Netflix Coming to Monmouth County? Hollywood is Already Here

By Elizabeth Wulfhorst

Netflix may be eyeing Fort Monmouth for a production hub in the next few years, but Hollywood is already a big part of Monmouth County, and has been for some time.

Many know about movie director Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” franchise. Smith, who also plays the character Silent Bob in the movies, was born in Red Bank and grew up in Highlands, attending Henry Hudson Regional School. He famously filmed “Clerks” in 1994 on a shoestring budget at the Quick Stop in Leonardo where he worked at the time. He returned to the area to film a number of other movies, most recently this summer for “Clerks III.” In addition to the Quick Stop, Smith also turned Gianni’s in Red Bank into the fictional Mooby’s for the movie.

Because of the Two River’s close proximity to New York, businesses, residences and towns in the county are often used as stand-ins for other areas of the country. Last year director Alan Taylor used Bahrs Landing, the more-than-a-century-old seafood restaurant in Highlands, to film a scene for his “Sopranos” prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark.” Food Network and Discovery have also been known to use Two River towns as locations for shows.

This summer Red Bank hosted a star-studded red carpet event as Basie Center Cinema premiered “Rushed,” a film written by and starring Rumson resident and longtime actor of film and television Siobhan Fallon Hogan. Many of the scenes in the movie were shot in the Two River area and also showcase local residents.

But Smith and Fallon Hogan aren’t the only people from Monmouth County involved in the Hollywood machine. From actors to producers to costumers to set designers, many employed in the entertainment industry also call the Two River area home.

The Actor

Like many thespians, Greg Schweers caught the acting bug early, as a student at Red Bank Catholic. But the Red Bank native who now lives in Little Silver initially chose a different profession – the law. For nearly 25 years Schweers was an assistant prosecutor in the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. After retiring in 2012 he decided to pursue acting fulltime.

Throughout his legal career Schweers said he continued to act in his free time because he enjoyed it. He is a veteran of the stage, having played numerous roles in summer stock with Premiere Theatre Company, Phoenix Productions and the Spring Lake Community House of Theatre.

Though they seem very different, Schweers thinks his two professions – prosecutor and actor – informed each other throughout his life. “They both helped each other, because I’m on my feet, I’m interacting with people either directly or through a character. It’s a form of public speaking whether you’re speaking to a jury or characters on the stage or the characters in a movie.”

Since 2013, in addition to stage productions, Schweers has also been in corporate videos, television and print commercials, television shows – including “Law & Order: SVU” – and a few films.

His most recent movie, a horror-mystery called “Night at the Eagle Inn,” premiered at festivals around the world and became available for streaming Nov. 2 on Amazon Prime and other platforms. In it, Schweers plays the nameless night manager of the spooky, titular inn where twins come to investigate the mysterious disappearance of their father many years ago on the night they were born. 

Schweers knew the director of “Eagle Inn,” Erik Bloomquist, from work on another project and happens to own a home in central Vermont one town over from where filming took place last fall. Bloomquist thought Schweers would be perfect for the “weird, quirky character” in the film.

“I’m not a big gore and guts type of guy and that’s not this. This is really more of a thriller than anything else. There’s a little bit of blood but it’s nothing too bad,” he said. “Obviously I’m biased because I’m in the thing, but it really does do a good job, I think, of keeping you engaged from the very beginning.”

Like with everything else the past 20 months, Schweers said the pandemic took its toll on the entertainment industry and made auditioning difficult. “Prior to the pandemic, I was going to New York City pretty regularly” to try for parts, he said. After the complete shutdown most auditions are still being handled remotely, with actors filming themselves and uploading the recordings to the casting department.

His long-term goal as an actor is just to keep working, Schweers said. “There’s so many darn actors out there, you know. Honestly, it’s hard to get auditions, let alone get the actual bookings.”

But he is proud of many roles he’s had, including as the founder of General Motors for the History Channel series “The Cars That Made America” and numerous parts on true crime documentaries for Investigation Discovery.

Up next Schweers will be playing Walter Hobbs (Buddy the Elf’s father) in Phoenix’s production of “Elf: The Musical” at Count Basie Center for the Arts Nov. 12 to 14.

The Location

Earl and Kay Buchmann have lived in their 100-year-old Monmouth Beach house for over 40 years, but last month is the first time a movie crew came calling.

“Someone put… a flyer in our front door and it said, ‘Would you be interested in being involved with a film?’ ” Buchmann said.

“To make a long story short, two months later I had 100 people in my yard.”

