Liam Neeson slept here: Discover Central Mass. wants to use movie ties to boost tourism

WORCESTER — Discover Central Massachusetts is seeing stars. No, we’re not talking heavenly bodies in the night, but A-list Hollywood stars on the big and small screens.

The tourism bureau supporting Worcester and about 30 surrounding communities, Discover Central Massachusetts sees vast potential of harnessing the star power of popular actors who have practiced their craft in the region.

As what stars, you ask? We’re talking Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Paul Giamatti, Michael C. Hall, Jon Hamm, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew McConaughey, Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Ryan Reynolds, for starters.

The emerging goal of Discover Central Massachusetts is to attract movie and TV show buffs to the region through the agency's soon-to-be reworked website.

A brainstorming meeting was held last week at the AC Hotel by Marriott Worcester. On hand were Monique M. Messier, president of Discover Central Massachusetts; Mary Simone, general manager at AC Hotel by Marriott Worcester and the chair of the Discover Central Massachusetts’  board of directors; Sam Ashraf, the tourism bureau’s marketing specialist; and Breanna DiBella, principal at the creative and marketing firm Studio DiBella and tourism bureau’s hired gun.

More: Movie, TV projects filmed in Worcester: How many have you seen?

“There is so much happening here in Worcester with the film industry and our goal is, really, to start to highlight that,” Messier said. “There’s a lot of different ways that we can do that. We can do itineraries where we can tell a story where these films happened in the city. It’s very easy for us to map it all out for you. You come into the city, you go on our itinerary widget and you can actually put in films in Worcester or films in Central Mass. and we can tell you where to go. We can give you a snapshot of what movie was filmed there, the history behind it.”

As the second-largest city in New England with a central location, Worcester has become a hotbed for major film projects in the last decade and the four participants at the AC Marriott meeting want to showcase the city’s stellar roster of film, television and streaming projects in an effort to boost tourism, the third-largest industry in Massachusetts, while potentially attracting more projects.

Simone is no stranger to film and television projects. Both the action-adventure movie “Honest Thief” (featuring Neeson) and “Dexter: New Blood” were both filmed at her hotel.

When it comes to their favorite movies or favorite series or favorite actors that have filmed scenes in Worcester, Simone said tourists want to relive the experience. And that’s what Discover Central Massachusetts plans to do: Give tourists the experience.

“All the time, I get the question, ‘Can I sleep in the room that Liam Neeson slept in?’ That didn’t happen here. That wasn’t our hotel room. But that was our window that Neeson came crashing out of,” Simone said. “Or they ask me, ‘Is that really the bar in ‘Dexter: New Blood’?' Yes, that is our bar. Or ‘Is that where they held the police convention?’ Yes, it really is. It did happen in our meeting space. People want to experience the ‘Don’t Look Up’ scene where you can tell that it’s right over in front of the Mercantile. They want to stand there. They want the experience. And we have so much to offer. Everyone sees it so they want the experience. We’re going to bring the experience to it.”

Simone’s enthusiasm for film projects being shot in the city doesn’t end at her hotel. It also includes “The Holdovers,” which shot a key scene on the back steps of City Hall.

“We’re going to be the economic engine in driving tourism. We’re going to do it through the movie industry because it’s an untapped market,” Simone said. “This past week, I had three phone calls from people asking about the Paul Giamatti movie. 'Where was that filmed?' I go, 'It’s right on the steps of City Hall. You can go right over there, wait until it’s dark out, turn and get a picture with it.' This is crazy but people love this stuff.”

In fact, if Giamatti’s name is announced as the winner for the Academy Award for best actor on March 10 for his work in “The Holdovers,” Simone has playfully said that she plans to run down to the very spot the scene was filmed and slap a big star with words on the line of “This is where ‘The Holdovers’ scene took place.”

“This will drive the tourism standpoint of it,” Simone insisted. “We will get a lot of foot traffic from that whole thing. And I think we can really start to build this but it (has) got to start somewhere and this is the start.”

Not only does Simone want to start slapping stars on Worcester locations where key scenes were filmed, Ashraf added that they can equip the stars with a phone app code that allows passersby to retrieve information about the spot. And, from this comes the idea of an interactive walking app that could bring people to sites where scenes from high-profile movie and television projects were filmed was forged.

Ashraf shared some more of her ideas, which included taking finished movie stills and lining them up to the actual Worcester location.

“If we can take a photo of the movie scene and capture those locations, we can put those on the website on our map,” Ashraf said. “It’s going to tie that nostalgic feel to it; that, 'Oh, do you remember that scene from that movie while you’re at the location?'”

“The website is going to be an economic engine to drive tourism and that’s exactly what we’re meaning to do,” Messier insisted. “I know that there’s a need there and I think it will fill the need and get us on the map.”

To strategize their next move, the four women have been doing their homework. They have looked at other tourism bureau sites including exploregeorgia.org (which can boast everything from “The Walking Dead” series to the recent “The Color Purple” film), albany.org and visitsyracuse.com.

“The first thing I’m going to say after looking at the other sites is that I hate how film itself is buried down the drop ins,” Messier said. “I don’t like that. I think they need to be more prominent on the top somehow.”

“We were just in the Syracuse (website). I still haven’t figured out what Syracuse filmed. It took me a while,” Simone said. “Yeah, I know where all the stuff is but who filmed there? Again, I also have a different mindset because I’m all about getting heads in beds and people wanting to sleep here but I still couldn’t find it.”

Simone suggests that the Discover Central Massachusetts site leads off with a big scene from a big movie filmed, in part, in Worcester. Scenes thrown around the room include the aforementioned “The Holdovers” and “Honest Thief,” as well as the big chase scene filmed in front of the Worcester Central Courthouse for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” the scene of Bale, Adams and Cooper walking past the Day Building on Main Street in “American Hustle” and Ryan Reynolds ordering a coffee at the Brew on the Grid at 56 Franklin St. in “Free Guy.”

“Film tourism is really big throughout the country right now,” Messier said. “Not just the people who are making movies are following it. It’s a tourism driver.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Liam Neeson slept here: Discover Central Mass. likes movie tie-in for toursim