Five-minute read
Michael L. DiamondAsbury Park Press
RED BANK - As the cast and crew descended on the Molly Pitcher Inn to film the Netflix thriller "The Beast in Me," for four days last month, the hotel's staff was pressed into action.
They set aside 23 guest rooms. They turned the dining room over to the crew for filming. And they declined to comment on the most obvious question: Did the series' executive producer and star Claire Danes stay there?
"We can't say who's here, who's not here, but that goes for all our guests," said Kevin Barry, operations manager for the Molly Pitcher Inn and its sister hotel, Oyster Point.
The two Red Bank hotels are taking advantage of New Jersey's rapidly growing film industry, booking blocks of rooms and turning the properties over to production companies for filming.
It has forced Barry and his team to move quickly, making snap decisions about, say, whether to rip out ceiling tiles so a film crew's equipment will fit. But the staff also has found the production crews polite, laid back and efficient, giving the hotels a welcome jolt during otherwise slow times.
Their success also raises the specter that the Shore doesn't have enough hotel rooms for an industry that has taken off in recent years thanks to generous state tax credits and is only expected to build momentum. Notably, Netflix plans to build an $850 million studio on the site of the former Fort Monmouth.
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Joe Barris, Monmouth County's planning director who has served as a liaison to the film industry since February, has fielded calls from five or six location scouts searching for all sorts of backdrops: a woodsy place next to a field, a golf course, a spot that had a vintage 1950s feel.
He said he expected hotels to respond to the demand.
"I think the market forces are already in play for accommodating that, so if there is a need for hotels, they will appear," Barris said.
While the Jersey Shore's lodging industry is known more for vacation rentals than luxury hotels, the quaint, 106-room Molly Pitcher Inn and the more contemporary, 56-room Oyster Point Hotel are filling the gap.
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The two hotels overlook the Navesink River and have hosted three major film productions in the past two years: "Miranda's Victim," "Mean Girls," and "The Beast in Me."
Barry said the hotel is a natural fit for the entertainment industry. Its staff routinely hosts celebrities who are playing at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel or the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, and they have a knack for responding to unforeseen circumstances.
Actor Johnny Depp joined guitarist Jeff Beck for a show at Count Basie two years ago, and then invited dozens of fans waiting outside to join him at the Oyster Point. They took him up on the offer and met up with the restaurant, where the party continued until 4 a.m., Barry said.
The film companies similarly keep the staff on its toes.
They need to keep up with special requests, like ensuring actors can leave through the back entrance. They need to keep their eyes peeled for over-enthusiastic fans. And, if the production company is filming on the property, they need to stay quiet as a mouse, knowing the microphones can pick up the faintest sounds.
"If there's a truck backing up in the parking lot, you can hear it, so we have to make sure the trucks are quiet," Barry said.
The Shore is quickly becoming accustomed to that type of activity. Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers have rolled out tax credits of up to 40% for digital media companies working in New Jersey, hoping the incentives would pay off by attracting out-of-staters who spend money at local hotels, caterers, and retailers.
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It has opened the door for a string of television shows and movies filmed in Monmouth County, from "Severance," an Apple TV show directed by Ben Stiller that was partly shot at Bell Works in Holmdel, to "The 4:30 Movie," directed by Kevin Smith and shot in Atlantic Highlands.
Producers, however, say finding enough local rooms can be a challenge. Ernie O'Donnell, an executive producer for "The 4:30 Movie" and a longtime friend of Smith's, said filmmakers often have to cobble together hotels and Airbnbs for people flying in from Los Angeles and Atlanta.
For "Clerks III," he said, the crew stayed at the Extended Stay in Middletown and the Best Western in Hazlet. It worked out; production crews spend most of their time on the set and just need a place to sleep and take a shower. But, he joked, he couldn't imagine a star like Clare Danes staying at the Leonardo Motel on Route 36.
"In five years, when Netflix is here, it's going to be an explosion," O'Donnell said. "There's definitely a need for more places to stay."
To support the film industry, the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission has rolled out a certification program for municipalities called Film Ready. The towns tab a point person, adopt a permit process, specify potential film locations and provide a list of resources, including local hotels.
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While the commission reported the television and movie industry spent more than $650 million in New Jersey in 2022, it isn't clear how many rooms it has booked or will need.
New hotels are part of the region's blueprint. Fort Monmouth's reuse plan, for example, permits two hotels: Netflix can build a six-story, 72-foot high hotel on its parcel, and Michael Abboud, the developer of the RiverWalk Center, can redevelop Allison Hall into another hotel.
Elsewhere, Ralph Zucker, founder and chief executive officer of Inspired by Somerset, which owns Bell Works in Holmdel, originally planned to build a 200-room boutique hotel on the building's rooftop. But it was shelved during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Zucker said he still is undecided about whether the region's economy could support it.
"The film industry has clearly said they would love to have a great place to stay a lot closer to Bell Works," Zucker said last week.
It meant that Ben Stiller and his "Severance" team could have stayed at the Molly Pitcher Inn instead, although Barry declined to comment.
However, "The Beast in Me" was there for three days in September, sales director Rainey Alwell said, taking up 23 rooms for overnight stays and the dining room, the ballroom, the bar and the promenade wing for filming. The crew moved with military precision, before wrapping things up and going home.
"They have dollars behind them to help make things work and make it easy for us, which is nice, so it's good business," Barry said. "We've had to say 'no' to some productions, too, because we're busy, or we have weddings, or we have corporate events, so you can't always accommodate all the requests. But when the stars align, it's the best-case scenario for us."
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter for the Asbury Park Press. He has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.
