Tom Hanks was a hit on Hicks Street.
The endearing Hollywood leading man brought his star power to the open-air Brooklyn Heights set of Steven Spielberg’s film “Bridge of Spies” (working title “St. James Place”), which is being shot throughout the neighborhood and in DUMBO.
Spectators who had been waiting for two hours or more for a glimpse of Hanks Monday night were psyched to see him by the director’s side, beneath the hot white lights that lit up the warm fall night.
Hanks is starring in the Cold War-era film as a lawyer who is recruited by the CIA. His co-stars include Alan Alda, Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance and Amy Ryan.
The setting was the intersection of Hicks and Pineapple streets. When Heights residents see the finished film after its expected October 2015 release, they shouldn’t be fooled by old-fashioned street signs that the set dressers rigged up at the intersection, which said “Hicks Street” and “Clark Street.”
A convincingly old-fashioned dress shop called Brooklyn Pearl was set up on the corner as well — in the storefront that a shop called Perfect Paws occupies in real life.
Fabulous 1950s-vintage cars with fins and whitewall tires were parked all along Pineapple and Hicks streets. While it was still daylight, teens took selfies near the cars on Hicks Street before members of Spielberg’s film crew herded them onto the sidewalk to stand out of the cameras’ range.
Hanging above the intersection was an enormous machine waiting to pour simulated rain down on the street. A huge tanker truck filled with water was parked nearby. Crew members covered the camera with plastic wrap so it would stay dry in the fake downpour.
Shortly before Hanks’ arrival, his wife, actress Rita Wilson, got out of a car on Pineapple Street that stopped near the spectators who had gathered to watch the filming. But she walked away from the set towards Henry Street. Perhaps she was headed for her hubby’s trailer?
