Movie magic in Millbrook: Will there be more to come?

MILLBROOK — The beauty of Dutchess County is well-known and film location scouts for movie and television are well aware of its appeal.

Here, you can have a forest, with deep woods, mountains, farms, and other rural and pastoral scenes. Then, five minutes away, you may find a charming village or a posh neighborhood with stately mansions and picturesque Victorian homes.

There are also a multitude of water possibilities such as lakes, rivers, ponds and fishing holes, not to mention covered bridges and massive bridges such as with Walkway over the Hudson, the Kingston Bridge and more.

While Red Hook and Rhinebeck seem to be perennial favorites, along with many other sites, Poughkeepsie has been central in more than one project, and Pleasant Valley and Millbrook have also had their 15 minutes of fame.

Actually, it was a lot more than 15 minutes. For instance, the five-part HBO series “The White House Plumbers” filmed in Millbrook, using Franklin Avenue and the Millbrook Diner.

“There was a lot of excitement and interest in the Village when HBO contacted us with a request to spend a few days to film some scenes from the subject movie in and around the Millbrook Diner,” said Millbrook Mayor Tim Collopy.

“Generous financial payments were made by the film company to those businesses that had to shut down for filming (the Millbrook Diner and Reardon Briggs Hardware) and some financial compensation was also provided to nearby businesses that were affected by shutting down Franklin Avenue.

The Village charged a flat fee which was to generously cover administrative costs as well as to pay premium rates for Village police traffic control.”

Of course, that’s the business end of it. What fun the Village residents had watching the filming!

The epic was “The White House Plumbers,” and extras were dressed in clothes from that period. Cars came from all over, also from that period, and were lined up in front of the diner, and up and down Franklin Avenue. The filming took several days.

The film, with an all-star cast including Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, tells the tale of how the Nixon administration ended up taking itself down.

Talking to the extras, and some of the car owners, it became evident that they not only got paid for their time and work, they loved doing it. Many of them have been in several movies and television films that have been done in this area. It was reported that more than 3,000 people answered the casting call for extras.

Collopy added: “While the film company was quite adept at crowd control and accommodating business needs, the biggest issues the Village had were that one, the scheduled film dates changed multiple times (even within a week of the last scheduled date), and two, the film crew needed to return for a second two-day period to complete filming.

“Despite the financial compensation, these changes caused a significant degree of frustration by business owners, residents and police such that the Board of Trustees will solicit input from the Millbrook Business Association and residents before allowing such future requests. We will also include a cancellation/reschedule fee as part of the contract terms.”

Knowing the interest of production companies in this area, Councilman Mike Murphy of the Town of Washington said of determining rates and rules for filming: “We have yet to address this issue. Hope to do so in the coming year.”

“This Much I Know Is True,” a six-part HBO special with Mark Ruffalo, was filmed mainly in and around Poughkeepsie, but some of the important parts were filmed at Pleasant Valley Estates on the Taconic, and mention was made of a major accident taking place on Route 22 between Brewster and Millerton.

The Taconic Developmental Disabilities Service Offices in Wassaic was also featured in several scenes.

In one scene, former state Sen. Sue Serino and the late Dutchess County Sheriff Butch Anderson and his wife, Danielle, are shown playing a psychiatric review board.

The Dutchess County Film Commission has listed more than 500 productions as having been filmed, all or in part, in the Hudson Valley. This, of course, is a huge area, but as more people visit, it is becoming better known and could see more and more activity from film companies.

There are several film companies that have already made the Hudson Valley their home, and proximity to New York City is a factor.

Casting calls are not uncommon in Dutchess County anymore, and many professionals in related fields have made this area their home.