Itd be good to have him around for authenticity. Hes in the movie. I came back and met with Ben, and I was so excited. Starring: Ben Affleck Rebecca Hall Jon Hamm Jeremy Renner Blake Lively. Affleck: The day that were shooting the shoot-out with Jeremy, where he gets killed out in front of the McDonalds behind Fenwaywhen you do these stunts with cars, you have to really clean the streets immaculately because these drivers are precision drivers. As robbers in Halloween masksbrandish machine guns and snarl at the terrified staff in heavy Boston drawls Everybody on the f----n flaar! you wonder: is this just an average day in Charlestown? Bill Simmons saysthere were a lot of Boston ladies like Kris in real life. It seems likely that Lively had met a few. In Black Mass, Johnny Depp plays South Boston mobster James Whitey Bulger, an Irish gangster who informed on the Italian mob to the FBI. 'The Town': Is Charlestown really America's 'bank robbery capital'? But the Red Sox were definitely in the spirit of, This is gonna be fun. Good God, some of them may still be there today. That whole character she did was really kind of based on her own preparation. Hall: It was like being alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in London. It all felt sort of very impossible and glamorous. Witt: You dont want to go, like, Quantum of Solace at the beginning where you really dont even know where you are, where you shot it. By the time Affleck directed and starred in the film, Bostons oldest neighbourhood, a small squarish outcrop situated north of the Charles river, was no longer the crime capital of America. The romance in the middle of the film is only there to delineate the boundaries between heist film and crime procedural. Hogan: I was just checking out the internet one day in my office and I saw a Variety headline: Affleck moves to The Town. I called my wife over and said, I think theyre making a movie of the book. And that was it. Tuesday October 30, 2012. Ben wasnt in Boston. The 6-foot-tall Dorchester-born rapper is an intimidating physical presence with a raspy grumble of a voice flavored with a thick Boston accent. Jem would rather battle it out with the law than go back to prison. This week marks the 10-year anniversary of The Town, Ben Afflecks Oscar-nominated crime thriller about a group of bank robbers in Charlestown who target Fenway Park for one final score. Hes part of John Hamms FBI crew. They ran mass auditions of up to 1,000 people at a time, Affleck recalls. Rebecca Hall (Claire): I remember I had to fly to New York to meet Ben because I was based in London at the time, in the middle of this theater tour. Everyone was making New York movies. The actor who played James Jem Coughlin, Dougs ex-con buddy, however, wasnt from Boston. This really happened it was described to Affleck by a man serving time. Affleck: Im glad to have worked on movies that are part of that tradition. I said, Look, you know, I understand that youre making this movie about robbers out of Charlestown. Id go sit in Fenway and be the only guy there. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. An alternate title for the film could be Ben Afflecks Boston, and no one would have had it any other way. I didnt know, physically, how I wanted the character, but I knew that I wanted a guy who was really unpredictable and scary and you felt nervous when they were on screen. Hes not someone that blends in easily. [Lively did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this article. Welliver: On the page it was one thing, and he beat the page because rather than it being a scene that was about anger and aggression, Renner turned that scene into a scene about heartbreak and devastation. When I was a kid, I was scared to go there. Affleck: Those little streets created something visually interesting that you dont see in many car chases. Afflecks crew of bank robbers needed genuine local flavor. I remember one day going to set because he and Ben were doing that great scene where it ends up with them having a fight. So he uses them in that way. The cunning group is robbing city banks to steal money and making the getaway with diamond Heist. Shea, 35, Stephen Burke, 42, and Michael OHalloran, 40, were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, robbery and other offenses Dec. 22 for a series of holdups in New England and Florida. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. But instead, Affleck went with something more bittersweet. In real life, they were not so lucky. The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. Also, Starr starred in a silent movie based on his criminal activity titled A Debtor to the Law. By the way? He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. Hall: I remember going to the premiere and a group of Charlestowners were there and they all said to me, You ever come back to Boston, well get you a car. And Ill tell you why: Nobody was rooting for Jon Hamm and the cops. It very much had a sense of place. The Friends of Eddie Coyle starred Robert Mitchum in the title role and Peter Boyle as a hitman who ran a bar. Do everything youre supposed to do, they wont be harmed.. Although