Hollywood is knocking on the doors of the Andover Inn. For new Inn managers Matthew and Alison Sudalter-Morello, business has had a slow start, especially after having to wait over two months for a liquor license. But now they have something to look forward to — a new Warner Brothers film starring Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe, titled “This Side of the Truth,” will be shooting one scene at the Andover Inn on Tuesday. “It’s exciting for everybody,” said Morello. “It should be interesting to be a part of [the movie], but for the most part, we’ll be behind the scenes.” According to Stephen Porter, Director of Public Information, Phillips Academy and the production workers on this film have been in discussions since the producers contacted the Office of Communications in early March. It was not until last Thursday that the school made a verbal agreement with Warner Bros. to allow them to film a scene on campus, and the official written contract was signed on Monday. “We first had to ask ourselves: were we comfortable having a production company on campus shooting scenes for a movie?” said Porter. “Part of what we decided was that we can’t really tell until we do it, and then people will see what it was like, and we’ll get a reaction from them afterward.” He continued, “We couldn’t deal with all those potential pros and cons theoretically. We felt like we should step through the process, see how it goes and then evaluate whether it was a worthwhile thing or not.” Porter also said that much of the delay in allowing the film to shoot a scene on campus is attributed to logistical issues involving construction projects. According to Larry Muench, Senior Capital Project Manager, the Office of the Physical Plant is currently reconstructing steam lines near the Andover Inn – a project that OPP typically schedules during summer vacation, but due to its large scale, had to start this month. The Addison Gallery of American Art is also preparing for its renovations, which will begin in the summer. Because of these large projects currently in progress, it was difficult for the school to arrange an appropriate time for Warner Bros. to film at the Inn, said Muench. Despite these conditions, the film crew still insisted on shooting at the Andover Inn. “We were very truthful. We said that we were doing a major project, and unfortunately it was right next to this inn,” said Muench. “So we laid that on the table, thinking that [the film company] would say, ‘Forget it. We just can’t work together.’ But they came back and said they still really wanted to do it and asked if there was any way we could work together.” Porter said, “[The film crew] really loved the Andover Inn. In fact, we were kind of surprised how strongly they seemed to want to film there. . . I felt like we were coming up with all of these conditions, coming up with all these problems. . . But they really seemed to like the atmosphere of the inn, so I think they tried extra hard to make this deal work.” From this experience of filming on campus, the school will be able to determine whether it will accept similar offers in the future. Muench said, “We’re interested to see how it goes. It’s fun to have some movies filmed here, but if it’s really difficult for us, maybe we won’t say yes. If it goes really smoothly, maybe next time we’ll say sure.” Phillips Academy will receive a small amount of monetary compensation for hosting the shoot and allowing the film crew to park their equipment on campus, said Porter. The Andover Inn will receive the largest portion of money, but further details of the financial contract cannot be released, according to Porter. Maureen Nunez, Director of Risk Management and Administrative Services, wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “[The filming] was also a way to let the Inn get some revenue from the movie company’s use of the space and food and room sales.” She continued, “They’ve had a slow start because of the length of time it takes to get a liquor license transferred in Massachusetts, and this seemed like a way to help them get an infusion of business on what would otherwise be a pretty slow time (Memorial Day weekend).” “This Side of Truth” has also filmed in locations around the Merrimack Valley, such as Haverhill, North Andover and Lowell. Senior Planner for the Town of Andover Lisa Schwarz said, “There was a location specialist who lives in Massachusetts now, but she used to live out in California. About eight months ago she was fairly new to the area and there was a different movie that was thinking about filming in the area and she called me.” Schwarz toured the location specialist around the town of Andover, showing her downtown areas as well as the Phillips Academy campus. “I think just by knowing the community, when this movie came under her radar and she was looking for places to film, we were on her list of towns,” said Schwarz. In the past three years, Phillips Academy has received two other proposals from film companies to shoot scenes on campus. According to Porter, the production company filming the movie “The Great Debaters” approached Phillips Academy around two years ago with an interest in filming on campus. “At that time, we were very uncertain whether we were going be open to it. By the time we decided that we might consider it, they had moved on and made another decision, so we lost that opportunity,” said Porter. Porter said that the Walt Disney Company also expressed interest a few months ago in shooting a scene at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library for an upcoming film starring Bruce Willis. However, he said that Disney “decided that they were going to shoot that scene somewhere else.”
