-NEWS-
Stepford Wives movie to be shot in Norwalk mansion
NORWALK, Conn. -- The Lockwood-Mathews mansion has stood out since the Civil War as a local symbol of American splendor that suddenly turned to tragedy.
But it is best known nationally as the mysterious focal point in a movie about a seemingly perfect Connecticut town.
The mansion will reprise that role in a remake of the 1975 film classic, "The Stepford Wives."
The national historic landmark attracts about 33,000 visitors annually. But it will close on Aug. 18 to prepare for the filming.
Paramount Pictures, which is producing the film, has agreed to spruce up the mansion, which features a 42-foot high rotunda rising through the center of the building to a giant skylight.
The studio will add new carpeting. It also will paint and restore the woodwork and glass of the mansion's expansive rotunda to its former glory. That is work the museum otherwise could not afford to perform, officials said.
"We're thrilled," said Marjorie St. Aubyn, the museum's executive director, who estimated the value of the work at more than $200,000. "With everyone cutting back, it's terrible for a museum like us to try and raise funds for restoration."
She is also hoping someone will buy back two statutes, "Pocahontas" and "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," owned by private collectors that used to be displayed at the museum in time for the film.
The work is expected to take several weeks. Filming is scheduled to start Sept. 23 and last about two weeks.
"It's going to be a big boost for the mansion," said Mayor Alex Knopp.
Filming is not open to the public, but officials plan to provide updates and photos on the mansion's Web site.
Like the fictional Stepford, the mansion is a mix of splendor and tragedy.
The 62-room house was built in the mid-1860s as a summer house for LeGrand Lockwood, an investment banker who became wealthy during the booming industrial development and railroad expansion of the Civil War era. Two-hundred artisans, including woodcarvers and stone cutters, were brought from Europe to work on the residence.
The financier's dream ended suddenly on Black Friday of 1869, a major Wall Street panic, when he suffered crippling losses. He died a few years later and his widow was unable to make the final mortgage payment. She lost the house to foreclosure.
The mansion later suffered years of neglect and faced demolition. But the city saved the building, which retains its authentic gas fixtures, original indoor plumbing and heating systems and 19th century burglar alarm.
In the original movie, a woman who moves with her husband from New York to the town senses the wives are too perfect and subservient. She becomes suspicious of what's going on in Stepford and learns there is a plot among the men who meet in the mansion to turn the women into robots.
In the remake, the mansion will once again serve as the men's club. It's the only site revisited by the film.
"The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, which will serve as the site of our Men's Association, has a gothic, almost fortresslike quality that we think will provide a great visual contrast in the otherwise bucolic town of Stepford," said Marsha Robertson, a spokeswoman for the movie. "The Stepford Men's Association is a very mysterious place to those arriving in town."
The original movie became somewhat of a cult classic and the phrase "Stepford wife" became part of the American vocabulary. It was based on a novel by Ira Levin, who also wrote the novel that inspired the movie "Rosemary's Baby."
The new movie has an all-star cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken and Faith Hill.
Kidman, 35, will play Joanna, the young wife and mother who moves from Manhattan to the upper-class suburb of Stepford.
The film will be shot at the mansion as well as in homes in the wealthy Fairfield County towns of Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien. Other scenes will be filmed in New York and New Jersey, Robertson said.
She said this movie will be a comedy and will deviate from the original script. But she would not divulge details.
-STUFF-
My dad found some court documents and sent them to me-if anyone is iterested here ther are>
One
Two
Three
NORWALK, Conn. -- The Lockwood-Mathews mansion has stood out since the Civil War as a local symbol of American splendor that suddenly turned to tragedy.
But it is best known nationally as the mysterious focal point in a movie about a seemingly perfect Connecticut town.
The mansion will reprise that role in a remake of the 1975 film classic, "The Stepford Wives."
The national historic landmark attracts about 33,000 visitors annually. But it will close on Aug. 18 to prepare for the filming.
Paramount Pictures, which is producing the film, has agreed to spruce up the mansion, which features a 42-foot high rotunda rising through the center of the building to a giant skylight.
The studio will add new carpeting. It also will paint and restore the woodwork and glass of the mansion's expansive rotunda to its former glory. That is work the museum otherwise could not afford to perform, officials said.
"We're thrilled," said Marjorie St. Aubyn, the museum's executive director, who estimated the value of the work at more than $200,000. "With everyone cutting back, it's terrible for a museum like us to try and raise funds for restoration."
She is also hoping someone will buy back two statutes, "Pocahontas" and "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," owned by private collectors that used to be displayed at the museum in time for the film.
The work is expected to take several weeks. Filming is scheduled to start Sept. 23 and last about two weeks.
"It's going to be a big boost for the mansion," said Mayor Alex Knopp.
Filming is not open to the public, but officials plan to provide updates and photos on the mansion's Web site.
Like the fictional Stepford, the mansion is a mix of splendor and tragedy.
The 62-room house was built in the mid-1860s as a summer house for LeGrand Lockwood, an investment banker who became wealthy during the booming industrial development and railroad expansion of the Civil War era. Two-hundred artisans, including woodcarvers and stone cutters, were brought from Europe to work on the residence.
The financier's dream ended suddenly on Black Friday of 1869, a major Wall Street panic, when he suffered crippling losses. He died a few years later and his widow was unable to make the final mortgage payment. She lost the house to foreclosure.
The mansion later suffered years of neglect and faced demolition. But the city saved the building, which retains its authentic gas fixtures, original indoor plumbing and heating systems and 19th century burglar alarm.
In the original movie, a woman who moves with her husband from New York to the town senses the wives are too perfect and subservient. She becomes suspicious of what's going on in Stepford and learns there is a plot among the men who meet in the mansion to turn the women into robots.
In the remake, the mansion will once again serve as the men's club. It's the only site revisited by the film.
"The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, which will serve as the site of our Men's Association, has a gothic, almost fortresslike quality that we think will provide a great visual contrast in the otherwise bucolic town of Stepford," said Marsha Robertson, a spokeswoman for the movie. "The Stepford Men's Association is a very mysterious place to those arriving in town."
The original movie became somewhat of a cult classic and the phrase "Stepford wife" became part of the American vocabulary. It was based on a novel by Ira Levin, who also wrote the novel that inspired the movie "Rosemary's Baby."
The new movie has an all-star cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken and Faith Hill.
Kidman, 35, will play Joanna, the young wife and mother who moves from Manhattan to the upper-class suburb of Stepford.
The film will be shot at the mansion as well as in homes in the wealthy Fairfield County towns of Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien. Other scenes will be filmed in New York and New Jersey, Robertson said.
She said this movie will be a comedy and will deviate from the original script. But she would not divulge details.
-STUFF-
My dad found some court documents and sent them to me-if anyone is iterested here ther are>
One
Two
Three