‘The Week Of’ movie shoot takes over Floral Park

Noah Manskar
Actors Steve Buscemi, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler posed with fans last Thursday night at Stella Ristorante in Floral Park. (Photo from Long Island Connections Neighbor Outreach Network on Facebook)

The stars were out in Floral Park last week as the village hosted what was likely the biggest movie shoot in its history.

Floral Park became the Village of West Hempstead, the backdrop for parts of “The Week Of,” a forthcoming Netflix film starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Steve Buscemi.

Film crews took to Village Hall on Thursday and Friday, transforming the village courtroom, judge’s chambers and administrative offices for use in several scenes, village Clerk Susan Walsh said.

Sandler, Rock and Buscemi were spotted on Thursday night at Stella Ristorante, where they stopped to take photos with some fans. They also greeted residents outside Village Hall on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s very exciting. The town is pretty energized, a lot of people have been coming out every day,” Hallie Klein, a big Adam Sandler fan, said Friday evening as she waited for a chance to spot the stars across the street from Village Hall.

“The Week Of,” directed by Robert Smigel, who wrote the script with Sandler, follows Sandler’s and Rock’s characters as they prepare for their children’s wedding. It’s due to premiere on Netflix in 2018.

Sandler has been spotted elsewhere on the North Shore — he joined a pickup basketball game last week at Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn Heights.

Oh Yes Productions, the company handling the shoot, approached Floral Park officials in June about filming some scenes at Village Hall, including one involving a wedding, Walsh said.

The shoot was first planned for the judge’s chambers, but production scouts kept finding parts of the building they liked and asked to use more spaces, Walsh said.

“Our building was the perfect building for the type of movie that they were filming,” Walsh said.

The crew took over Village Hall from around 3 p.m. last Thursday through Friday night. It also shot some scenes behind the building and near the Long Island Rail Road tracks, Walsh said.

Businesses on Tulip Avenue and other streets near Village Hall were happy with the uptick in foot traffic from the film crew and others in the area for the shoot, Walsh said.

About two dozen people sat across from the building Friday evening, waiting for the stars to emerge. Klein’s husband, Gary, said he nearly caught a glimpse of them shooting a scene on the roof of Village Hall the night before.

Laura Hagan said she and her family were there for more than an hour and a half waiting to catch a glimpse.

“I have heard from friends that Adam Sandler’s pretty friendly, comes out, shakes hands, autographs, so the kids wanted to come and see him,” Hagan said last Friday.

Floral Park has hosted other big names — Julianna Margulies was there in 2015 filming scenes for her CBS drama “The Good Wife.”

While hosting “The Week Of” was a much bigger undertaking, it was less intrusive than past shoots that have shut down Tulip Avenue and affected the village recreation center on Stewart Street, Walsh said.

The village charged $23,400 for the crew’s filming permits, which included the use of several metered parking spots over the two days, Walsh said. The production company will also have to cover the village’s overtime labor costs and other cleanup costs, which are still being calculated, she said.

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