Again and again, for sharper ‘Edge': Northampton to have another day of filming from Gibson

NORTHAMPTON - Now that's entertainment.

Again and again Tuesday afternoon, Mel Gibson descended the staircase of Hampshire County Courthouse. In the movie business they call it a walk-and-talk.

If any scene in his upcoming film "Edge of Darkness" wins Gibson an Oscar, this won't be it. But for more than a hundred people congregated on Main Street sidewalks, it was a command performance.

Tuesday marked the second day of filming in Northampton. In the morning, the cameras rolled inside the courtroom, where a number of extras acted out a legal proceeding as Gibson looked on.

In the afternoon, shooting transitioned outside, where Gibson chased down the steps after a lawyer played by Peter Herman. A third shoot in the late afternoon had Gibson and the Herman walking down a path beside the courthouse with a dolly-mounted camera following in front of them. Meanwhile, dozens of extras took positions on the corners of Main, King and Pleasant streets. At one point, someone in a peculiar monster costume made it into the crowd, and quickly got a police escort out. Two people carrying a giant Obama for President sign took to the sidewalks as well, but steered clear of the camera frame.

Location shooting in Northampton is expected to wrap today with more downtown scenes. Traffic delays are likely in the morning as one shot follows a car down Main Street, passing members of the Northampton Farmers Market and extras playing protesters on the courthouse lawn.

Thursday, filming moves to the summit of Mount Sugarloaf in Deerfield.

Mary McKitrick, of Riverside Drive in Florence, was selected Monday to play a janitor who shows Gibson's character to his daughter's locker at the Northampton Athletic Club.

A voice actress by trade, McKitrick said it was her first time before a camera. "I've never been interested because it sounded like a lot of waiting for slim reward," she said in an interview Tuesday. But because this production takes place so close to home, she decided to give it a shot. "I'm glad I went. What a barrel of fun."

McKitrick blogs about her experience at mcmvoices.com/blog/2008/10/mcm-goes-to-hollywood-for-day.html.

Shooting of the scene - which included one other actress and had no dialogue - began about 6 p.m. and finished in less than 10 takes.

Though McKitrick got to interact with Gibson for the cameras, she didn't see much of him out of character. "He sort of vaporized between takes," she said. A body double took Gibson's place whenever the crew needed to make lighting adjustments.

At the end of the shoot, Gibson said "Thank you, ladies," and was again whisked away in a Cadillac Escalade.

Executive Producer Bennett Walsh said Tuesday that when looking for locations, the filmmakers took their cues from script writer William Monahan. A former Easthampton resident, Monahan also penned the 2006 blockbuster "The Departed."

"Bill wrote it for Massachusetts," Walsh said of the "Edge of Darkness" screenplay. "He went to places like Mount Sugarloaf and thought it served the story."

Tully O'Reilly's Pub, where shooting took place Monday morning, beat out a number of other bars filmmakers scouted, Walsh said. "We tried to find that in Boston, but it didn't have the texture, it didn't have the flavor."

Though spots like Tully's and the courthouse proved well-suited to the film, Walsh said the main draw in the Pioneer Valley is Sugarloaf.

A special set built around the summit overlook tower will serve as a research facility. Gibson's character, a Boston police detective named Thomas Craven, travels to Northampton and to the mountain in search of clues about the murder of his daughter.

Walsh is also an executive producer of the forthcoming "State of Play," which stars Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren. Like "Edge of Darkness," "State of Play" is an adaptation of a British thriller. Walsh also produced the recent Nicholas Cage flick "Ghost Rider" and both of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" features.

"Edge of Darkness" is being financed independently by British producer Graham King. Walsh said the production team will have to distribute the film without the help of a major Hollywood studio, but hope to have it in wide theatrical release in the fall of 2009.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com [1].