WORCESTER — Norwich Street is going to have one serious identity crisis by the time “The Walking Dead: Dead City” crew finally leaves town later in the week.
Monday, the street sign for Norwich Street at the intersection of Foster Street read W57th St. (even though you can clearly see 19 Foster St. on the doorway if you stand on the street corner) while the other end of the street, at Norwich and Mechanic streets, read Broadway and 6th Avenue.
If that’s not confusing enough for the short downtown street, there’s also a sign pointing to Mechanic Street that indicates it’s the best way to get to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Norwich Street was transformed into a New York City business district last week for the filming of “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” the latest spinoff for the lucrative and long-running “The Walking Dead” franchise.
#Negan enjoys his breakfast zombie bashing on Norwich St., #Worcester. So goes another day of filming #TheWalkingDead #DeadCity @JDMorgan @AMCthewalking @DeadCityAMC pic.twitter.com/2ttC9IB2zp
— Craig Semon (@CraigSemon) May 6, 2024
Last Wednesday, the focus was on 8 Norwich St., a two-story building that was turned into Salvatore New York City, a high-end men’s clothing store, in which Maggie Green Rhee and Perlie Armstrong (actors Lauren Cohan and Gaius Charles, respectively) strategized their next move on the rooftop.
Monday, the focus covered the whole street.
In preparation for Monday’s ambitious shoot, 8 Norwich St. was now “Doug’s Shoe Repair” specializing in orthopedics and using “factory methods.”
Early Monday, a massive scenic blue screen was placed on Foster Street with a mini-fleet of abandoned midsize cars in front.
After propping and posing fake bodies and strategically-placed leaves in the street, the camera rolled on the first scene shortly after 8 a.m.
A menacing entourage of armored-modified vehicles came barreling down Norwich Street.
Led by a New York City yellow cab, The Croat’s war-friendly, pimped-up Cadillac followed in close pursuit.
Next came the blue delivery truck that Negan popped out of Thursday night on Main Street (before bashing the brains of a renegade zombie), a New York Fire Department ambulance (not unlike the one that came barreling up Foster Street, taking a right on Main Street in the colossal bomb “Madame Web,” also filmed in the city), and a green NYC sanitation truck with a black van ending the automotive pack.
At 8:52 a.m., Jeffrey Dean Morgan (aka Negan) arrived at the set. Wearing sunglass and his character’s signature leather biker jacket, Morgan walked around with a digital camera on a long strap and a script clenched in his hand.
For his first scene, Morgan, who was riding shotgun with “The Croat” (actor Željko Ivanek) behind the wheel and “The Dama” (Lisa Emery) in the backseat, popped out of The Croat’s Caddy.
As the scene continued, Negan walked toward an approaching zombie and bashed its brains in with “Lucille,” his trusty, barbed-wire-covered Louisville slugger.
When the first take was over, the zombie extra shrugged his shoulders as if gesturing to Morgan that he didn’t know why the scene had to be shot a half-a-dozen more times.
It appears that Negan’s signature move, whether it’s in the morning (like it was Monday) or the middle of that night (as seen last Thursday), is whacking a “walker” (aka zombie) with his bat whenever he gets out of a vehicle.
Waiting for his next scene, Morgan twirled “Lucille” like an old vaudevillian star doing a soft-shoe with a cane. That is, when he wasn’t practicing his swing.
Morgan also gave the Marlboro Man a run for his money. During every break, he could be seen puffing away on a cigarette.
And it turns out that Morgan is an amateur shutterbug. Every chance he got, the actor would shoot his surroundings, castmates, zombie-made extras and diehard fans waiting patiently across the street on Foster and peeking through any crack in the massive, three-tier blue screen that blocked most of the action.
At 10:15 a.m., Morgan, with ice coffee and digital camera in hand, greeted the fans on Foster Street with a beaming smile and a hand-gesture of peace. And later, when he walked up Mechanics Street during takes, he posed for photos with two fans that saw him coming up from Main Street.
Later, Negan walked toward an abandoned tow truck, knocked on the glass and woke up a hungry walker.
At 12:15 p.m., Morgan exited stage right into “Doug’s Shoe Store,” not to mend his sole but to take a load off his feet.
Most of the finishing touches on set dressing were done Sunday.
The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences buildings facing Norwich were transformed into a series of make-believe New York businesses with simple enough names including “New York Pub,” “Central Park Books” and “New York College Counseling.”
The series of boarded-up storefronts on the collegiate center have posters depicting shiny, happy young people with their whole futures ahead of them — that is, until a pesky zombie apocalypse destroyed all their hope, as well as all hope for humanity’s survival.
“Turn your career into reality,” the posters for New York College Counseling promise. “Consider Your Future Today,” the sale-pitch continues.
However, in a few cases, someone who dressed up the window got the message wrong by placing the two-poster promotion out of order, making it read, instead, “Er Into Reality…Turn Your Care” and “Today…Consider Your Future.”
Then again, in the conflict with hostile militants and hungry zombies, who’s going to notice poster-and-paste faux pas?
Pictures of the student representing the future of tomorrow frozen in time are peeking out of graffiti, spattered paint and rust stains and flyers promoting long-forgotten bands at long defunct clubs including White Lighters, The Danicas and Carl Sprague at the Safari Lounge for $7 (an absolute bargain), as well as posters promoting New York City tourism and a humongous warehouse sale at the Marksman Shipping Yard, W130th and Harlem.
Trash barrels urging “Keep New York City Clean,” including one filled with an array of discarded sneakers and topped off with a Playtex 18 Hour Bra, were placed around the sidewalks.
