This image shows the location where the north end of Binnewater Road meets Lucas Avenue in Rosendale. (Photo by Lauren Thomas)
Rosendalers bracing for possible traffic nightmares on the first morning of this weekend’s Rosendale Street Festival due to closure of part of Binnewater Road for filming can breathe a sigh of relief. The shoot, originally scheduled to take place at night from July 17 to 19, has been canceled, councilman Matt Igoe reported at the July 10 Rosendale Town Board meeting.
The film sequence for the upcoming HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True, starring Mark Ruffalo, was to involve an automobile crashing into a dead tree. “We’ll probably do it a hundred times,” location manager Nicholas Pray had told the board when it issued conditional approval in June. Town officials had expressed some unease over the possibility that the shoot might take longer than planned and require road closure to continue into the first day of the Street Festival, when Route 213 is closed in downtown Rosendale and Binnewater Road typically serves as a favorite detour for motorists.
The filming of the collision has been relocated to a site in another town, Igoe said. “They found a better tree,” affirmed town clerk Mandy Donald, who had already spent hours on the phone facilitating the shoot before the change in venue was announced. “That’s what they told me.”
Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True has been filming for the past several months at various locations in the Hudson Valley, including Poughkeepsie, Ellenville and Marbletown. Derek Cianfrance, whose 2012 movie The Place Beyond the Pines was shot in the Capital District, is the screenwriter and director. Also in the cast are Melissa Leo, Rosie O’Donnell, Archie Panjabi, Imogen Poots, Juliette Lewis and Kathryn Hahn.
“They found a better tree…”
Translation: The common and completely irrational freak out by the Rosendale locals once again drives away anything new, long-term or short-term. The better tree is a place where anything is possible…not limited by the very small, scared minds on the empty streets of Rosendale. But at least you can have chickens in your yard.
this book is amazing, read it before you watch the show