Lights! Cameras! No Cars on Bridge!

source

April 20, 2007

Filmmakers will gamble with the patience of Boston-area motorists by closing the Massachusetts Avenue bridge to vehicles for as long as nine hours Sunday to allow the shooting of the MIT card caper "21."

Police will shut down the bridge, linking Cambridge with Boston over the Charles River, to vehicles from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will allow only limited pedestrian use, depending on the scenes being shot.

Several MBTA bus routes will be affected.

No traffic figures were available for Sundays, but approximately 49,000 vehicles use the bridge on an average weekday.

In addition, boats on the Charles will not be permitted within 500 feet of the bridge except between takes.

Filmmakers have told the Boston Police Department they hope to have the bridge reopened before 3 p.m. The Red Sox host the Yankees that night.

Detour signs will be posted, and State Police will direct traffic, said officials from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which operates the span. Electronic message signs were in place on and near the bridge yesterday to warn motorists.

"Every precaution will be taken to keep inconveniences as minimal as possible," said Boston police spokesman James Kenneally. "But anytime you do something like this, there's going to be some inconvenience."

The movie crew has been filming in Boston since last month and said it hopes to wrap up work by the end of this month.

The film is based on the true story of how a group of MIT students used card-counting techniques to win at Las Vegas casinos.

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Wonderful.

Of course I'll be there, hoping to be one of those few pedestrains that gets to walk across the bridge. Oh that and because Kate Bosworth and Natalie Portman will be there filming.

Although Tim has already met them both because they've been frequenting his bar.

Jerk.