Over the next few days the borough’s will cease to be the charming, electric, antique shop locals know so well and will instead transform into a movie theater.
The shop at 145 Water Street in the borough is one of several local businesses preparing for their starring roles in the .
The movie, which stars Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell is supposed to begin filming this week in the borough. Great Hope Springs, according to a press release from Mandate Pictures follows Streep who plays a woman named Maeve seeking to spice her marriage up. Maeve and her husband (Jones) go to the town of Great Hope Springs to meet relationship guru (Carell) for “an intense week of marriage and sex therapy.”
Grand & Water antiques will serve as a movie theater in the town of Great Hope Springs and will also play a part in the film.
Despite the fact that both local spots will close during filming the owners are excited for the roles their shops will play.
“We view this as some excitement for the borough, publicity for Noah's and fun for us all,” said Debbie Papp whose husband John Papp is one of the co-owners of Noah’s. “We hope other businesses enjoy some positive benefits and hope the community can share in the fun…after all, it is pretty quiet and boring here in the off-season!”
Wendy Bury of the said the filming will mean short-term inconveniences for long-term benefits as businesses in the direct filming locations will likely lose some direct traffic and business while filming is going on. Still she added that there will also likely be an increase in general traffic as people try to catch a glimpse of the filming and the actors.
“This will help bring people to the borough now and in the future, but let's be honest, this is not called Stonington Hope Springs and will not put Stonington on the map like Mystic Pizza did for Mystic, even though it was filmed in the borough,” Bury said. “This will likely end up on the 'interesting facts about the borough' sheet and a great thing to bring our community together now and next year.”
Bury, Papp, and Deborah Norman of Grand & Water Antiques all said the movie company was being incredibly thoughtful of the impact of filming, providing compensation for the businesses that have to close and having the art department make posters with store logos stating stores are open even when the staging is kept in place for the days of street shooting.
“If anything I’ll get a lot of people coming in asking about the movie and the actors” Norman said, jokingly adding she’s only going to tell them if they buy something.
