DUMBO transformed for Spielberg Film

Tom Hanks, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan and Others Star

October 8, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This Scholz Bros. Beverages truck -- packed with 18 varieties of soda and seltzer – was part of the set of a Steven Spielberg thriller being filmed in DUMBO. Photo by Mary Frost

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Steven Spielberg transformed DUMBO into a Cold War era set over this past weekend for his spy thriller with the working title “St. James Place.”

Signs saying “Fresh Up with 7UP” and “Majors Meats – Salami Is Our Specialty” plastered the fence running under the Manhattan Bridge, while storefronts along Adams, Plymouth, Water and Pearl streets were covered with striped awnings and transformed into haberdasher and butcher shops.

A green Scholz Bros. Beverages truck was packed with 18 varieties of soda and seltzer bottles of the kind that aren’t being made anymore (though you can find them on eBay).

Tourists treated the set as a theme park, and the production crew paid no mind between takes. Visitors posed next to cars from the 50s and 60s; one man pulled out his key and held it next to the lock of a sleek New Yorker as if he was one second away from hopping into the car and driving away. His wife took his photo and the door remained locked.

Cauliflower was selling for 49 cents a head at the corner grocer, and apples were 11 cents. These bargains are over, however, as filming wrapped up Monday.

The film stars Tom Hanks (“Saving Mr. Banks,” “Cloud Atlas,” “The Da Vinci Code”) as James Donovan, an American lawyer recruited by the CIA to help rescue a pilot detained in the Soviet Union, according to IMDB.

Other cast members include Amy Ryan (“The Wire,” “The Office”), Alan Alda (“The Blacklist,” “Tower Heist”), Mark Rylance (“Blitz,” “The Other Boleyn Girl”) and Eve Hewson (“Enough Said,” “Blood Ties”).

Matt Charman wrote the screenplay, which is also receiving treatment by Ethan and Joel Coen.

The film is set to be released in the U.S. in October 2015.