By Gayle Fee And Laura Raposa
Boston Hearald
February 7, 2011
Production is scheduled to begin in Quincy this month on a new
Kevin James flick, “Here Comes the Boom,” and the comedy about a teacher who tries to save his school’s music program by becoming a mixed-martial arts fighter is going to save some real-life music programs.
Columbia Pictures has contracted with the city of Quincy to lease the old Quincy High School on Coddington Street for six months and will pay a whopping $80,000 in rent. Mayor Thomas Koch has said the money will go to the school department to save music classes. Now there’s a Hollywood ending!
The old Quincy High, which has been replaced by a spanking new facility, will be typecast as a high school in the comedy about a physics teacher who decides to moonlight as a mixed-marital arts fighter to save jobs and programs.
It is the first big-budget flick to return to Massachusetts after a long drought that followed Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed cap on the state’s generous tax credits to the film industry. Opponents of the cut argued that Hollywood brings jobs, money and very good publicity to the Bay State and the $80G to the Quincy schools should bolster their claims.
“Here Comes the Boom” is the third big-budget flick James and his producer-buddy Adam Sandler have made in the Bay State in three years. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” starring the former “King of Queens” as a police-academy washout who saves the day when a gang of high-tech robbers descends on his mall, made a whopping $180 million at the box office worldwide. It was shot in 2008, primarily in the Burlington Mall.
“Grown Ups,” Sandler’s made-on-the-North Shore flick starring Adam and most of his Hollywood posse, made a whopping $267 million worldwide. And “Zookeeper,” starring James as a zoo attendant who talks to the animals, is scheduled for a big summer release. No wonder the boys like making it in the Bay State!
Salma Hayek, who also starred in “Grown Ups,” reportedly is on board for “Here Comes the Boom,” and Frank Coraci, who directed “Zookeeper,” will direct. He has been in town recently to scope out locations and prep for the start of shooting.
Also slated to shoot here in the spring is “Ted,” an R-rated comedy starring Mark Wahlberg as a man who, when he was a kid, wished for his teddy bear to come to life. Twenty-five years later, the bear is a smoking, cursing delinquent voiced by “The Family Guy’s” Seth MacFarlane, who also wrote and directed the flick. Mila Kunis, hot off her buzz-making turn in “Black Swan,” will co-star. BTW, “Ted” has a $65 million budget.
File Under: Roll ’Em.