Hollywood Snow Falls on Lyndhurst

Though we haven’t had much in the way of snow accumulation this season, you may have noticed in your drives along Route 9 that Lyndhurst seems to be enjoying its very own weather system.

Lyndhurst was recently the site of a film shoot for what promises to be a major holiday hit, starring all kinds of big name actors, and creating its own snowy landscape.

Lyndhurst Director of Communications Christine Plazas confirmed that shooting just wrapped here for A Winter’s Tale based on Mark Helprin’s bestseller by the same name.

“It really will be spectacular,” Plazas said of the movie slated for release during the holiday season, 2014.

A Winter's Tale is the directorial debut of Akiva Goldsman, who also wrote the script. He is the Oscar-winning screenwriter for A Beautiful Mind.

Coincidentally, Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind, the book, lives in Tarrytown and was recently in the news for her lawsuit filed against Columbia University for close to $1 million for an endowment grant she says she’s owed.

From A Winter's Tale, Hollywood Reporter promises a:

sweeping drama about reincarnation... The story … focuses on a thief on the run who, when breaking into a wealthy man’s home, strikes up a relationship with the man’s terminally ill daughter.  A flying horse and a time-shift 100 years also figures into the equation.

Actors in the drama that will leap from 1899 homes (Lyndhurst and the Coe Hall mansion in Long Island, said Plazas) to contemporary Manhattan, include Russell Crowe (ruthless mobster), Will Smith (cameo as judge), and more recent recruit Jennifer Connelly (who costarred with Crowe in A Beautiful Mind).

Deadline has also reported the following famous additions to the mix: William Hurt (dying girl’s father), Collin Farrell (thief), Downtown Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay (dying young girl), even Eva Marie Saint.

And the price, reports Deadline: a $46 million budget care of Warner Brothers.

Plazas said the crew had been at Lyndhurst three times since the fall, for several days each time, and “was just delightful to work with.”

The snow production to cover the front lawn (since Nature didn’t deliver) happened on the Monday prep day and took five hours, involving huge machines and the building itself getting covered with a tent.

Plazas couldn’t share names or photos – beyond this one of the snowy grounds  – and cryptically offered that while Russell Crowe was not there, “the others were here.”

Presumably some Tarrytown business owners and patrons got a brush with fame as most of the cast went to to Main Street to dine locally daily for lunch, so “they did bring in some business," Plazas said.

And of course film shoots are a boon for Lyndhurst, a not-for-profit, where the money, said Plazas, is “well-needed to keep us operating.” 

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