The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. 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 annual average hovered above 10,000 for the next 15years. I said, Is there any way in hell that you can imagine that someone would ever rob a bank if theyre from Charlestown dressed as a nun? And the FBI agent I was meeting with turned to me and said, You know what, thats not a bad idea at all. And thats where that idea started. The bank robbers step out of their vehicle. How are you gonna figure this out because you want to drive an armored car out of one of our gates? Affleck: Im glad to have worked on movies that are part of that tradition. By the way? He had really bad scars. All three were from Charlestown. Robert H. Brady, 42, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. And so they said they had this script based on this book, and I said, OK, let me look at it. I read the adaptation, and it had been developed by Adrian Lyne, who I just worked with. This is their story. Affleck: With Jeremy Renner, somebody said to me, Theres this guy, hes got this movie coming out that you should see, its supposed to be really good. MacRay is pulled between the devil and angel who sit on his shoulders: Jem, who spent nine years in prison for killing someone who was supposedly planning to kill Doug; and Claire, the bank manager Doug falls for after a job. Its a hard movie to watch. Welliver: The upside of that is everybody is rooting for him. Jon Hamm (FBI special agent Adam Frawley): I knew he had some serious Boston cred. Police Arrest Charlestown Man Following Bank Robbery - Charlestown, MA - Officers responded to the Santander Bank at 437 Rutherford Avenue early Sunday morning. He was the leader that he is. To get to Charlestown was to live free. They had seen Gone Baby Gone, which opened in like sixth place to $5 million or something and wasnt seen widely. According to FBI statistics Affleck: There have been a lot more New York city movies than there have Boston, for sure. Neighborhood of Boston, yet lopped off every map of the city like a bastard cropped out of a happy family portrait. The crew at the center of The Town resembles a gang of five masked robbers who pulled holdups from 1990 to 1995. MacRay, who is a recovering addict with mommy issues, is more of a sociopath than Jem, who is only living the way the streets taught him. And for better or worse, it was also a hit thatin addition to tax incentiveshelped temporarily cement Massachusetts as Hollywood East. I dont know exactly what happened, but I know that the option was running out. Doug MacRay ( Ben Affleck) is not cut from the same cloth as his fellow thieves. Claire foretells the doom of Charlestowns criminal culture. Or do we want to give him a chance to live and a better life? It was kind of a moment for them. There was one of my endings and Ben wrote a couple endings, and thats Bens ending that they used. Crockett: Gone Baby Gone, which I did with him, was a relatively small movie. The feds, they get shuffled around all over the country. He made my job easy. Theres a lot of different stories to tell. He was able to hold his own with a lot of those dudes who are the real deal. I was playing a character that was from Boston and I worked really hard on the accent and went in and did my first rounds and the director said, That was great. WebAccording to lore, when the Boston Police Department hears of a bank robbery happening in the city, the first thing they do is close the Charlestown bridge. Ben wasnt in Boston. Carter: They were looking at Chris Pine in the very beginning, because of course Star Trek had just come out. Owen Burke (Desmond Elden): I was going to a community college in Charlestown, I was working under the table, I had just gotten past some legal trouble in my teenage years. Crockett: As he puts it, you have so many fame chips you can use. Ill use them because Im from Boston to get into Fenway. 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. They set up a date and Jeremy Renner and I both arrived at Walpole to go through the screening. "Ben Affleck Played Me". Its something Ive seen other directors do. Matheson: Weve had this official tour [of Bostons FBI office] and as were leaving, I notice a picture across the room, pasted to the wall, of a person in a mask, from the CC TV. The budget that we had previously was too high for us to make it. And then I realized, Maybe they think I can make movies more on the cheap.. Welliver: If anything, people were kind of burned out on the New York gangster genre. Whats the best way to get there?. The way John tells the story is, Of course I do two [moves] on him and Ive got him and he cant move, and [Afflecks] like, alright, alright, alright!. Affleck: Rebecca worked just as hard on the accent. They dont fink. This really happened it was described to Affleck by a man serving time. They were all from Charlestown. Hamm: It was impressive. It also had a scheme so ingenious that Frank Sinatra supposedly considered pulling the job over doing the film. He was charged with armed bank robbery and making threats. And obviously it was in Bostonthat I was comfortable with. Affleck: My favorite moment in the movie, cinematically, came directly from a conversation I had with a guy who was in MCI-Norfolk at the time. Affleck: I was very self-conscious about being limited to being the Boston guy. When its not, its predictable and obvious and trite. In 2018, there were just over 4,000 robberies in Massachusetts compare that to 1980, when there more than 13,500. This shooting game is the newest brilliant sneaking FPS game. 