Another day, another burst of rage from Williamsburg's Hasidic community. This time, though, it's not bike lines or ladies' fashion that's getting people riled, but The Amazing Spider-Man 2: the newest Spidey franchise's second installment is being filmed in South Williamsburg next week, and local leaders say the shoot is culturally insensitive because it's scheduled over the Passover holiday.
Columbia Pictures plans to film scenes from March 22nd-27th at the Marcy Avenue Armory on Lynch Street; Passover starts March 25th, and Hasidic leaders say the holiday will be hampered by the traffic and congestion the shoot will bring. Through Community Board 1, they've asked the city not to hand out any permits. “The issue is you’ll be driving trucks and trailers during the most heaviest week of the year, which is preparation from the Passover holiday,” local leader Rabbi David Niederman wrote in a letter to the city.
Neighbors say they see holding the shoot over Passover as a sign of disrespect. "They are truly disrupting our tranquility and peace during the holidays; it’s very insensitive to our needs," Esther Goldman, who lives across the street from the armory, told the Post. The city hasn't given Columbia Pictures an official permit for the area yet, though the production company says they've been given permission. "We're doing our best to be good neighbors," Julie Kuehndorf, a spokeswoman for Columbia Pictures, told DNAinfo. None of this outrage, it should be noted, has been directed at the fact that everyone seems to have forgotten how terrible the first Amazing Spider-Man film was, and how no one can EVER replace Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, no matter how cute and British Andrew Garfield might be.
Whether you're on the Williamsburg religious community's side or not, it's true that film shoots in the city can sometimes get annoying, unless they involve watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt ride around on a bicycle, in which case there's just no reason to complain about Amsterdam Avenue getting shut down. And there's been some rumbling of late over this particular Spidey shoot, which started filming around town last month. Yesterday, the Post published an op-ed piece decrying Gov. Cuomo's decision to give the guys behind Spider-Man a tax break to get them to film here: "Wouldn’t New York be better off if our politicians focused on cultivating an economic environment conducive to all types of businesses wanting to start here, move here, stay here? Upstate fracking, perhaps?" Well, maybe not that.
