From 1pm until 10pm on Thursday, a feature film crew will be shooting a scene at 7th Avenue and Fulton.
The scene is for an upcoming film called “Big Sur” and it recounts the events surrounding Jack Kerouac’s three brief sojourns to a cabin in Big Sur, California. It’s based on Kerouac’s book by the same name, also his last published.
IMDB has a summary of the film, due out in 2012:
Sudden fame and a self-destructive lifestyle were taking a toll on Jack Kerouac’s mind and body following the unparalleled success of the groundbreaking novel, On The Road. Once the handsome literary maverick and hero of the Beat Generation, Kerouac now sees only a vestige of his former self, ravaged by alcohol and drugs, aged beyond his years and tormented by self-doubt.
Questioning his talent, his faith, and his mortality, Kerouac leaves New York for California, on a quest for redemption at an isolated, fog-banked cabin in the primitive landscape of the Big Sur woods. What ensues in those fateful 3 weeks of August, 1960, is both terrifying and revelatory. While Kerouac is able to find beauty and elation in his surroundings, the dichotomy of his psyche renders him unable to face his demons alone. He sets off on a visceral collision course of paranoia, sex, delirium tremens, misery and madness…
Big Sur is being directed by Michael Polish, best known for films like Northfork (2003), The Astronaut Farmer (1999) and Twin Falls Idaho (1999).
Location manager Gail Stempler told me that they’ll be shooting a scene where Kerouac gets off a 1950s bus. The film will use the old train depot that sits on Fulton at 7th Avenue in the scene. Watch the video below for an interesting history of the depot, courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project.
They’ll also be putting up fake stop signs for the shoot so if you’re driving around there, heads up!
Thanks to RichmondSFBlog reader k9sound for the tip.
Sarah B.
saw a bunch of vintage cars at the beach. parking lot must have been a holding area for the shoot.