Saturday, May 28, 2011

"Men In Black 3" Throws Carroll Gardens Back Into The 1960's

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photo credit: Jeff Somogyi
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photo credit: Manny Simone
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photo credit: Manny Simone
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photo credit: Manny Simone
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photo credit: Manny Simone
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photo credit: Katia Kelly
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photo credit: Katia Kelly
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photo credit: Jeff Somogyi
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photo credit: Jeff Somogyi

A time warp took place in Carroll Gardens on Thursday and Friday. Parts of Court Street and Smith Street were thrown back into the 1960's* for the production of Men In Black 3.

Not only were the streets lined with vintage cars, taxis and trucks, but the street signs were changed to reflect a different era as well. Even the newspaper boxes were filled with papers flashing 1960's headlines.
Funniest of all were the 'fake' subway stations which were erected around the neighborhood. Apparently, Court Street has turned into Elmhurst Avenue, according to the sign on the station.

Will Smith, the star of MIB3 was not part of the high speed car chase scene that was filmed last night.
The filming of this one scene for the movie was rather disruptive, to say the least. Local residents were prevented from parking on several side streets as well as on Smith and Court. Many were heard grumbling about it.

By Saturday morning, most of the trucks had been moved and traffic seemed to be back to normal. More filming is scheduled for tonight on Court Street in Brooklyn Heights

Was anyone up last night to see the actual filming?


Thanks to readers Jeff and to Manny for sending me their great photos and for allowing me to post them.

*Apparently, the movie is supposed to take place in 1968. Previously, I had reported that it took place in the 50's.

10 comments:

chickenunderwear said...

I think they also changed the color of the street signs.

Little Earthquake said...

I watched part of the filming from Court & 3rd. They were up all night doing several takes of a motorcycle scene. Definitely made a lot of noise and kept me up til the wee hours as I live right off Court. Tonight they're shooting closer to Carroll Park, but I haven't bothered to check it out. All in all it's pretty cool and a lot of fun to walk around the hood and see so many old cars. I wrote a little about it (and posted some pics from my phone) at my blog LittleEarthquake.com.

Joseph Goodrich said...

I got a pretty decent clip of the car chase/crash scene from this evening and thought you might enjoy it. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-6KLLzCvAs

Cheers!

--Joseph Goodrich, President St.

Katia said...

You sure had a better vantage point than I had. i was on Second Place and Court, saw all the old cars pass by, but didn't see the crash. Thanks for sending me the footage. Will put it in a post so that everyone gets to see it.

Anonymous said...

It was definitely cool seeing all the 1960s cars all along Court St. while making all my routine late Sat afternoon rounds, fish store, Monteleones bakery for their wonderful almond tarts, and the health food store for veggies. Coincidentally, I'm the coordinator for MIB filming near Battery Park in two weeks - they're all over the city for all I know! the one drawback last night was that all the southbound traffic was diverted from Court to Hoyt from around 8.00p.m to the wee hours and it was not a peaceful sleep night on Hoyt St. last night. Mary

dutchmungo said...

PA's were trying to keep people from exiting the subway at Borough Hall late on Thursday night. People who had extremely long workdays and were trying to go home.

They can take their stupid film shoot to Vancouver.

Heather Cavanaugh said...

I watched part of the filming Friday night in PJ Hanleys. The bf and I parked our butts in the corner of the bar right in front of the window. It was actually really cool to see it all happen (even though we never got to see the actual crash or anything). I think we were both more amazed by the car they use to film the scene with. It was really neat to basically live on a Hollywood set for a little while. Even though trying to get home from a friend's bbq on Saturday night was a bit of a headache. But hey it's still neat.

BevD said...

It was quite interesting, to see the film crew and all the work they do- artistry -man it was far out-coming out and seeing a subway station on the corner of 3rd place.Everyone was taking pics of the entrance- we were joshing-that if anyone had a drink or two- they would be headed for the subway to go home-haha. They had terrific nights of weather -before the rain and heatwave-that is by us- now they off and finished in Brooklyn Heights. Cars were outstanding to see. Motorcyclists and the traveling camera crew beside them- were awesome- unfortunately we missed the crash scene. Just sitting out front- in the afternoon- was refreshing to know- that at some part- there was no traffic. During the late hours of the evening- no traffic- to sit on our stoops- watch neighbors come out- we have not seen this in ages. People from everywhere were stopping and talking with one another- it was great. Crewmen were the friendliest- they smiled while they were working - helped myself out at one point- and also someone else. Real gentlemen.

Rob said...

I got to see the filming on Saturday night after going to the movies up the street. I thought it was really cool actually the way to set up the streets. The block actually looked great with all the foot lighting on all the trees. I took some video of the car accident from Saturday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-rUFb3kXhk

tylerchill said...

Each boro had it's own color street signs. Manhattan was yellow, Brooklyn was white on black, Queens was blue on silver. I see Manhattan and Queens but no Brooklyn.