Actor Richard Gere Films In Gettysburg

By Leon Reed · Originally published March 2016 · p. 18

Actor Richard Gere Films In Gettysburg By Leon Reed GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Richard Gere was in town to film scenes for an upcoming movie, and local Civil War buffs were the first to know. On Jan. 20 a photo appeared on the Gettysburg Past and Present Facebook page showing a film crew filming at the High Water Mark. Other members of the Internet group spotted them the next day at the State of Louisiana monument, McPherson Barn and the national park Visitor Center. Knowledge was soon shared that the camera crews were filming scenes for a movie called “The Dinner,” starring Richard Gere and Steve Coogan — and that Gere was in town for the filming. There were reports that he was filming at the Visitor Center on Thursday night, had dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Co. on Wednesday and stayed at the Wyndham Hotel. The crew also filmed at the Comfort Suites on the Baltimore Pike and was seen packing up to head back to New York about 4 p.m. that Friday, shortly before the 20-inch snowstorm hit town.

Besides filming background scenes of the battlefield, the park permit said that Coogan and Gere would be filmed, in their roles as brothers, discussing a book they were writing on the Civil War. “The Dinner” is an adaptation of a 2013 Howard Koch novel of the same name. It centers around the brothers and their wives having a dinner where it is discovered that their two sons committed a brutal crime. An Internet Movie Database entry states the movie is “…a look at how far parents will go to protect their children.” Director Oren Moverman said, “Herman Koch’s The Dinner is an extraordinarily provocative, conscience-bending ride that takes on culturally relevant issues and turns them into an intricate menu of human passions and primal fears.”