Due to be released in 2022, “BROS,” a Universal Studios production, is a romantic comedy written by Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller and directed by Stoller. The historic all-LGBTQ cast, playing both heterosexual and LGBTQ roles, features notable names like Eichner, Luke Macfarlane, Jim Rash, Guillermo Diaz and Amanda Bearse.

Buchmann said the filming process was fascinating. “First the scout was there. Then maybe four or five people came back. And then they said, ‘OK, we’re really interested now.’ And they came back with like, 30 people,” he said. “They all came in a bus.”

Initially the crew was going to plant hedges and install a picket fence to make the property look more like Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the film is set. But Buchmann said that all changed. “They wound up using a house in Keyport on the water” for the exterior shots and focused efforts at the Buchmanns’ house on their “really special looking living room” which is all wood.

A few days before filming began Oct. 25, a crew – Buchmann called it “legions of people” – arrived to dress the house for the movie. “They took every stick of furniture I had out in the living room and transformed it into a more contemporary house where this guy (the character) lived,” Buchmann said.

The crew also transformed a small cottage on the Buchmanns’ property into a character’s boyhood home. “They actually wallpapered two of the rooms and took out all the furniture there, too,” he said.

And they put both houses back exactly as they were when they were finished, which Buchmann said impressed him, calling everyone who worked on the film “just wonderful.”

Buchmann had the option to stay during the upheaval of filming or go somewhere until it was over. He decided to stay.

“I’ve been in my house for 45 years and I’ve stayed for every hurricane,” he said, including Super Storm Sandy. “And I regarded this as a potential hurricane.”

He was invited to watch the filming but said he felt that would have been “intruding.” He instead walked around the property, keeping an eye on things, listening and trying to “anticipate questions and problems.”

The set-up crew arrived Wednesday, Oct. 20 and spent three days getting the property ready for filming. The actors, director and other crew arrived Monday, filmed scenes and left. It took two days to put everything back the way it was, Buchmann said, but he did receive compensation for the imposition.

“I can repair my front porch now,” Buchmann said with a laugh, something he’d been planning to do for a while.

The Up-and-Comer

You don’t just wake up one day and become the head writer for a television series. It takes hard work, honing your craft and learning about the industry. Middletown native Kirsten Koedding understands that better than most – running a writers’ room is one of her career goals. For now, she’s making contacts and gaining much-required knowledge about how shows are made working as a production assistant or PA.

Koedding graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Communications’ first three-plus-one program in 2019 and 2020, first with a Bachelor of Arts in media arts and advertising and then a Master of Science in interactive media and communications. And then she began looking for a job in the middle of a pandemic when much of the entertainment industry was shuttered.

Once filming started up again, Koedding found herself in the enviable position of having to choose between two jobs – a long-term stint at a production company or a three-month project with the History Channel.

“I was choosing between job security and being on set,” she said.

She chose the production company job, which she quickly discovered was a mistake. The benefit was it helped her learn what to avoid when job hunting and how to spot “red flags” in interviews.

A few months later she was hired to work on the Netflix production “The Good Nurse” in a position that didn’t even exist when she started college – COVID production assistant. Koedding said the industry began an entire branch of health and safety with protocols related to COVID-19. “This COVID PA position was one that a lot of people were using to get their foot in the door and to meet people and to get into other departments,” Koedding said.

The one drawback to that first job? It was in Stamford, Connecticut, and Koedding still lives in Middletown, an hour and a half away – without traffic. But she said the decision was fairly easy because of Netflix.

“Netflix is a big name and I wanted it on my résumé,” she said. “And it was also a door to being on set in the production world.” For the first few months of the five-month production, she stayed in a hotel during the week, commuting home on weekends, “sucking up” the cost in time and money.

Koedding said having Netflix on Fort Monmouth would be a “power move.” She said she has met a lot of people in the industry from Monmouth County who, like her, would like to stay in the area. She said it would also make a big difference for young people who can’t afford to live in places like Brooklyn or Hoboken without “eight roommates.”

She said she took the job as an “opportunity to learn everything I could and make sure that I did my job right and well so that I could get hired on future productions.”

As with many jobs, getting a foot in the door isn’t only about what you know but also about who you know and Hollywood is no different. She credits Quinnipiac with helping her get her second job, through someone she met while filming documentaries in South Africa on a three-week school program in 2018. (Koedding also interned as an office production assistant on the soap opera “General Hospital” that year.)

