Lights, camera, action!
The Bronx is stealing the spotlight from Hollywood with a new, feature length film titled ‘Mott Haven,’ starring Robert Davi, best known as Special Agent Johnson in ‘Die Hard’ and Bronx actor Chuck Zito of the show, ‘Sons of Anarchy.’
Expected to debut around springtime, the movie follows Davi’s character Hal Stewart, a down on his luck former radio mogul that’s fallen on hard times.
After he enlists the aid of a beleaguered businessman, Michael Roman played by Paul Wilson to battle a thuggish superintendent, Ray Pizzalongo played by Zito, the film shows what life is like in the changing south Bronx and how a group of tenants called ‘The Tribe’ overcome efforts to force them from their homes.
The film is directed, produced and written by trio Michael Domino, Jesse Wakeman and Robert Mladinich.
Previously in 2017, they worked on a movie titled ‘The Expediter,’ about the journey of a boy working in a Queens manufacturing plant after high school.
Before filmmaking, Mladinich was actually a member of the NYPD, serving in the 42nd Precinct.
Lately he’s been doing a different kind of patrolling in the south Bronx, looking for iconic filming locations along with Domino.
Naturally, most of ‘Mott Haven’ was in fact shot in various parts of the neighborhood it was named for such as: inside shots at Double Dutch Espresso at 2430 Third Avenue (look out for a copy of the Bronx Times in those scenes), in Bronx Native clothing store at 127 Lincoln Avenue, an exterior of Mott Haven Bar & Grill at 1 Bruckner Boulevard is also used as well as the street area beneath the Third Avenue Bridge, in addition to Kramer Pharmacy at 554 E. 141st Street. A luxury apartment complex, ‘The Crescendo’ at 25 Bruckner Boulevard, even makes an appearance as ‘The Ventura,’ a state-of-the-art condominium, in addition to other great setting in the area.
“We wanted to do a film about the changing Bronx and the wonderful diversity that this area is known for,” Domino said, mentioning the close affinity he has for the borough in addition to the wonderful memories he and Mladinich have, especially in Throggs Neck, Mott Haven and elsewhere.
One Bronxite will actually be making his acting debut in the film, too. Douglas Miller, a real life chess master of Freeman Avenue in Longwood plays Clarence, a chess master that explains to the other tenants how the character, Radioman has been a few moves ahead of them.
While a premiere date and location hasn’t been announced yet, visit motth
