Whether or not film stars die in Liverpool, they certainly enjoy romance in London. Many of the sweet scenes between Annette Bening and Jamie Bell were played out in locations across Haringey, Lewisham and Camden. Some of the locations doubled for American settings.
Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool opens on November 17th. Take a look at the trailer here.
FilmFixer manages the film office service for these three London boroughs. FilmFixer director Karen Everett says, “In real life the screen siren Gloria Grahame met Peter Turner when they were both staying in a Primrose Hill boarding house in 1979.
“This is where their romance began, walking through local parks, attending fringe theatre productions, drinking in local pubs and eating kebabs.”
In the two years the couple were together, they travelled and then moved in together in a Manhattan skyscraper.
Karen Everett continues, “In Haringey, Muswell Hill’s Everyman Cinema saw Bening and Bell filming scenes where they queued outside, with other cinema-goers, keen to get in to the movie Alien.
“The 150 cast and crew also filmed the couple inside, watching movies.
“Eighty cast and crew filmed in Crouch End’s Earl Haig Hall, where the couple go to a pub theatre in the late Seventies to watch stand up.
“And interior scenes were filmed at the Old Hornsey Town Hall with 80 cast and crew.”
The production filmed in Camden for two days at Swiss Cottage’s Hampstead Theatre.
Karen Everett says, “For these scenes, 160 cast and crew shot scenes where Annette Bening as Gloria Graham stars in a stage play, in front of a large audience.”
Also in July last year, the production filmed at the Rivoli Ballroom in Lewisham, turned into a casino and theatre bar for scenes with the stars, along with 70 cast and crew.
Karen Everett says, “The production made a lovely donation to the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust by way of thanks to residents.”
The real Peter Turner plays a small role in the film as a stage manager, and the script is adapted from his own memoirs about the affair.