Bright Lights, Big City

Look closely at the new release you just saw in theatres or on Netflix. Odds are one of the scenes was filmed in Stamford.

Welcome to the Hollywood of the East. No, not New York. No, not Miami. You are in Stamford, Connecticut. Hollywood has come to me. Well to my backyard. Since Connecticut passed a bill giving movie studios tax breaks for using the state as a movie set, more and more actors and actresses are being seen around Stamford.

Two years ago, I was walking my dog and saw bright lights in the far distance. We got closer and all of a sudden Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone walked by us. I told my dog to be nice to the movie stars. Turns out they were filming College Road Trip.

Walt Disney Pictures was less than one hundred feet from my front door. That’s when Stamford became Hollywood. The Maury Povich and Jerry Springer shows moved to Stamford. Production facilities were immediately built to accommodate Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures coming into the city.

More recently, John C. Reilly was seen in the Springdale and Glenbrook neighborhoods of Stamford filming a new movie We Need To Walk About Kevin. He even mentioned my hometown on The Daily Show and sang karaoke at Black Bear bar.

Actress Laura Linney was seen less than a mile from my workplace filming the Showtime special The Big C in the Shippan neighborhood.

When I headed out to a bar in downtown Stamford a year ago, John Krasinski and Jeff Daniels were filming Away We Go right next door in Remo’s Pizzeria.

Get off exit 8 on I-95 in Stamford. As you go into downtown you will see signs with arrows on every telephone pole. These are to guide the production trucks to the next scene that is being filmed.

So save your money on a plane ticket to the west coast. There is bound to be a movie being filmed on any block around this city. Why pay for the Universal Studios tour? You can walk around Stamford and catch movie landmarks for free.

Who knows, maybe Bedford Street will have stars on its sidewalks in the near future. I might just quit my day job and become a tour guide for movie enthusiasts.