NORWALK -ÊFilming starts today on “Laws of Motion”, an independent movie that will get by with a lot of help from one of America’s best-known “Friends.”
“Matthew Perry is the lead,” location manager Marshall Johnson said last week.
As anyone who owned a television between 1994 and 2004 knows, Perry became a star playing wisecracking Chandler Bing on the Emmy Award-winning sitcom “Friends.” More recently, he starred in “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which NBC canceled this month after one season.
Perry’s movie resume includes 2000’s “The Whole Nine Yards” and 1997’s “Fools Rush In.”
Two-time Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank also will appear in “Laws of Motion”, a comedy that will be shot almost entirely in Norwalk.
“We’ve got one day (of shooting) in Stamford and two days in Westport, but the rest of it’s all in Norwalk,” Johnson said.
Swank will participate in a few days of shooting, he said.
Also appearing will be Ben Foster, who played Russell Corwin on HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” Foster appeared in the 2006 movie “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Alpha Dog,” a film released in January.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Perry’s character is “a husband struggling with life in a repressive career and community along with headaches caused by his free-spirited brother (Foster) and sister.”
“Swank will take on a supporting role as the all-too-perfect neighbor of Perry’s harried character,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Most of “Laws of Motion” will be filmed in East Norwalk, Johnson said, but there also will be three days of driving shots and two or three days of filming in SoNo. Filming is slated to wrap July 2.
Norwalk has the “community feel” the production needed, said Johnson, who characterized “Laws of Motion” as a film about a family with history in a town that has history.
“Everyone’s been so great (in Norwalk), but aesthetically for this film it’s just so perfect,” he said.
Production officials have worked with the city to minimize any disruption filming might cause, Norwalk police Lt. Paul Resnick said.
“I think they have a healthy respect for the citizens and the needs of the city of Norwalk,” he said.
Filming may require temporary road closures, but not this week, he said. Closings will be intermittent, as police will stop traffic only for the time it takes to shoot a scene.
“Laws of Motion” joins a roster of productions drawn to the area since the state legislature last year approved a 30 percent tax credit for movie makers.
Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com