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. David Crockett (producer): They read, and not saying who she was or what she was in, she did the [Boston] accent. Crockett: I vividly remember it. FBI figures reveal significantly higher crime rates pre-gentrification. And more than anything, just from a noise standpoint, it was kind of unique. Two guards -- Lawrence Johnson, 57, and Ronald Normandeau, 52 -- were shot to death while delivering money to the bank for North East Armored Transport Inc. of Manchester, N.H. Affleck turns it into a redemption story which beats the bank alarm at under two hours. After managing to evade a manhunt and escape to Florida, his character says goodbye to Claire via a letter. Its not just an accent, its more of an attitude. Download Bank Robbery missions 2017 and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. He was given just 13 days, during which the sound of automatic gun fire spooked a wedding party that had hired Fenway as a venue and were apparently not made aware that there was also a film shoot in progress. Well, not take notes, because you couldnt bring in a pencil. The Town unfolds in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, which the prologue claims has produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than The money was all on the screen. He also made sure to populate the movie with people who didnt have to fake their Boston accents. 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. And then we put her and her cousin in the movie. I remember the librarians called me the day before, just to confirm. These were to prove fundamental to the films success, yielding some of its most memorable moments. Im gonna do a movie about Iran.. Were like, Wait, hes about the right size, height, and all that other, he could be Bens stand-in. 371K. Theres two ways that this can go. Suspects at large after $100K stolen from North Side bank: authorities. Its like 50 percent of why people buy tickets. And man, he stood up really well to Ben. The FBI reports agents today arrested Anthony M. Hamilton, 24, of Charlestown, on charges he held up a Malden Citizens Bank branch in December, then shot his way out of a locked vestibule. Burke: There were the most narrow streets you could find in the North End. And in an exciting way. 2023 date, start time and how to watch, From the stripper to the slap: the worst moments in Oscars history, Pedro Pascal is the best actor on TV even behind a mask. The former bank robber-turned-aspiring-movie producer who tried to claim it is back to prison. Some of the scenes were shot on the real crime locations depicted. Do everything youre supposed to do, they wont be harmed.. And Ben Affleck was incredibly famous already. 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. He knows how to get a story from one place to another and connect all the dots in between so that you are in it and immersed in it and believe it and its thrilling and its really entertaining, as well as being serious. [The Town] is not just entertainment and popcorn. They stole their tunes., The interviews also gave The Town an on-tap supply of authentic extras. But he also liked this book by Chuck Hogan. 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. The Town took $23.8 million (18.4 million) at the box office on its opening weekend, from a budget of just $37 million (28 million). To Charlestown, our one square mile of brick and Ten years ago this week, Ben Affleck and his crew put on nun masks, robbed Fenway Park, and made the ultimate Boston movie. In all of his years of being a criminal, he robbed two banks and seven armored cars, plus robbing Fenway Park during a baseball game. But how many people, speaking frankly, want to see a movie about a child murderer? Burch: We did one of the premieres at Fenway. WebThe Town. He was like, Thats me. Yes Charestown, MA is known for Bank robbers. And then she recorded her voice, read some of the pages, so that we shared that with Blake Lively, so she could try to get the accent down. Welliver: [Renner] switches it on and I love watching him work. And they said, We like what you did, we think youre a good director and we believe in you. And I was kind of struck by the enthusiasm they had considering for the most part, Hollywood operates based on success. Affleck: In a world of increasing homogenization, having this fresh place that I think stood out, it was appealing. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Craig: I lived in Somerville for a while in the 90s. So I read this new version of the script. When youre underneath in the concourse space, you could drop a keg at one end of the ballpark and have it reverberate all the way around. And it is a bit like visiting royalty there, for me, in a way that I dont get in any other town or city in the world. I had an interesting moment with him at one point, we were in the car and I said, Whats the deal? And he called me Ty, as all the guys did because they didnt want to say Titus. When it came time to cast The Town, Affleck had fun putting together a star-powered ensemble on a relatively limited budget. And she really focused specifically, not only on like, an American accent, but what it sounded like in Marblehead, which doesnt sound like Charlestown. Theyre so proud of him and theyre so happy. It took him to the next level because it made him a filmmaker who also had box office appeal. I was cutting out pieces of felt while Gina [Rhodes] was stitching themmaking, by hand, the fake Bruins logo. And that was really thrilling to respond to. In so many ways, the project came along at the exact right time. Every large theft needs an inside man, but Inside Man (2006), directed by Spike Lee, had Clive Owen as a bona fide genius. He was doing a long sentence. And I thought, Not only is she the best actress for the part, shes gonna be able to really surprise people.. 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. 