Crew Takes Ben Kingsley Movie 'Jules' On Location In Chatham

CHATHAM, NJ — A senior man links up with an extraterrestrial being after the alien’s craft ends up in his backyard, with the man “Milton" - played by Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley - collaborating with other people to help guide the celestial visitor home, as friendships forge among the cast of characters.

“Jules,” the feature film now in pre-production at different locations throughout New Jersey with Kingsley of "Gandhi" fame, was in Boonton Township within the past week.

It has now landed in Chatham.

The film is produced by Big Beach, Marc Turtletaub’s company, of “Little Miss Sunshine” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” fame. The film also stars two-time Emmy Award winning actress Jane Curtin, Harriet Harris and Zoë Winters.

Apple Slice Productions - a Newark-based film company - has been working on New Jersey scenes in September; and is planning to continue filming in the Garden State during the month of October, according to information they supplied to Chatham Borough.

Having reached out to the Borough of Chatham to shoot on Monday and Tuesday, the team set up their film’s “base camp” in Railroad Plaza South during Chatham’s filming, according to information they’d sent to the borough. That included campers, a hair and makeup trailer, a wardrobe truck and vans to shuttle their crew of about 70 people to the Chatham filming location.

While in Chatham, the group alerted the borough, they’d be filming on Red Road on Monday, with a scene inside a home on that street. On Tuesday, the film crew planned to stay on location throughout early evening, first with an interior scene and then one outside of the home.

The film crew, which told the borough they intended to lay down electrical cables on the streets to power up the set, said the scene filmed on Tuesday entailed the character “Sandy” conversing with a young man inside the Red Road home, that character’s house in the film.

On Tuesday, the crew had planned to film another scene inside where that young man disappears from Sandy’s view to use the bathroom, for her to track him down and find he’s rummaging in her jewelry box.

“He attempts to strangle her and his head mysteriously (and tastefully) explodes seemingly out of nowhere,” the production company described in their synopsis to the borough about the scenes they were filming.

After that scene, the film company had planned to shoot a scene with police cars and officers converging on Sandy’s home, taping off the property with police tape, as she retells the story to police of the young man’s spontaneous combustion in her house.

Other Recent Film Shot In Chatham

One of the other films that used Chatham as a backdrop was "Generation Wrecks," a 90s coming-of-age independent film made by Chatham native Bridget McGarry and her friend and co-star Victoria Leigh, which featured scenes at St. Patrick’s Church, on Lafayette Avenue, at Chatham High School and in Wickham Woods. The film, which premiered at "Dances With Films LA" on Sept. 12, also filmed at a New Providence convenience store, at a Mendham home and at a residence in the Poconos' Lake Harmony.

Reporting contributed by Josh Bakan.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.