Hollywood does Frankford this week.
The old Globe Dye Works building at Torresdale Avenue and Kinsey Street was the set of an action-revenge-suspense movie with an international cast.
Dead Man Down, which was being filmed in Center City, moved to the Frankford building Tuesday morning. On Monday afternoon, not a block a way, an 18-year-old man was gunned down on the 1900 block of Kinsey.
Robert Sneed, 18, of the 1800 block of Widner Place, was struck by several bullets after 3 p.m., police said. Sneed died later at Temple University Hospital, police said. A spokeswoman said the shooting was believed to be related to a quarrel. Three peoples were taken into custody, but none had been charged as of Tuesday afternoon.
In the film, which will continue shooting this week in Frankford, Irish actor Colin Farrell (Alexander, Miami Vice), plays the right-hand man of gang chief Terrence Howard (Ironman, Hustle & Flow) as the two are caught up in a battle with rivals, said the movie’s publicist, Bob Levine.
Not on the Frankford location is Noomi Rapace, who played the title character in the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She portrays Farrell’s love interest in Dead Man Down. The movie is the first American film by Niel Arden Opley, who directed Rapace in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Although Dead Man Down is being filmed in Philly, the movie is actually set in New York, Levine said. Producer Joseph Zolfo worked with location director Staci Hagenbaugh to set up sites in Philadelphia. Levine said the Globe Dye Works was picked because the film’s script called for a warehouse.
Although crew and vehicles associated with the film are parked along Torresdale Avenue and Farrell was seen a few times on Tuesday afternoon, filming is entirely indoors on a set erected in the building. It’s closed to the public. Levine said filming is expected to continue in Philadelphia into June.
Globe Dye is the only Northeast Philadelphia location being used for the film. ••
