Daredevil — known as “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” and the 1964 creation of Marvel’s Stan Lee — returned to the neighborhood yesterday. W51st Street resident Catie Savage kept an eye on filming for W42ST (with a little help from New York Mickey).
After nearly nine months without seeing the ubiquitous film trailers in our neighborhood, we had our first big feature on Friday! Under the project name Out the Kitchen, Blind Faith Production’s reboot of the Daredevil franchise, Daredevil: Born Again, took over W51st Street for the day.
Bike shop Rubber N’ Road at 466 West 51st Street (just east of 10th Avenue) was turned into the law offices of Nelson, Murdock & Page complete with hanging sign, metal placard and wooden blinds in the windows. Local restaurants Totto Ramen and Seguidilla Dominican Bistro were also closed during filming to be used as holding locations for the production crew.
The laundromat on the corner of West 51st St & 10th Avenue was fitted with a faux brick wall adorned with a mural of the villain Kingpin (played by Vincent D’Onofrio). Additional posters and graffiti were carefully added to the existing brick wall.
I found stepping outside my building and into a film set to be a surreal experience. There were cables snaking up and down the block with crew members rushing about setting up equipment. One of my neighbors got quite the scare when a crew member in a cherry picker was seen attaching a lighting rig to the lamp post outside his fourth floor window.
Filming started on the west side of 9th Avenue between W50/51st, with about 30 extras filling the sidewalk as main character Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox) walked south with his signature cane. While rehearsals and filming took place, pedestrians were directed to cross to the opposite side of the avenue to avoid interrupting. Most were friendly to the production assistant guiding them while others stubbornly walked right through the set.
As day turned to night, large orange-tinted spotlights were raised high above the street and a smoke machine was stationed right outside my building. The combination of the orange light and haze was eerily reminiscent of the Canadian wildfires over the summer. The absurdity of sitting on my couch watching reruns of 1980s era The Price Is Right while a big budget Disney+ series is being filmed just feet away is what makes living in Hell’s Kitchen so exciting!
Have you had any interesting encounters with filming on your block — or Daredevil? Tell us your story in the comments!
Thanks exactly what ‘savedaredevil’ was attempting to achieve and it looks like we were successful!