Rural Woodbine Prepares for Steven Spielberg Movie Shoot

Some out-of-towners have become regulars at the Dionysus Restaurant of late, stopping by in the morning to pick up breakfast trays of bagels, muffins and pastries.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s exciting. It’s nice to see new faces,” said Dionysus manager Jacki LaDouceur, whose father, Angelo Kossyvakis, has owned the Woodbine restaurant for 38 years.

The new faces LaDouceur mentioned are creating a buzz throughout all of Woodbine, a small town close to the Jersey Shore that proclaims itself, on its water tower, as the “Gateway to the Jersey Cape.”

In March, rural Woodbine might be able to tout itself as the “Gateway to Hollywood.” It will serve as the backdrop for scenes in Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg’s new UFO-themed movie starring Emily Blunt of “Oppenheimer” fame.

Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said about 175 production people are already in town to begin work on the film, which reportedly will be called “The Dish.” Spielberg himself is expected to be in Woodbine to direct the filming scheduled for March 10-14.

“They’re already in production. They’re already doing things. They’re already staging and doing some of the things. They’re in motion,” Pikolycky said.

    Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg is planning to make a new UFO movie that will include scenes shot in Woodbine. (Photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly)
  

It’s still something of a secret that the movie is being filmed in Woodbine. There had been widespread media reports in January that scenes would be shot in Cape May, the famed Victorian-era seaside resort 25 miles south of Woodbine.

Confusion was created when Grant Wilfley Casting announced a casting call for extras to play train station passengers and car drivers when filming would be done on March 10-14. The casting call said the scenes would be shot in “Cape May.”

“Everybody is thinking that filming is going to be done in Cape May. But they’re definitely not filming here,” Cape May City Clerk Erin Burke said.

Instead, Woodbine will be in the spotlight. Pikolycky said it will be the first major movie shot in Woodbine since “Nothing But a Man,” a 1964 film depicting an African-American railroad worker who tries to maintain his dignity in a small racist town near Birmingham, Alabama.

Scenes for the Spielberg movie will be shot along the railroad tracks from Woodbine to Buena Vista Township and will include trains operated by Cape May Seashore Lines, Pikolycky said.

    The Sam Azeez Museum, housed in the former Brotherhood Synagogue, chronicles Woodbine's history.
  

Pikolycky wasn’t sure why Woodbine was selected as the backdrop for the Spielberg movie, but speculated that the town’s diverse history as a former manufacturing and agricultural center may have something to do with it.

“That’s what we are, nothing but the best,” he said of the town. “We’re going to have Steven Spielberg, who we’re very excited about having. Obviously, there’s a lot of history in our community of Woodbine.”

Pikolycky hopes to give Spielberg, who is Jewish, a personal tour of Woodbine’s Sam Azeez Museum housed in the stately, red-brick former Brotherhood Synagogue built in the 1890s. The museum chronicles Woodbine’s founding in 1891 as a settlement for Eastern European Jews. Woodbine became known as "the first self-governing Jewish community since the fall of Jerusalem,” according to the museum’s website.

Bob Schulte, a docent and security official for the Stockton University-affiliated museum, believes that Spielberg’s presence, if he tours the museum, would be a huge publicity boost for the museum and the rest of Woodbine.

“Once that got out that somebody like that is interested in trying to develop something here in Woodbine, it would be giant, absolutely giant, for us,” Schulte said of Spielberg. “It will also be a positive move for us as a museum here and also the community,”

In addition to the publicity, the filming of Spielberg’s movie is also expected to generate economic benefits for the Cape May County region. Pikolycky said he has heard that the movie’s production crew is already giving a lift to the hospitality industry by staying at hotels in Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Avalon.

“It’s a real boost to the whole area, not just to Woodbine, but the surrounding communities as well,” he said.

    Dionysus Restaurant manager Jacki LaDouceur, center, is joined at the counter by her daughters Elizabeth Lewis and Rain North.
  

The Dionysus Restaurant is just one of the Woodbine businesses to benefit from the film shoot. The aforementioned Dionysus manager, Jacki LaDouceur, said she expects the Spielberg production crew to continue buying breakfast trays at Dionysus – and to patronize other local shops.

“It’s great for the area. I’m sure that everyone is going to benefit in some way,” she said. “Besides, it gives everybody in town something to talk about.”

LaDouceur counts another alien-themed Spielberg movie, 1982’s “E.T.,” as one of her favorite films. She wishes she could be an extra in the UFO film Spielberg will shoot in Woodbine, but believes she will probably be too busy working at the Dionysus Restaurant because of all the extra business generated by the movie shoot.

“It’s like the aliens have landed again,” she said, laughing. “I would offer to be one of the extras if I didn’t have to be here.”

Before he comes to Woodbine, Spielberg has been filming scenes for the UFO movie in Montville, N.J.

The acclaimed movie director spent part of his childhood living in Haddonfield, N.J. He has filmed other movies in New Jersey before, including “Catch Me If You Can,” “West Side Story” and “War of the Worlds.”

Janice Kovach, a member of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, said Spielberg likes using New Jersey’s diverse cities and towns as a setting for his films. As a result, locations in South Jersey, such as Woodbine, are benefiting, she added.

“The film commission is definitely pushing to have South Jersey included in film shoots,” Kovach said.

    Mayor William Pikolycky stands next to the Woodbine welcome sign at the entrance to town.
  

Pikolycky, who is friends with Kovach, credited her and the film commission with helping Woodbine to land the Spielberg film shoot.

New Jersey tax incentives of up to 39 percent, given to the film industry, are one reason the state is becoming more attractive to moviemakers, Kovach explained.

Last spring, Cape May served as a stand-in for 1965-era Newport, Rhode Island, during the filming of the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothee Chalamet.

Next, it will be Woodbine’s time to shine when Spielberg comes to town in March.

“It’s definitely a feather in New Jersey’s cap,” Kovach said. “All you have to say is ‘Spielberg’ and people are in awe.”