Here is a list of the major movies that have been made in Massachusetts since 2007, along with their 2009-2010 release dates:
BRIDE WARS: released on Friday, January 9, 2009
Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play best friends who are pitted against each other when their wedding dates clash. Opened nationally as the NUMBER ONE COMEDY in America.
PAUL BLART; MALL COP: released on Friday, January 16, 2009
Kevin James stars as Paul Blart in “Mall Cop,” a comedy about a security guard trying to stop a group of organized crooks who take over a mall. While set at the fictional West Orange Pavilion Mall in New Jersey, a majority of the film was shot at the mall in nearby Burlington. Opened nationally as the NUMBER ONE MOVIE in America.
PINK PANTHER 2: Released on Friday, February 6, 2009
Steve Martin’s Jacques Clouseau teams up with a squad of bumbling International detectives in an attempt to stop a globe-trotting thief who specializes in stealing historical artifacts.
GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST: released on Friday, May 1, 2009
A bachelor played by Matthew McConaughey is haunted by the ghosts of his past girlfriends (including Ben Affleck’s wife Jennifer Garner) at his younger brother’s wedding.
THE PROPOSAL: released on Friday, June 12, 2009
Shot in the Bay State but set in NYC and Alaska? Diva boss Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) forces her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep from losing her visa status in NYC and avoid deportation to Canada. The Rockport-shot scenes act as a stand-in for … get this … Sitka, Alaska. Opened nationally as the NUMBER ONE MOVIE in America.
THE SURROGATES: released on Friday, September 25, 2009
The film, set in Boston in the near future where humans interact with one another through surrogate robots, stars Bruce Willis as a cop who tracks down murderers.
THE INVENTION OF LYING: released on Friday, September 25, 2009
Formerly titled “This Side of Truth,” the Ricky Gervais comedy shot in Lowell and starring Jennifer Garner is set in a world where no one has ever lied, until a writer seizes the opportunity for personal gain.
THE MAIDEN HEIST: released on DVD on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Starring Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and William H. Macy, this made-in-Boston flick is a comedy of errors following three museum security guards and their attempt to steal artwork after it’s been transferred to another museum.
THE BOX: released on Friday, November 6, 2009
Based on the short story by Richard Matheson, “The Box” stars Cameron Diaz as Norma Lewis and James Marsden as Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child who receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. “The Box” is directed by “Donnie Darko” filmmaker Richard Kelly.
EDGE OF DARKNESS: release Friday, January 29, 2010
Mel Gibson stars as a homicide detective for the Boston Police Dept. who digs up the many secrets surrounding the death of his activist daughter. “Edge of Darkness” was shot in Boston from Monday, Aug. 18 until Saturday, Nov. 22.
SHUTTER ISLAND: release Friday, February 19, 2010
Two U.S. marshals (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island near Boston. Based on Dennis Lehane’s novel “Shutter Island.”
FURRY VENGEANCE: release Friday, April 2, 2010
Starring Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, Dick Van Dyke and “The Hangover’s” Ken Jeong “Furry Vengeance,” follows a real estate developer played by Fraser who faces an unlikely group of protesters: a crew of local woodland creatures who don’t want their homes disturbed.
GROWN UPS: release Friday, June 25, 2010
Set in Connecticut during a Fourth of July weekend, “Grown Ups” is a comedy about five high school friends who reunite with their families during the summer at a lake house after 30 years apart and stars Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello and Maya Rudolph.
KNIGHT AND DAY: release Friday, July 2, 2010
The currently in production “Knight & Day,” formerly known as “Wichita,” follows Tom Cruise as a secret agent who pops in and out of the life of a single woman played by Cameron Diaz. The two race across the globe while Peter Sarsgaard’s federal agent character pursues the fugitive couple.
THE TOWN: release Friday, September 10, 2010
An adaptation of the blue-collar heist novel “Prince of Thieves” by Chuck Hogan, “The Town” stars Jon Hamm as a FBI agent who becomes smitten with a female bank employee, played by “Frost/Nixon” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” actress Rebecca Hall. Ben Affleck, playing Boston’s most wanted bank robber, is both directing and starring in the film following a bizarre love triangle involving a crook, a bankteller and a FBI agent. Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner, Titus Welliver and Slaine also star.
ZOOKEEPER: release Friday, October 8, 2010
The Adam Sandler-produced “Zookeeper” follows Kevin James as a zoo caretaker who consults with the animals in an attempt to learn their methods of dating and mating to help him win back the woman of his dreams. Rosario Dawson has been cast as Kate, the smart zoo veterinarian who works alongside James’ character Griffin. Leslie Bibb plays Stephanie, the ex who broke Griffin’s heart.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK: release Friday, October 15, 2010
Partially shot in Boston and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network” follows founder Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) getting dumped at a Boston-area bar and ends with him adding his former girlfriend to his friend list on his multibillion-dollar social networking site. The story is based on Mezrich’s latest book, “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook. A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.”
COMPANY MEN: release 2010 TBD
Starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner, “The Company Men” follows a year in the life of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing. Affleck plays a corporate bigwig whose six-figure salary is suddenly cut after he gets a pink slip.
GIRLFRIEND: release 2010 TBD
In “Girlfriend,” Jackson Rathbone is thrust into a bizarre love triangle with a small town single mom (played by Shannon Woodward from “The Riches”) and newcomer Evan Sneider. The drama centers around Sneider’s protagonist, a young man with Down’s Syndrome, who romantically pursues Woodward’s character Candy.
THE FIGHTER: release 2010 TBD
Primarily shot in Lowell, “The Fighter” tells the story of Boston fighter “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and how he was helped to the world lightweight championship by half-brother Eklund (Christian Bale). Amy Adams is Charlene, a gritty bartender from Massachusetts who ends up dating Wahlberg’s character.
VALEDICTION: release 2010 TBD
When a car accident leaves a father fighting for his daughter’s life, his journey for the pieces of the puzzle that will save her lead him to discover it’s actually his life that he is fighting for. In the film, Eliza Dushku plays Ben Barnes’ lover.
Compiled by Sam Baltrusis. Check out his blog: Loaded Gun Boston
MFO Note: Among the Massachusetts-made movies released in 2007 and 2008, both GAME PLAN (September 2007) and 21 (March 2008) opened nationwide as the NUMBER ONE MOVIE in America. Also, GONE BABY GONE (October 2007), directed by our own Ben Affleck, earned an Academy Award nomination for Amy Ryan as Best Supporting Actress.