Lights, camera, Acadia | Maine cliff entices Hollywood producers
“Shutter Island,” the blockbuster thriller that earned $109 million by mid March, spread a little of that movie magic here in Maine.
The movie, which tells a tale of missing woman from an island asylum for the criminally insane, includes footage of Otter Cliff in Acadia National Park.
Lea Girardin, director of the Maine Film Office in Augusta, says the office was contacted by the film’s Paramount producers back in 2007 when they were looking for dramatic ocean cliffs. She submitted images of Otter Cliff and the Bold Coast. They picked Otter, a 110-foot high cliff near Thunder Hole that is one of the highest headlands north of Rio de Janiero, according to the park service.
Several Maine businesses worked with Robert Legato, an award winning visual effects supervisor, on the shoot. Legato supervised effects on “Avatar,” “Titanic” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” for which he nabbed an Oscar.
Among the supporting cast were W.H. Green and Sons of Augusta, which provided a 300-foot crane that held cables for a spider cam that shot Otter Cliffs footage; Jon Tierney and others of Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School, who provided cliff-side security; and Steven Levins of Camden, who was a stunt climber, says Girardin. Also, a medical services ambulance from Bangor and Paradis Hardware Store lent a hand.
The out-of-state crew members (alas, Leonard DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese weren’t here) stayed at Harborside Hotel during the shoot. All told, the production unit spent $585,000 during their stay in Maine, says Girardin.
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