Lynn, Swampscott onlookers take in movie shoot

LYNN – Production managers may have been keeping a closed set, but that didn’t stop residents from trying to catch a glimpse of a celebrity as local filming for the movie based on a 1970s FBI sting continued Monday.Swampscott resident Chris Bernado swapped celebrity scouting tips with about 10 fellow onlookers outside Anthony’s Pier 4 Cafe, where a scene was being shot inside the restaurant.”You got to look for the guys in the hats and sunglasses,” said Bernado, pointing to one man wearing the items who was standing in the parking lot outside the eatery that Bernado thought could have been Christian Bale.Bale is just one of the Hollywood actors in town for the film, joining Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.Bernado said he was surprised at how “anti-climatic” the shoot was. “I’ve been here for about an hour, and there hasn’t been much activity except for all the cars,” he said. Bernado was referring to the 10 to 20 vintage cars lined up in the restaurant’s parking from 7 a.m. to about noon on Monday, before they were driven off the lot down Lynn Shore Drive to Christie’s Restaurant on the Lynn/Nahant rotary for the second shoot of the day.Once at Christie’s, state police, detail officers and production crews shooed about 20 onlookers to the other side of Beach Street, where they stood taking photos with their phones.Thomas Hensley, a neighbor of Christie’s, said he was just setting out to walk the beach in Monday’s sunny springtime weather when he saw the commotion at Christie’s and traffic along the rotary, and assumed it was an accident.Lisa Constantino, another neighbor of Christie’s, said it was unusual to see so many cars in the parking lot. “For the last year and a half, I see two cars every day in that parking lot,” she said. Constantino said she knew about the shoot because of a flyer giving notice to neighbors, but she wasn’t prepared for the excitement of getting a wave from Renner in costume, an actor she recognized from another Boston-area film, “The Town.”Though residents felt the action of seeing the actors and the scene play out before them, the city of Lynn received not much more than “good will” from the production, said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy”If they rent a municipal lot or something like that we are paid or if they make improvements to an area for a film we get to keep the improvements,” she said. “But other than that ?. nothing really.”There are no monetary fees paid to a community nor permits needed just to shoot a movie, Kennedy said.Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said occasionally a studio might have to pull a permit if there is any significant work being done for a set but by and large his office is unaffected by the movie world.As for Swampscott, Department of Public Works Director Gino Cresta said during a meeting with production managers, Town Accountant Dave Castellarin made “some sort of deal” to compensate Swampscott for the production, but Cresta said he didn’t think it was a “significant amount.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].