Fairfield Hills Auditions For A Movie Role

By Kendra Bobowick

“It’s a story. It’s intrigue, and what you would think of for a blockbuster,” said Maria DeMarco of DeMarco Management, which handles security at Fairfield Hills. She refers to the novel, The Madman’s Tale, which is now a film in-the-making, and in several weeks Ms DeMarco will know if producers are serious about considering the former state hospital campus for a backdrop.

“I got a call from the state Department of Culture and Tourism and they have a prospect for us about making a major film,” she said. Since recent legislation passed, Connecticut has become home to numbers of film sets and enjoyed the financial benefits to the state and towns, while producers earned tax incentives. Whether or not Fairfield Hills once again becomes a film site is still unknown. “I don’t want to raise hope or fear,” Ms DeMarco said. The producers have made no decisions about where they would like to film, and are currently looking in England, among other locations. “We’ll know for sure in a couple weeks,” Ms DeMarco said.

Financial gain is a real possibility, but the figures aren’t clear. “I asked them what they thought they would spend in town and they though in excess of $1 million, I suspect, but it’s too early to know,” she said. The potential benefits are clear, however. Ms DeMarco said, “Bottom line, this initiative has been a boon to every town in which they film, absolutely.”

Despite financial possibilities, the authority is wary of a film that will cast a shadow in Fairfield Hills. Chairman Robert Geckle explained, “We want to preserve Fairfield Hills as it will look, not as the dark image of an insane asylum.” The authority wants to promote what the campus will be, which is a site of municipal and private office space, and room for passive recreation.

Currently, plans are progressing to relocate the town hall’s municipal offices into a renovated Bridgeport Hall, which will also house the education department offices. With the help of real estate advisors, the authority and town officials hope to attract developers to the site to occupy the campus and generate economic activity in what is now a vacated facility where resident will walk their dogs or hold ball games.

As Ms DeMarco waits to hear from producers and authority members learn more about the production, Mr Geckle said, “We’re always open to sources of revenue.”

Ms DeMarco sat before the Fairfield Hills Authority last month and described the tale of a young man who had spent his adolescent years in a state mental hospital. He later learned to live independently and within reach of his medications. As she described the fictional character and settings, she raised her copy of A Madman’s Tale written by novelist John Katzenbach. The pages of Madman are now being scripted for the silver screen.

Producer Elliott Kastner is preparing to put the story on film, and the vacant buildings and beckoning open fields of Fairfield Hills offer a likely setting. Again pointing to her copy of Madman, Ms DeMarco explained to the authority, “I am 30 pages into the book and I know why they want Fairfield Hills…” She noted the similar fates of the fictional institution to the now vacant brick façades lining Newtown’s streets. After years passed since the story’s main character left the institution, he has a chance to step out of his lonely routine and visit the old hospital grounds when he learns it will be razed to make way for redevelopment.

Ms DeMarco also specified that the plot offered a kind portrayal of a former patient’s memory in an asylum. She said, “The book is lauded for its treatment of the mentally ill.”

Concerned that the plot would cast a negative image of patients or former asylums, authority member John Reed said, “We don’t know how true to the book the movie will be, if it’s about mistreatment…” Quickly replying, Ms DeMarco said, “No, no, no…It’s about a young man and his memories.” However, she also considered Mr Reed’s point saying, “You’re right, who knows.”

Joining the conversation, member Moira Rodgers noted, “It can’t hurt to learn more.”

Mr Geckle said, “I don’t think we’re in a position to say anything without learning more.”

In The Spotlight

Ms DeMarco has fielded numbers of inquiries to film on the campus, but only entertains a few. “We open the campus to legitimate [requests],” she said in a later interview. In the late 1990s after the state closed the hospital, the movie Sleepers was filmed there. This story’s plot focused on boys in a reform school.

More recently, Ms Demarco has received another request from eBay. “They want to shoot a commercial,” she said.

Connecticut is currently awash in stage lighting as the Department of Culture and Tourism’s Film Division touts the state as a film location. According to the department’s information, “The Film Division promotes Connecticut as a prime New England location for film, television and media productions.

“It provides location services to production companies and assists the state and its municipalities in coordinating productions. With an online Production Guide and Location Gallery along with hands-on technical support, the Film Division serves as a clearinghouse for information, incentives and services that make Connecticut a premier filming venue.”

Hollywood’s famous faces have passed before the camera in locations including Norwalk, Bridgeport, and New Haven in the last six months. In fact, the state’s film history goes back to 1947, according to the culture and tourism department’s website, when Boomerang was shot in Stamford.

In the late 1990s Fairfield Hills was used as a location for the filming of Sleepers, starring Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Kevin Bacon.