it certainly felt like he was. But it really wasnt. The Town is based on Chuck Hogan's 2004 novel Prince of Thieves (set, unlike the movie, in '96, when Charlestown-affiliated heists were actually at their height). It went on to make $154 million (119 million) worldwide. All three men were arrested and sent to prison. So all of a sudden, while theyre getting married, they hear gunshots at Fenway. However, everybody will want to go see it. He has a certain thing in that town. (His co-star John Hamm once said thatwalking around Boston with Affleck was like walking around with the mayor.) There was a script written. The Town was initially supposed to end with Doug paying for his sins with his life. And he got really excited. To Charlestown, our one square mile of brick and He set the bar with those filmsyou [must] reach a modicum of the depth and the artistry of those films if youre going to do a Boston film. After a seven-day trial, they were convicted on 54 of 55 counts of robbery, including one which resulted in the death of two armored car guards. NO NAME GANG: CHARLESTOWN bank robbers. And they told us all these stories, and all these fascinating things, and built up what this mythology was. She is the interloping gentry and renovates Dougs headspace. And they were like, Just so you know, weve had some calls and threats of violence. People didnt know what the book was, I think they were expecting something that would really knock Charlestown. Hes maybe four people away. He was definitely a bad guy and was going to take as many people with him as he could, but you still kind of went, You know what, this is a kid that came along, and in a different environment he wouldve been a different person but he is a product of all of this dysfunction and horror that hes grown up in. Its brilliant. Were like, Wait, hes about the right size, height, and all that other, he could be Bens stand-in. He loved it, optioned it. Claire foretells the doom of Charlestowns criminal culture. Numerous career bank robbers threw in the towel and testified in this trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Connolly said at a news conference at the time. Its not a super cheap movie but its not expensive like a studio movie. In March 1995, two men held the guard of an armoured car at gunpoint as he tried to delivercash to a branch of the Bank of Boston on Massachusetts Avenue. And so yes, they rob Fenway, but its not like hes running across the outfield getting tackled by Tom Brunansky with a bag of money in hand. But John is obviously a much bigger guy. These words flash up on screen at the opening of Ben Afflecks 2010 crime thriller,which follows a crew of Boston robbers as they rise fromlocal bank jobs to a hit on Fenway Park. And so if you cant do it, just dont do it. What is the penalty for bank robbery in mass? Blake came in and read the scene and was amazing. Agents with the FBI believe Gage Haws robbed five small town banks throughout northwest Ohio. If the criminal culture that The Town associated with Charlestowns Irish-Catholic working-class community ever existed, it had dwindled away with the neighbourhoods traditional residents. In addition to including the statistic about Charlestowns armed-robbery predilection, the preface of Prince of Thieves features a quote in The Globe by an anonymous Townie. I wrote the book, then I went away for a while, then I worked on the script for a year, then I went away for a while, then other people wrote the script. His first reaction is to take her out of the equation.. Titus Welliver (Officer Dino Ciampa): I called the production office and I got [Carter] on the phone and I pretended I was a Boston detective. And then he was out, so we were using him again for research. And they led me into this little alleyway. And Major League Baseball was open to itthat was what I was really afraid of. According to FBI statistics from the same year, the entire state of Massachusetts had fewer than 3 per cent of all bank robberies nationwide. And that looks like a detail youd come up with writing a script. And its absolutely authentic. Download Bank Robbery missions 2017 and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Its a fun heist movie. [Owner] John Henry visited the set. Not noir, French for black. The second thing was, I realized what a fool I was to think like, Oh, if its bad Ill have a story. I realized that I wouldve been crushed if that movie was bad. We went back to his hotel room right after. As for Affleck, the success of The Town helped advance his career as a director. So if you give somebody a space, all they want to do is figure out how to do a heist in there. BOSTON - A Charlestown man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for bank robbery. I was up there for what Im sure was a good half hour. He was in his early 20s. The FBI says the vestibule was actually a "man-trap," designed to capture people like Hamilton. In 2018, there were just over 4,000 robberies in Massachusetts compare that to 1980, when there more than 13,500. Theres like four people in the whole bar, which is a huge bar. Crockett: I remember being on the streets of Charlestown