‘Stepford Wives’ nears end of filming in Connecticut
By JOE MEYERS
ctpost.com
Those perfect robot wives have been wandering around Fairfield County again in a new movie version of “The Stepford Wives” that is expected to complete local filming next week.
New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich have been among the locations used for this Nicole Kidman vehicle that also features Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Matthew Broderick and Glenn Close.
The movie’s final scenes are being shot at Norwalk’s Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, and on Wednesday Paramount Pictures invited the local press to meet director Frank Oz and screenwriter Paul Rudnick during their lunch break.
Oz has a home in Litchfield County and said he was glad the studio and producer Scott Rudin let him shoot the picture where Ira Levin set his 1972 novel and not opt for a cheaper substitute for Connecticut in Canada.
Guy Ortoleva, the executive director of the state’s Film, Video & Media Office, who was present at the press event, said “The Stepford Wives” will spend a total of about 25 days in Connecticut and that a movie on location adds between $50,000 and $100,000 to the local economy.
The director told the assembled reporters that he is tipping his hat to the 1975 version of “The Stepford Wives”
which was also shot in Fairfield County
in the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion finale.
The 140-year-old historic home served as the evil “Men’s Association” in the first film and is doing so again in the remake.
“We’re having Nicole walk [into the mansion] where Katharine Ross walked in and Christopher Walken [as the head of the Men’s Association] will be seen in the same place as Patrick O’Neal,” Oz pointed out.
Associate producer Ron Bozman said the movie company had to work hard to persuade town officials and residents in New Canaan to allow the filming of many “Stepford” scenes.
“When I came to New Canaan, resistance was high because of ‘The Ice Storm,’ ” Bozman said of the 1997 movie featuring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver that was filmed in the town.
“Oh no! ‘Ice Storm’ was shooting on our road. We don’t want that again!” was what Bozman reported he heard more than once.
“But we kept quietly persisting and they finally agreed,” the producer added.
Rudnick said that when Scott Rudin told him a few years back that the rights to a remake of the Levin book had become available, he jumped at the chance to write the movie.
In the original film, feminist wives were killed by the members of the Men’s Association and replaced by perfect subservient robot copies.
According to reports on the Internet, the new version will include some significant gay characters in the town of Stepford, but Rudnick and Oz said they didn’t want to give away any of the remake’s plot elements.
“Some would say there are [gay people in the movie],” Rudnick, who is gay, said with a grin.
“Only two were allowed,” Oz joked.
“Frank might not know about all of them,” Rudnick added.
Oz said it was the mix of laughs and chills in Rudnick’s screenplay that made him want to direct “The Stepford Wives.”
“It’s a comedy but it’s also very spooky and unsettling it goes back and forth, and that’s what I love about it,” the director said.
As part of the deal to film in the Norwalk mansion, Paramount agreed to do extensive renovation work, and the public will have a chance to see it at a free grand reopening on Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.
“It’s such a bonus that the [production] crew was able to restore the house,” Rudnick said.
“I saw the dailies [of the first Lockwood-Mathews scenes] last night, and it looks absolutely gorgeous,” Oz said of the restored interior.
“The Stepford Wives” company is expected to wrap up in Norwalk on Tuesday and move on to New York for the last few days of filming.
Bozman said the movie’s release date has not been set, but a late spring or early summer 2004 opening is anticipated.
