New Haven Independent

“We love you, Bob!” cried a child from a second-story porch as Willow Street turned into an impromptu block party with beers, Italian visitors, and a gauntlet of camera phones.

The Hollywood star was in New Haven Tuesday and Wednesday filming scenes for the movie Righteous Kill. De Niro, who plays a cop chasing down a serial killer, is teaming up with Al Pacino for the movie. Pacino wasn’t there, but patient fans were rewarded with smiles and waves from the former star of Raging Bull and Taxi Driver. (Click on the play arrow below to watch).

Tuesday and Wednesday, film crews focused on interior shots, leaving fans to resort to waiting for DeNiro to hop into an SUV and head to his Greenwich lodging. Wednesday evening, fans got a fuller view of an outdoor scene.

As the daylight faded on Willow Street, about 100 neighbors and visitors lined up behind crime scene tape, swung on porches and sipped cocktails on balconies to watch the show. Quite a few native Italians could be heard among the whispers of anticipation in the crowd. Laura Nevola brought her parents, who were visiting from a town near Naples, by to see the screening. “He’s a star in Italy,” said the student, who lives nearby.

The filming crew hauled in special metal garbage cans and heaps of trash to adorn the scene, which is set in New York. Police at the scene issued a “please snitch” edict, encouraging neighbors to rat each other out if someone broke the rules and used flash photography.

“If someone uses flash, point ‘em out to me,” said Sgt. Anthony Zona, one of five New Haven officers the film crew hired to keep the scene safe.

Allyx Schiavone (pictured), who just learned of the filming earlier that day, stood on her porch with an eye on her recently landscaped front lawn, which kept getting trampled by citizen paparazzi.

“Watch the plantings!” she pleaded as a flip flop squashed a tiny Vinca plant. Schiavone said she was “all for” Hollywood coming to town if it helped New Haven. But “it’s not like they use local services — except for our streets, our cops and our plantings!”

After several rehearsals where a camera man swooped down from the trees to film a stunt double, the star emerged.

De Niro, wearing gray sweats, stretched his legs, took a glance down the street, then jogged for a few seconds up towards Livingston. As the cameras stopped, the crowd erupted in applause. (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch).

So did Barbara Lamb, the city’s director of cultural affairs.

Was the Hollywood action worth the inconvenience of a street closure and giant movie trucks on a major route to nearby I-91? “Yes,” she reckoned, gesturing to the giddy crowd, “just look at all the people here.”

New Haven’s recent Hollywood action comes thanks to a new state tax incentive — in the summer of 2006, the state began offering a 30 percent business tax credit for films made in Connecticut. The program is intended to boost local economies by making the state a regular destination for film crews.

In the short term, New Haven hasn’t seen any great impact. Most of the equipment and goods for Righteous Kill were brought in from outside, acknowledged Lamb. The film crew had expressed interest in filming much more of the film in New Haven, but they “couldn’t find suitable accommodations” for De Niro, who preferred to stay in Greenwich, said Lamb.

What remains to be seen, noted Lamb, is “are we able to build the infrastructure we need” to support a steady flow of film crews through the area? She remained optimistic. Scouts spent hours examining film locations, and will hopefully spread good word through Hollywood circuits, she said. And the crew of 200 who arrived here this week “all left with a pretty good idea of New Haven” as a pleasant place to film.

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