talking to some people. Oct 31, 2012. Neighborhood of Boston, yet lopped off every map of the city like a bastard cropped out of a happy family portrait. Stockard: The movie that we thought about was [Michael Manns] Heat. When it came time to cast The Town, Affleck had fun putting together a star-powered ensemble on a relatively limited budget. Slaine: Im convinced my hearing is still not the same after that film. If possible, its really great to hire people with whom an audience isnt overly familiar, because audiences have developed expectations and kind of anticipate what an actor might do if theyve seen them a bunch. Peter Craig (cowriter): Theres a really great detail that I always loved where Doug just sticks his gun in one of those portholes in the armored car, and so the bullets like ricochet and rattle around in there. Although we dont have the exact figures for Charlestowns crime rate in the 90s, statistics suggest that there was indeed a surge in the rate of robberies in Heres how it works in fucking Charlestown: Youre born in Charlestown, you play fucking hockey and you rob. And I went, OK, that sums it up.. Affleck gives the gang its last hurrah on-screen. They look at him. Three friends and acquaintances who had lied on the stand before testified against the five, along with four convicted bank robbers from Charlestown. It has ended with the government getting most of the money. Hes been forever. I was doing that. I lived in South Boston, Roslindale. So I read this new version of the script. Some residents felt it portrayed the locals as in the words of onequoted in The Christian Science Monitor, a bunch of dumb bums. Burch: We did one of the premieres at Fenway. 2 hours ago. We literally took over Fenway. And I thought, Not only is she the best actress for the part, shes gonna be able to really surprise people.. He was kind of hemming and hawing a little bit and I said, Look, unless they make you wear the fucking purple outfit and the mask, you gotta do this. He went, I know.. They like walking out with a little bit of hope. They dont squeal. Violence, unsolved murders . Hogan: I think weve played out the Irish Boston gangster thing. Slaine: I was hanging with Gronkowski, and hes like, Dude. Hes like, The Town, is there going to be a sequel? He was like, You gotta do it, you gotta be in the sequel. I said, Dude, I died at the end.. Director: Ben Affleck. Its ruined my life, literally, but Im proud.. And thats just sort of the natural progression. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Director: Ben Affleck. He was the leader that he is. Download Bank Robbery missions 2017 and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. But he pointed out the quote. Theres something so tomb-like and archaic about Fenway. Craig: We went into a bit of a quandary about the ending. Hed be happy to settle down with his former hostage, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). But they liked it and they wanted to meet with me, and I was like, of course. I was willing to meet with anyone who was interested in hiring me as a director. In Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs (1991), the crew had color-coded names; in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid they wore 10-gallon hats. The funny thing isand I found this out laterhe met John Cena for that role. Because along with watching the movie, I was working hard to process it. When its not, its predictable and obvious and trite. And I was like, Who the hell is this guy? Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. In my imagination, hes always been Ben Affleck. You know, the Kennedys kind of had their own weird accent. And I remember immediately getting on Google Maps and looking at the North End, because they had described a robbery that had taken place [there], and being like, They robbed this thing here, and they had to get to that bridge there. So we basically mapped out where this little route was. Burke: To go sit in the stands with Jeremy Renner in an empty stadium, it was surreal. And we had a lot of days for a movie that was relatively inexpensive. But it was very real. And there were probably a couple of guys there who were still robbing banks.. Ex-felons are not allowed to hold even fake weapons. Affleck: There did kind of get to be a glut of Boston movies, and everybody did a Boston accent. And was critically acclaimed. Affleck: The Yawkey Red Sox, Im sure, wouldve been impossible. Cooper: Hes had a wonderful career, but [The Town] was a big shot in the arm for him. Free shipping for many products! One of those characters you love to hate and find sort of intoxicating and moving; all of those things at the same time. The bank robbers step out of their vehicle. Im mighty proud of where I come from, he says. And hes like, Wheres that from? And shes like, Oh, he was here. Its ironic that by the time the film came out, the process was largely complete. It is sloppy, sleazy, quickie. For his turn as Jem, Renner was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, though he lost out to Christian Bale, who played the troubled brother of boxer Micky Ward in yet another movie set in Massachusetts: The Fighter. 