Eva Longoria and Eugenio Derbez were in Chelsea this week shooting scenes for a new movie, “Marcelo in the Real World.” CBS Boston reported on Tuesday that the two had been spotted filming in the city, and the City of Chelsea shared the news on its Facebook page. The Dorchester Reporter said the pair filmed in Chelsea on Tuesday, then moved to Taft Street in Dorchester on Wednesday morning.
Neither the city nor the news reports said where in Chelsea the crew set up. The city’s post noted that production scouts like the waterfront and the neighborhoods, and that “the dramatic views of the Tobin Bridge from lower Broadway are a popular backdrop.”
The movie
The film is an adaptation of Francisco X. Stork’s 2009 young adult novel of the same name. According to the Dorchester Reporter, it follows Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old on the autism spectrum who gets “real world” experience working at his father’s corporate law firm in downtown Boston. Lucía Puenzo is directing, and Zeta Studios and Elefantec Global are producing. The cast also includes Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Mathew Borrero and Ema Giménez Zapiola.
Deadline reported the casting on September 1 and said production was getting underway in Uruguay and Boston. Longoria’s and Derbez’s roles have not been announced, and there is no release date. The two have worked together before, in the 2018 remake of “Overboard” and in “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” in 2019.
Chelsea on screen
Chelsea has a long film résumé. The city keeps a movie locations tour and map on its Discover Chelsea site. Some of the stops:
- “Ted” (2012) and “Ted 2” (2015): Stop and Compare Market on Hawthorne Street was the grocery store where Ted works.
- “The Departed” (2006): Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello picks up his intended hit at 51 Essex Street.
- “Black Mass” (2015): Whitey Bulger’s confrontation with the Boston police was filmed in the parking lot on Highland Street between Essex and Suffolk Streets.
- “Gone Baby Gone” (2007): chase scenes on Vale Street, and other scenes inside 214 Webster.
- “The Equalizer” (2014): Chelsea Floor Covering on Everett Avenue became a neighborhood diner.
- “Mystic River” (2003): the opening car crash was filmed on the Tobin Bridge.
- “Godmothered” (2020): the Polish Political Club on lower Broadway played a Boston TV station.
- “Madame Web” (2024): the crew filmed at 134 Chestnut Street and under the Route 1 viaduct in the summer of 2022.
- “Transformers” (2007): the FBI raids a computer hacker’s home at 28 Broadway.
The city asks anyone who knows of a movie or location missing from the map to let it know through the Discover Chelsea site.
Photo: The Tobin Bridge from Broadway in Chelsea, with the Polish Political Club at right, in April 2012. Anon E. Moose, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.