There's been a few movies filmed right in Worcester in the past couple of years. The Maiden Heist at the Worcester Art Museum, Bruce Willis's film The Surrogates at the old Worcester Courthouse (good buddy of mine Andy Fish ran into Brucio while he was mailing a letter) and most recently a film starring Christian Bale and Robert DeNiro was filmed at Nick's as well as around the Woo. There was even talk Martin Scorese wanted to film a movie inside the now demolished Worcester State Hospital. But the city wouldn't allow it because of liability or something along those lines.
Recently both the Worcester Telegram and Worcester Magazine ran articles talking about a group called The Pullman Project LLC preparing to open a film studio in North Worcester which will be called Mass Studios in what was originally the home of the Pullman Train Car Company. Once the manufacturer of train cars and trolley buses.
That's right folks. A long time ago trolley cars used to run through Worcester. This is some of the reason why Kelley Square is designed the way it is.
However, since the trolley hasn't run through Worcester for many moons, the need for a company that manufactered them became redundant. And the building abandoned. The Pullman Project is looking to utilize the 125,000 square feet of that building into a working film and television studio.
The project is being spearheaded by founder founder Barbara Guertin, developer Anton Nel and producer Kristen Lucas. I got to know Barbara through Nicole Watson at Nick's. I was still in the process of looking for actors for my Sherlock Holmes production and Nicole connected me with Barbara whom in turn connected me with a young actor by the name of Connor Lee who did an excellent job in the role of Col. Sebastian Moran.
Barbara was a huge help in fitting that final piece of the puzzle for me and was able to offer really wonderful advice in getting what really was my very first production together.
Once completed, what would something like this offer the city of Worcester. Well, as mentioned in their mission statement, Mass Studios will be a premiere full-service independent studio campus dedicated to providing content creators of all kinds with the most technologically advanced user‐friendly, one-stop production studio and office facility in Massachusetts.
And what they will feature four state-of-the-art sound stages for film and television production, each with its own support space, pre and post-production offices, and writer’s office space, four audio editing bays, four video editing bays a back lot along with on-site parking.
The Mass Studios Campus is strategically located on approximately a 14-acre Site in the city of Worcester, MA. Sound stages, office buildings and back lot, are the primary permanent facilities used in the production of high value content for film, television and gaming entertainment.
The Mass Studio Campus provides a system that offers a wide variety of infrastructure, amenities, and services including high clearance, column free sound stage space, with adjacent support area for dressing rooms, offices, wardrobe storage, make-up rooms, and pre and post-production office space.
Personally, I think this sounds great. And when this comes to pass I would love to be a part of it.
You can read both the
Telegram and the
Worcester Magazine articles online to find out more or to find out how to contact Mass Studios