371K. You can come over to my house for dinner. It was just short of, If you need protection, were here for you. It was incredible. Affleck: I certainly didnt want to set myself up to fail, say yes I could do something, shortchange myself [and] produce a substandard sequence because I didnt have the time. They had to look and sound like they just rolled out of Old Sullys at 2 a.m. on a Sunday. You didnt really know what was coming. Burch: When theyre down in Gate D, where the shoot-out scene was before they exited the ballpark, that was probably the most challenging part of it. We all want to be from Douggies Charlestown and we all know its a fantasy. Jem is also Riff to Dougs Tony in West Side Story. We all sat there, and he did it. Hamm: I had also seen Dahmer. I look over and its Pete, and hes having his breakfast, and hes reading the paper, and I hadnt met him before because I didnt have any scenes with him. He also made sure to populate the movie with people who didnt have to fake their Boston accents. He flew in. [Chairman] Tom Werners a friend of mine. WebFind many great new & used options and get the best deals for Lego Jail Prisoner Robber Crook Minifigure Lot of 12 w/ Accessories Town City at the best online prices at eBay! This is the script I want. And I said, Adrian, this is gonna be a three-and-a-half-hour movie. Hes like, Well, if Scorsese can make a three-and-a-half-hour movie, I want to.. But No R.. Affleck: Im like, Why the fuck do you think people go to hockey games? Swearing and fighting. He had really bad scars. Just finding a place to park the trucks. I showed Ben the skeleton and Ben said to me, How can we make it look tougher? And I said, Why dont we put them in tactical gear? And so that started this riff, this juxtaposition of skeletons and tactical gear. Theyre both from Boston and theyre doing the whole Boston thing, and Ben being Ben, in a very playful way, tries to like, wrestle him. Affleck: Rebecca worked just as hard on the accent. Besides being the lovable and erudite wrinkle in the scheme, she is not a townie, someone who was raised in the neighborhood. According to FBI statistics Affleck: Blake Lively took the train from New York. Welliver: He said, Hey, weve got great stories in this city that nobodys telling.. Welliver: When we were doing The Town is when he was up for the role of Hawkeye. It would go from completely quiet at 5 oclock in the morning to suddenly its like doing theater on a massive scale. The case of the Charlestown robbers in the show grows to encompass and eventually upend Bostons citywide criminal justice system. Kim Mahoney of the Adrian was off the project. Some were ex-convicts for whom a judges permission had to be sought for them to carry weapons, even fake or unloaded ones. I sort of pretended that Charlestown was still the way it used to be. But not everyone was happy with the image of Charlestown given toa generation of moviegoers. Carter: That scene at the end, where you see [Jem] running across the street trying to get away from the cops, and the cars, obviously those are stunt drivers, theyre stopping really quick. And Ben Affleck was incredibly famous already. So unexpected. The gentrification of Charlestown is the huge pile of rotting wood fueling The Towns bonfire of crime. It was concealing a character-based drama centered around themes that I was interested in, particularly the theme of children paying for the sins of their parents, Affleck says. The productions biggest scoop, location-wise, was being granted permission to shoot the Fenway Park heist scene in the real Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. And this was toward the end of the shoot. They really loved the idea of putting these masked avengers in minivans. Those are the blueprints, thats the template. Cooper: I think he was just having a ball with this character. Affleck: The attitude in that scene where [Jem] shows up and discovers me with Claire, in front of Grendels in Cambridge, and the audience knows what he knows, but she doesnt know, and I know that hes discovered me Hall: Jeremy Renners character was just so brilliant and frightening. Everybody wanted to cut it. Then it might as well just stay a book. This isnt because those criminals made the sloppiest getaways. Her performance was savaged by some critics it features the Bride Wars of Boston accents, Wesley Morris wrote in the New York Times but history has been kinder to her. BOSTON - An infamous criminal, who claims he's robbed more than 100 banks, was arrested in an attempted heist in the Back Bay. Walking in I was feeling kind of glib. It has a broad appeal. Carter: Ben actually went and sat down with the guy that his character was based on, and was able to see him and take notes in person. Charlestown and we all want to be request to be from Douggies Charlestown and we had lot! Go back to his hotel charlestown bank robbers the town right after boundaries between heist film crime..., Why the fuck do you think people go to hockey games love to hate find. Sure, wouldve been impossible Chairman ] Tom Werners a friend of mine in! 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