Since that first job on “The Good Nurse,” scheduled for release in 2022, Koedding said she hasn’t had to apply for any of the jobs she’s gotten thanks to networking. She is currently a first team production assistant on the television show “Blue Bloods.” Her job involves shepherding actors through hair, makeup and wardrobe, keeping directors and crew apprised of their whereabouts and generally attending to their needs on set.

Koedding ultimately hopes to parlay her work into a writer’s assistant position, often a “word-of-mouth” opportunity. By being on sets, Koedding hopes to be in the right place at the right time when a position becomes available and she can make her abilities and ambitions known.

With 10-12-hour days and a three-hour daily commute, Koedding said she hasn’t had a lot of time to write. “But I do have a lot of ideas I’ve been slowly developing in my head and in my Notes app on my phone. So eventually I will sit down and write because… that’s the goal.”

The Multi-Hyphenate

If you live in Atlantic Highlands you likely already know creator, writer, director, executive producer and showrunner Jon Crowley. Because he is also a two-term borough councilman.

Crowley moved to the area 14 years ago from Los Angeles with his wife, a New Jersey native. A friend showed them around the area and Crowley fell for Atlantic Highlands. “Oh my God, there’s a movie theater, a barbecue joint and a boat that gets me right to Manhattan,” Crowley thought when he first visited.

“Having come from L.A. and the beaches, to be on the water, I thought would be a great way to sort of transition to East Coast living.”

Crowley is an Emmy winner, has been a network executive (SYFY, TruTV, Food Network) and is the co-creator of the TruTV reality show “Impractical Jokers.” He is currently executive producing, writing, directing and acting as showrunner for a movie for Discovery, some of which he filmed in Atlantic Highlands, including at the now closed Mother Teresa School in the borough.

He explained how shooting a movie or television series in a town can bring an economic boon. For the recent filming in Atlantic Highlands, Crowley rented rooms for crew members and used local restaurants for catering meals. The art department shopped at local consignment shops for wardrobe and props and at Jaspan Brothers Hardware for paint and supplies to build sets. “In short, we spent about $23,000 in the span of six days that we were there, and I was delighted to be able to… do that,” he said.

Crowley also said he thinks most of the “talent” on set came from Monmouth County. “So it was great to be able to spread the dollars around locally.”

In addition to his film, he noted that productions from Kevin Smith and the Food Network also shot in Atlantic Highlands recently, bringing revenue to town. That current and potential revenue is a big reason why Crowley is working closely with his fellow council members to repeal a new borough fee which charges $500 a day for a filming permit. He explained that Atlantic Highlands already falls outside New York City’s “thirty-mile zone” or TMZ – designated to protect union workers, determining per diem rates and driving distances – one of the reasons his recent project put crew members up in hotels for the days they were here filming. This limited the travel time back to New York City meaning more time on set. But it also meant more money being spent locally. 

But the “game changer” is Netflix, Crowley said. “If Netflix takes over a portion of the fort for studio operations,” the TMZ could change.

“If that TMZ shifts there are a lot of people, whether they work with camera or lights or the writers, directors, costumers, makeup, hair, people that live in our community, in our county. That could be a huge boon for production out here. That could be putting a lot of people to work.”

“I think that to be able to have a studio here and to be able to find more regular work is going to be fantastic,” he said.

But Crowley is not just relying on Netflix to help usher in the next generation of creatives. He recently helped Atlantic Highlands hold Comcast accountable for a provision in their contract that requires the cable giant to give the borough its own television studio. Comcast will be running $80,000 worth of fiber optic cable into the town, according to Crowley, which will eventually allow for a studio in the basement of borough hall. “Eventually I can see this as being a program that we can offer, through our Recreation Committee, to… kids and adult residents of Atlantic Highlands to be able to make their own content and then be able to put it out onto our TV station.”

With the TV production classes already available for students at Henry Hudson Regional School, Crowley said “a new generation of storytellers are growing up right in our area.”

“There’s a line of other young Kevin Smiths getting educated and getting that background and (they) want to be storytellers or want to be camera people or want to do makeup, hair, costuming, all the arts that go along with putting together a show,” Crowley said, and they will have an outlet for the content they are creating right in the borough.

“Now the idea of working in entertainment isn’t something that’s far flung that you’ve got to go to L.A. for or that you have to make the trek into Manhattan,” he said. “It’s like you may already know people that’ll be working at the studio eventually so now it becomes something that’s completely doable, that’s realistic.”

The article originally appeared in the November 11 – 17, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.