News and Events

Halloween may have ended two weeks ago, but there were still costumed witches in Salem this week.

Visionary filmmaker, innovator and entrepreneur, Douglas Trumbull, has been selected by the VES Board of Directors as the recipient of the 2012 Georges Méliès Award. The award will be presented at the 10th Annual VES Awards, which will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 7, 2012.

The Patrick-Murray Administration’s Massachusetts Film Office (MFO) today announced that R.I.P.D., a supernatural action-adventure from Universal Pictures, will begin principal photography in Massachusetts this September and that production will occur entirely in the Commonwealth. Through early 2012, the project will create jobs and significant economic activity while boosting the state’s growing film industry.

Don’t count Taunton’s Mayor Charles Crowley among those having second thoughts about the state’s film tax credit law.

“I saw the benefits,” Crowley said. “They absolutely help.”

Columbia Pictures, which shot the feature film “Here Comes the Boom” in Quincy, paid the city $114,500 in rental fees for the buildings it used. The film, starring Kevin James, is expected to premiere next summer.

Peabody is getting a dose of Hollywood this summer, with two big-budget films — “I Hate You, Dad,” starring Adam Sandler, and “Here Comes the Boom,” starring Kevin James — already passing through, and dropping thousands of dollars along the way.

Wyn Trailer WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?, starring Anna Faris & Chris Evans–shot in Massachusetts in 2010–opens nationally on September 30, 2011.

The Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism (MOTT) today announced that Lisa Strout, a veteran in the film and television industry and the former director of the film division in New Mexico’s Economic Development Department, will lead the Massachusetts Film Office (MFO) beginning June 15th.

Worcester this week took on some of the glitter of Hollywood as Frenemy Films LLC began shooting “Broken Silence,” an independent feature about school bullying.

It seems there is a silver lining to having a rundown and outdated high school.
People in Hollywood looking for a realistic setting for a movie may come knocking.

Stars Mila Kunis, Mark Wahlberg, Joel McHale and Jessica Stroup were nowhere to be seen yesterday around noon at an ultra-modern beachfront home that is serving as the backdrop to the Hollywood movie “Ted.” The movie has been filming in the Boston area in recent days, and reports are the production will be in Swampscott until the end of the week. The film’s stars were expected to arrive in the evening.

The casting call for Quincy locals to appear as extras in the new Kevin James movie “Here Comes the Boom” drew about 800 hopefuls ranging from government officials to the unemployed.

Boston Casting is hosting open casting calls for “Here Comes the Boom” starring Kevin James.

“And the Oscar goes to….Massachusetts! On behalf of the Commonwealth, we congratulate the cast and crew of The Fighter and The Social Network on a combined five Academy Awards.

Christian Bale won supporting actor for his role as the drug-addicted former boxer in “The Fighter.” ”What the hell am I doing here in the midst of you?” Bale said, referring to all the talent in the room. He singled out his co-stars, including Melissa Leo, who earlier had won for supporting actress for playing his mother in the film.

Massachusetts’ generous film tax breaks lured Oscar contenders Christian Bale and Jesse Eisenberg to the state,

Kevin James is gearing up to begin filming “Here Comes the Boom,” scheduled for release in 2012. Filming will take place in and round Boston, including Quincy. We got curious as to what else as been filmed in Quincy. Scroll through this gallery to see what we found.

The Oscar-nominated documentary short “Poster Girl’’ is Newton native Sara Nesson’s first film, but it was only a matter of time. After all, she’s proud to say, it was beneath her father’s editing table that she learned to crawl. Robert Nesson of Somerville, an independent producer/director whose films focus on the environment, human rights, and educational projects (he’s also an instructor at Emerson College), taught his daughter not just the nuts and bolts of filmmaking but how it can raise awareness and effect social change.

The old Quincy High School overshadowed its newer counterpart Wednesday as offices were set up inside for the production crew of a movie that will star Kevin James. The movie, titled “Here Comes the Boom,” may be about a high school teacher who turns to professional fighting as a way to save his school’s music program.

MPC President Joe Maiella talks about the film industry in Massachusetts on Fox 25.