
As cameras continue to roll this week for a locally filmed television drama, work begins today on another series shooting its first season in and around the Port City.
Crews with History channel’s “Six” began setting up early Monday morning at two downtown locations–on the steps of the U.S. Post Office on Front Street and inside nearby Union Station on the campus of Cape Fear Community College.
The first day of filming for “Six” – a fictional tv show inspired by real US Navy SEALs missions – comes a week after the start of shooting for TNT’s “Good Behavior.” “Six” stars “True Blood” and “Magic Mike” actor Joe Manganiello as Rip Taggart, a hardened former squad leader of SEAL Team 6 who, at the show’s start, is working to protect a small African village from Boko Haram.
The post office will be reimagined as a courthouse for an exterior scene where one character “drives up and parks, meets another on the steps and they have a conversation,” according to film permits filed with the City of Wilmington.
The setup will create intermittent lane closures – held in two- to three-minute intervals, but traffic disruption will not go on as long as previously announced. The show has scaled back its original request for closures in the northbound lane of Front Street between Princess and Chestnutt to start at 7 a.m. Those intermittent closures will now begin at 9 a.m. but will also affect traffic flow on Chestnut between Front and Second.
Inside Union Station, filming for a scene involving a character interviewing for a job with a security company will take place between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., with no interruption to traffic.
“Six” will move to Market Street near the Target shopping center Wednesday at 6 p.m. to shoot interior and exterior hotel scenes at Budgetel Inn. The scenes will involve three cast members and 30 extras and a little “atmospheric smoke,” the permit states, and filming is expected to run until 11 p.m.
A larger cast will film inside St. Andrews Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1416 Market St., from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday. It’s a major shoot requiring 90 crew members and nearly 200 extras, as well as some hefty equipment, like three scissor lifts set up outside church windows.
Barricades will be placed at both ends of 15th Street between Market and Dock to accommodate the machinery. The roadway will be closed from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, “Good Behavior” will take over Graystone Inn, 100 S. Third St., Wednesday and Thursday to shoot interior dialogue scenes at the bed and breakfast. The two-day shoot will run from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. and noon to 4 a.m., respectively, and will shut down Dock Street between Second and Third.
The show, set in North Carolina and starring Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey,” is based off Blake Crouch’s bestselling Letty Dobesh book series. Fresh out of prison, Dobesh (Dockery), a thief and con artist, finds herself entangled in a hired hitman’s plan to kill another man’s wife.
Hilary Snow is a reporter at Port City Daily. Reach her at hilary.s@portcitydaily.com.