taping here. we don’t benefit from any money and since they have craft service, the only businesses that really benefit from production are those who rent out their space. otherwise, it’s just a huge inconvenience.

  • Heights Guy

    I think it’s awesome and fun.

  • redlola

    good for you. #shrugs

  • Jeff 7X Smith

    Those cars! OMG it’s a hoard of Cuban DINA agents in their 50’s cars (which now often have Mercedes and other later engines)

    Hey guys if you can spare a Hudson Hornet (with Twin H Power) or a Commodore 8, I have about $200.and change on me…

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Well said, I couldn’t agree more on this one.

  • Brightblack

    The film business is a significant employer in NYC. This one film shoot represents 100+ people’s livelihoods. There are direct benefits (the caterers are local companies, the craft service crew has to buy snacks at local stores, locations get hefty fees) but more significantly there are a ton of jobs in the film/TV industry that support families like mine in increasingly hard-to-afford NYC. Although parking can be an inconvenience for a day or two, the Mayor’s Office does a good job of making sure no one block gets that inconvenience more than once or twice a year. We do our best to work with local residents and respond to their concerns; I would hardly call the activity abusive.

  • redlola

    I see no crew ever in the local stores. I do see them hanging out on my stoop and and my neighbors’ stoops. Not sure where you live – are you even in no heights — but hicks street gets hit multiple times a year. In fact, the block comment makes me think you are not in the heights cause you would recognize the lack of parking and the impact of losing any of it. Bottomline, an inordinate amount of filming happens in a handful of neighborhoods of nyc and no heights and dumbo where I work are two of the hardest hit. I am over the huge trucks and street blockages on these tiny, narrow blocks. They need to find other locations in nyc.

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s a photo taken by a friend of mine, who gave me permission to post this:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05cc35abc5bacc1c982d5c3cb81662d5d2ac9f7ac1d3bef700df1acd8a72b623.jpg

  • Andrew Porter
  • Andrew Porter
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    BS, most of the production subcontractors are from outside the city, as are a lot of the crew. The sale of bag of chips and a can of Coke hardly justify the sever inconvenience to local residents. Have you ever driven around for an hour and a half looking to park because multiple film shoots were hogging up so many parking spaces?
    Filmmaking is a lucrative business, there is no reason the industry shouldn’t pay their fair share to use public space. heavy fees should be charged for using our streets as a backlot. $20k per block per day sounds about right.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    I thought so too, when I was like 10. Grow up.

  • Teresa

    Streets are blocked with cones 12 or more hours before the time posted on the signs to clear them; the industry gets enormous tax breaks; and almost no money is spent in local stores. There are no doubt a lot of reasons to support filming in NYC, but let’s not overstate the benefits and underestimate the inconveniences.

  • Teresa

    I have to say that I had a moment of exultation when I saw the signs at Sociale, thinking that a luncheonette with ice cream had opened. Then my brain turned back on, and I walked on, disappointed.

  • Reggie

    “Filmmaking is a lucrative business, there is no reason the industry shouldn’t pay their fair share to use public space.” You mean, like the average car-owner? How much is a monthly pass to park on the streets in the Heights?

  • Heights Guy

    Sorry. I’m a Toy R Us kid! By Choice.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Big difference, I live and pay taxes here, also I am not using the parking space for commercial purposes, duh.

  • MaryT

    Amen. We’ve become a back lot depot. I never minded when the smaller (and fewer) Haddad trucks came. But these tractor trailers are huge, ubiquitous, noisy, and spew exhaust. Cui bono?

  • redlola

    Standing ovation. If I wanted to live on a movie lot, I would have moved to one.

  • redlola

    you make zero sense.

  • Reggie

    This is a poor metric for determining whether or not I make sense but whose opinion has the City of New York agreed with? Mine or yours?

  • redlola

    NYC government decision-making, particularly under the current Mayor, leave A LOT to be desired. The bottomline in this discussion is that the residents of BK Heights did not sign up to live in a movie backlit and our neighborhood gets a disproportionate amount of filming “traffic.” And on many blocks parking is NOT free (see Henry Street), so what we are setting up is a two-tier system where the dubious, greedy, city government gets to prioritize film-making over the needs of neighborhood residents and citizens who contribute as much, if not more, vis-a-vis taxes than the “film industry.” People in BK heights likely pay more than in many other neighborhoods while suffering a disproportionate impact cause our neighborhood seems to lend itself well to film-maker vision. (“throw in a gratuitous eyeroll for good measure).

  • brooklynbull

    Agreed. If you’re filming in the neighborhood — compensate the immediate neighborhood.