Anne Hathaway, who was raised in Millburn, has returned to New Jersey for the second time in just a few months to shoot her latest movie.
The Anne Hathaway-led “Eileen” has been filming in several Garden State locations over the last few weeks. The production is based on a 2015 book by Ottessa Moshfegh that is frequently compared to “Gone Girl,” another novel that was adapted into a movie with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.
“Eileen,” which is set in the 1960s, has been adapted for the big screen by “The Girl on the Train” screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson. The film’s crew set up shop in Metuchen just before Christmas to shoot various scenes, transforming portions of Main Street and even creating some artificial snow. Metuchen Mayor Jonathan Busch tweeted about the production, which moved on to South Amboy last week.
Per My Central Jersey, Hathaway and company closed down Lagoda’s Saloon on South Broadway for several days to film the movie. Steven Gorelick, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, told the outlet that “Eileen” has also filmed scenes in Paramus, Jersey City, Sandy Hook, and Cranford, with a scheduled shoot in Westfield later this month.
The film itself revolves around a 20-something woman who works in a boys’ prison just outside of Boston. It is being produced by Searchlight Pictures and is scheduled to be released in about one year.
“Eileen” is second film Hathaway recently shot in the Garden State, as the actress filmed “Armageddon Now” around Thanksgiving in Jersey City, Teaneck, and Bayonne. That film co-stars two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong of “Succession” fame.
New Jersey can partially attribute the increase in moving making to 2018’s Garden State Film and Digital Media Jobs Act, which provides a film production tax credit of up to 35 percent.
Outside of that policy, Jersey City recently welcomed the largest film studio in the state last summer and several other facilities are approved or planned. Nexflix also announced last year that they will bid on a 289-acre site in Fort Monmouth, with the intent of building a new production campus on the land.
