If producers of “The Pink Panther 2’’ could make Boston look like Paris, how hard could
it be to re-create Harvard? Not so hard, it turns out. Filming of “The Social Network’’
got underway this week, and Wheelock College and Boston University are standing in
for the World’s Greatest University. In keeping with its longstanding policy forbidding
movies from shooting inside its hallowed halls, Harvard stiff-armed “The Social
Network,’’ which is about the founding of Facebook by Harvard student Mark
Zuckerberg. “We have a policy not allowing commercial filming on campus,’’ said
Harvard flack John Longbrake. (One exception was Denzel Washington’s “The Great
Debaters,’’ which was partially shot at Sanders Theatre.) No big deal.
Monday, the movie starring Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and Justin Timberlake as
FB cofounder Sean Parker commandeered Wheelock’s new Campus Center to film a
winter scene set at the Maxwell-Dworkin building at Harvard. Wheelock was paid for
the use of the property, but a school spokesperson wouldn't tell us how much. (With
Harvard’s endowment down 27 percent this year, you’d think the Ivy League school
would be happy to take some of Hollywood’s cash.) Yesterday, “Social Network’’
director David Fincher moved to BU, and tomorrow he’ll be at the South End shop
Posh, which has been turned into a bogus Harvard bookstore called the “Crimson
Emporium.’’
Of course, the movie loosely based on Ben Mezrich’s book “Accidental Billionaires’’ isn’
t the only game in town. The cast and crew of “The Town’’ set up shop yesterday in
Harvard Square. Director Ben Affleck was directing foot traffic outside The Coop in the
morning, and cameras rolled in the afternoon when a security guard emerged from an
armored car and walked into a bank with bags of money. Passersby said the filming
caused little commotion, though one entrance to the Harvard Square T station was
closed periodically.
it be to re-create Harvard? Not so hard, it turns out. Filming of “The Social Network’’
got underway this week, and Wheelock College and Boston University are standing in
for the World’s Greatest University. In keeping with its longstanding policy forbidding
movies from shooting inside its hallowed halls, Harvard stiff-armed “The Social
Network,’’ which is about the founding of Facebook by Harvard student Mark
Zuckerberg. “We have a policy not allowing commercial filming on campus,’’ said
Harvard flack John Longbrake. (One exception was Denzel Washington’s “The Great
Debaters,’’ which was partially shot at Sanders Theatre.) No big deal.
Monday, the movie starring Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and Justin Timberlake as
FB cofounder Sean Parker commandeered Wheelock’s new Campus Center to film a
winter scene set at the Maxwell-Dworkin building at Harvard. Wheelock was paid for
the use of the property, but a school spokesperson wouldn't tell us how much. (With
Harvard’s endowment down 27 percent this year, you’d think the Ivy League school
would be happy to take some of Hollywood’s cash.) Yesterday, “Social Network’’
director David Fincher moved to BU, and tomorrow he’ll be at the South End shop
Posh, which has been turned into a bogus Harvard bookstore called the “Crimson
Emporium.’’
Of course, the movie loosely based on Ben Mezrich’s book “Accidental Billionaires’’ isn’
t the only game in town. The cast and crew of “The Town’’ set up shop yesterday in
Harvard Square. Director Ben Affleck was directing foot traffic outside The Coop in the
morning, and cameras rolled in the afternoon when a security guard emerged from an
armored car and walked into a bank with bags of money. Passersby said the filming
caused little commotion, though one entrance to the Harvard Square T station was
closed periodically.
 |  |  |
On the sets of ‘The Social Network’ and ‘The Town’
by Roland Hansen
by Roland Hansen
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