The HBO drama “Boardwalk Empire” pays a visit to the eastern end of Grand Street in the Lower East Side this week, filming on location from 6 a.m. Thursday to 2 a.m. Friday.
Signs warning motorists to move their cars appeared over the holiday weekend along Grand Street from Pitt Street eastward to FDR Drive. The series is set mostly in Prohibition-era Atlantic City with some plotlines in New York City and Chicago and stars Steve Buscemi as kingpin Nucky Thompson.
Filming of the show’s second season is under way in various locations throughout the city, including a beachfront community in Staten Island where its presence prompted scathing criticism from Historic Districts Council. That organization in leading protests of the city parks department’s decision to lease the early 20th-century Cedar Grove Beach Club to the show’s production company, Bootleg Productions, for $80,000 through the end of August. The neighborhood, near New Dorp, contains 41 historic bungalows built between 1913 and 1940, fitting right into the timeline of Boardwalk Empire’s plot.
Keep your eyes out for Buscemi and co-stars Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Kelly Macdonald and Williamsburg’s own Michael K. Williams on Thursday; send sightings and photographs to tips@thelodownny.com.
