Troy’s time machine is set for 1882—and all arrows point to it taking off next week. According to the Albany Times Union, as well as sources close to Capital Region Living, filming on the brand-new HBO series, The Gilded Age, will begin next Thursday, May 27, and stretch through June 10.
For months, HBO production crews have been hiring local extras for the series and adding period décor on the facades of downtown businesses, including the Capital Region Arts Center, the former Illium Cafe and a run of others in the Monument Square area. Yet more preparations are being made for filming around the Washington Park area.
The HBO series was created, written and will be executive produced by Julian Fellowes (of Downtown Abbey fame); and has a star-studded cast that includes Christine Baranski (The Good Wife), Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City), Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire) and Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love), among others.
The show is set in 1882, with audiences being introduced to young Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), the orphaned daughter of a Union general, who moves into the New York City home of her old money aunts Agnes van Rhijn (Baranski) and Ada Brook (Nixon). Accompanied by Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), an accomplished African-American woman, Marian inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a social war between one of her aunts and stupendously rich neighbors, a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife, George (Spector) and Bertha Russell (Coon).
The Collar City isn’t the only filming location for the new series. Scenes have already been shot in Newport, RI, and on Long Island, among other locations.
This is also not the first time Troy has served as the backdrop for Hollywood film crews. Scenes from movies Iron Weed (1987), Scent of a Woman (1992), Age of Innocence (1993) and The Time Machine (2002) were all shot in the Collar City.