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. Craig: I was a struggling crime writer. He was in his early 20s. The actor who played James Jem Coughlin, Dougs ex-con buddy, however, wasnt from Boston. The first or second take that he did, Jeremy wanted to do it on his own. He was with his mother. Bill Simmons saysthere were a lot of Boston ladies like Kris in real life. It seems likely that Lively had met a few. But the Associated Press, which broke the Coyman story, reported Burke is also from Charlestown and was sent to prison in 1988 for six bank robberies in Florida. Colin Burch (vice president of marketing and broadcasting, Boston Red Sox): We had filmed a number of movies before at Fenway, starting with Fever Pitch, and we did Ted, and RIPD, and Moneyball. Slaine: Ive seen other cuts of the ending, like the one they put out, the extended version. Its not The Godfather of caper films, but it is a heist movie must-see. Starring: Ben Affleck Rebecca Hall Jon Hamm Jeremy Renner Blake Lively. Thats the one moment that gives you a glimpse into how damaged and how profoundly broken Jem is. And then a few months later I got a call and they were like, Oh, we want you to come back in and audition for the director. I show up at this office in Cambridge to go in and read and all of a sudden I see Ben Affleck walk in. Police figures from 2010 showed that Charlestown accounted for barely 2 per cent of all Boston robberies(not just bank robberies). We had bank robbers, we had career criminals, people that couldnt show up certain days because theyd be violating their parole. But No R.. MacRay is a narcissist who uses Jems sister Krista (Blake Lively) for bathroom quickies, and Claire as a loophole. WebWhitey Bulger and his friendss and some of the Charlestown robbers operated from Marshall Street Garage was actually in Winter Hill, Somerville. This makes it a mini-epic. This isnt because those criminals made the sloppiest getaways. She was doing Gossip Girl, which at the time people thought like, Oh, thats just a CW Y.A. 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. Its kind of insular. The cunning group is robbing city banks to steal money and making the getaway with diamond Heist. Hall: It was like being alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in London. Witt: Its not like New York or Los Angeles where you have wider streets. Afflecks big killing in The Town is Fenway Park, and over 60 years later, the take is the same. WebThe crew consisted of Doug MacRay, Jem Coughlin, Desmond Elden, and Albert MacGloan, four veteran Charlestown bank and armored car robbers. Jem would rather battle it out with the law than go back to prison. The team, while sporting nun costumes and masks, quickly attempts to make an escape from downtown Boston to the bridge and beat the police department to the closing. Every take had the same amount of tension and edge but it was just all over the place. Its ruined my life, literally, but Im proud.. I was still in the 70s mindset of, Oh thats how you end one of these movies. From 1874 to 1921 it is estimated that Starr robbed over 21 banks, stealing $60,000 in cash. Ill tell you what Im gonna do. And so we were a little bit extra, extra respectful. In the 2000s, critically acclaimed, Irish Americancentered crime dramas like Clint Eastwoods Mystic River, Martin Scorseses The Departed, and Afflecks Gone Baby Gone had turned the Massachusetts capital into a Hollywood hot spot. Nothing kills a Boston-set movie like bad Boston accents. Good God, some of them may still be there today. Hes not someone that blends in easily. And he said, Well, there was a time I remember when we all had just robbed a truck and we pulled up to the switch car, and we all had our masks, and we were carrying a bag of money, and we pull up to the car, and we look over, and theres a cop doing lazy construction. And he just looked at us, and we looked at him, and he looked the other way. He was not doing great [health-wise]. His father, Stephen MacRay (Chris Cooper) was a thief, just like his father, and all of Dougs friends were thick with thievery. Martin Scorseses The Departed cast Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello, who was loosely based on Bulger. Hogan: I was playing on a softball team, and this friend, he works for one of the prisons here and he was walking by someones desk and they had a picture of Ben Affleck on her screen saver. I dont even think they had sidewalks. Job Type:Part-Time. Affleck: The only other thing Ill say about the chase sequence, it definitely reminded me of Jimmy Tingle in the 80s. The cunning group is robbing city banks to steal money and making the getaway with diamond Heist. They had all these Blaupunkts. Affleck: The Bruins have been extremely shortsighted and wrong with their policy, where if theres swearing or violence, you cant use their logo. So we had access to all of the underneath [of it], because thats where we shot a lot of it. I was doing that. But they said, We have this project that we think youd be right for. Afflecks second film as a director charts the fall of a mythic heist gang and the streets which made them. FINDLAY, Ohio (WTVG) - Authorities arrested a man in Findlay Monday on bank robbery charges. I knew that many of these bank robbers had gone to Catholic schools as children and been taught by nuns. Stockard: There is this over-the-top sense to these movies. She prepped for that for God knows how long. Burke: I was at a point where I was still looking for what I was gonna do with my life. Its not the same town as it was in the early 1990s and the 1980s.. Affleck gives the gang its last hurrah on-screen. He said, Shes slightly different. Marblehead is a little chi-chi. And we saw the film for the first time and I must say: I was across the aisle and up two or three rows from Jeremy, and I dont know if Im letting the cat out of the bag, but I think he was thrilled watching that film. WebDouglas "Doug" MacRay is a former career criminal and professional bank robber from Charlestown, Boston, which was the bank robbery capital of the world. He was quite clear. He heard stories about Charlestowns reputation for bank robberies and its strict code of silence. Everyone was making New York movies. At heart, its a story of social mobility. Jason Bourne kills the bad guys. In real life, they were not so lucky. You werent sure exactly what he was gonna do, or how he was gonna behave, because it wasnt Matt Damon, whos always the hero and always wins out in the end. ). Boston Police report arresting Thomas Hickey, 49, of Charlestown, for a Nov. 30 bank robbery on Austin Street in which he allegedly pushed an elderly man who was in line before him out of the way at a teller window.. Police report arresting Welliver: I had an experience several years before for a David Kelley show called The Practice which took place in Boston. 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