City Offers Reel-lief To Overshot Neighborhoods

Ethan Hawke is big. Real big. Or as the Daily News would say, “reel big”:

The streets of New York may not be paved with gold, but filmmakers can certainly turn them into green for the city — and often headaches for residents.

Brooklyn Heights had three film productions going on at the same time last month.

“That was a lot in the central core of a small neighborhood,” said Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association.

“We had shooting on the Promenade with Ethan Hawke. He didn’t have big equipment, but he took up all of Remsen St. from Montague Terrace to Clinton St.”

Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones was nearby making “Mostly Martha,” while parts of “August Rush” were being filmed in two of the neighborhood’s historic churches.

DUMBO residents have had similar experiences.

“It culminated with ‘The Forgotten,'” said Nancy Webster, a past president of the DUMBO Neighborhood Association.

“The chief impact of a crew is they take up lots of parking. For residents who park on the street, that can be a major inconvenience,” Webster said.

The city’s solution: Give the neighborhoods a time out from film crews.

To “balance production with the needs of our communities … [the city] will occasionally give neighborhoods that have hosted significant levels of production a short, temporary break from filming,” said Assistant Commissioner Julianne Cho of Mayor Bloomberg’s office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

The break can last up to three months, but is informally bestowed.

Stanton said Brooklyn Heights did not receive notice of its respite until the association complained.

The article misses the real, er, reel story, however, which is Law & Order’s big fat exemption. Those sons a bitches are still everywhere.