Ringwood home becomes movie set for Kyra Sedgwick, Vincent D’Onofrio

NorthJersey.com
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
Wednesday, January 27, 2010

RINGWOOD — A sleepy cul-de-sac bustled with activity, neighbors were entertained and local eateries saw more business as a film crew landed in town on Wednesday for five days to shoot a movie.

“Chlorine,” starring Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent D’Onofrio, will wrap up on Sunday after the filming of some last shots in Nik Belcevich’s family home on Juniper Terrace.

Belcevich, the producer of the film, grew up in the bi-level house where his mother, Natasha Belcevich, still lives.

During the past month, the brown and white house was completely remade for the movie, including painted walls and new furniture.

On Wednesday morning, Natasha headed to Atlantic City for a few days. “I’m going to enjoy myself, take a little vacation,” she said, smiling. “You really lose yourself in this. It isn’t my house anymore.”

Using his childhood home is just one of the ways Belcevich is saving money to get this movie made. With his childhood friend and partner Chris Beatty, who grew up in Wayne, the two are trying to keep the budget under $1 million, a sharp decline from the $7 million initially planned years ago when the film was set to be made by a different production company.

“We’re not here to make a killing,” Belcevich said. “We just want to make art and get it out there.”

Instead of providing trailers for the actors, he found a “holding house” — the home of his mother’s friend — for Sedgwick and D’Onofrio to have hair and makeup done. The crew is staying in a low-budget hotel in Mahwah, and lunch is served in a white, unheated tent in nearby Pioneer Park. Scenes from the movie, due to be released in October, were also shot in Wayne and at the Passaic County Golf Course.

The film tells the story of a family struggling to maintain its well-to-do lifestyle as the real estate market crashes. Sedgwick and D’Onofrio play parents with two children in an overly materialistic community, Belcevich said.

Filming in the Garden State is a growing trend. According to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, 834 projects were made in 2008 in New Jersey, including 90 feature films, 172 television series and specials and dozens of documentaries, music videos, and commercials. Full article

Thanks Linda!