Napeague Feels The Impact

The filming of "Deep Impact," Steven Spielberg's latest movie - a comet heading toward Earth causes chaos of Hollywood proportions for a cast of big-name stars - is having a deep impact of its own on the western end of Napeague. A convoy of trucks, trailers, and portable toilets and a horde of stars, crew, and extras moved in Tuesday morning and could remain through tomorrow.

"I feel like I'm living in the Holland Tunnel," said Stanley Fein, who has a summer house on the corner of Sandcastle Drive and Castle Court. Mr. Fein said the trucks parked along Sandcastle all day Tuesday were blowing diesel fumes in his direction, leaving an oil slick on his swimming pool.

By late afternoon, though, a location manager for DreamWorks, Mr. Spielberg's production company, had smoothed things over with Mr. Fein, who reported someone had even come to clean the pool.

Glitch On The Road

With a permit from East Hampton Town, police supervision, and permission from the owners of three small private roads, the crew of "Deep Impact" was trying to shoot a scene at Darcy Kuzmier's house on Whalers Lane and on the ocean beach.

According to the script, T‚a Leoni (the star of the NBC series "Naked Truth") drives up to the house looking for her father, played by Maximilian Schell. She walks over the dune to the beach, finds him there, and they have a conversation.

It is a brief moment in the film, but could end up taking three days, through this afternoon, to shoot. The scene was not going at all well on Tuesday. A truckload of lighting equipment was stuck somewhere between Washington, D.C., and New York City, after breaking down on Monday night.

Hiatus

Crew members said there was no filming at all Tuesday afternoon, although the publicist, Stuart Fink, said later that Mimi Leder, the director, had managed to work out a modified scene.

Ms. Leoni, who also stars in the recently released "Flirting With Danger," and Mr. Schell, who won an Oscar for his supporting role in "Judgment at Nuremberg," are among the 220-odd cast and crew who have been put up in motels and inns from Montauk to Southampton.

Another 50 or more people were picked from those who answered last week's casting call at Guild Hall and hired to provide atmosphere on the beach - "human scenery," as extras are sometimes known.

They sat around the Amagansett Firehouse all day Tuesday and were never called to the beach.

"The food was good, though. They treated us well," said Dorine Drohan, who in real life is an East Hampton Town police officer.

Ms. Drohan didn't answer the casting call. Instead she had answered a complaint some time ago, in uniform, about a mysterious truck idling on Whalers Lane. It turned out to be DreamWorks officials scouting a location. They later offered her one of the $99-a-day extras' jobs.

Waiting To Be Killed

Ms. Drohan said the extras were told they would not be needed yesterday, due to the modified scene, and could be called back again this morning.

They are to play some of the billions waiting to be killed by tidal waves from the comet's impact - the Government can save only 800,000 people in its underground bunkers, and holds a lottery to pick the strongest and brightest - and have chosen to spend their last few hours at the beach.

"We have to look scared," said Ingrid Lemme, who took three days off from her job at Gurney's Inn to perform. "Some of us have to be serene and ready to die, and others have to be terrified."

Mr. Fink cautioned against characterizing "Deep Impact" as a disaster flick, however. "This is a drama, a human drama," he said.

Guess What, Ma?

Ms. Lemme called her mother when she was picked. "She is going to sit in a movie theater in Europe and see her daughter in a Steven Spielberg movie for three or four seconds - Oh, my God! - so naturally, when I told her, I was the daughter of the year."

Kevin Sarlo, the town police officer assigned to be sure the operation did not violate any condition of its permit, had five traffic control officers to help him maintain order, including one with a beach buggy.

The production company put up $1,000 a day for the service, and will be billed if the department's costs come to more, said Chief Thomas Scott.

Curious Contained

DreamWorks also hired Pond View Services, a housewatch and security firm owned by two local men, John Diamond and Village Police Sgt. Michael Tracey, to keep curious onlookers and autograph seekers at bay.

There didn't appear to be many, though. A CBS News crew showed up Tuesday but stayed only a short while, as did photographers from two local papers. Any others were turned away at the Montauk Highway yesterday morning, as the shoot was starting.

"Not welcome. There are just too many independent papers out here to let everyone in," said Mr. Fink. He added that Ms. Leoni had been upset the day before by a photographer who got a little too close.

Not On Mitchell Dunes

The property owners on Whalers and Shipwreck Lanes had agreed to have their streets blocked off to all but crew members and residents, and the town allowed Sandcastle Drive, which is public, to be blocked off as well. Napeague Lane, also a town road, was not blocked off but was used to get trucks and crew over the dunes and onto the beach.

The residents of Mitchell Dunes, in the middle of the mile-by-mile-and-a-half location, apparently did not agree to have their road blocked. It was the only one between Napeague Lane to the west and Shipwreck Drive to the east that was not full of trucks and crew waiting around to start filming.

Mr. Fink said DreamWorks representatives had contacted all the residents weeks ago to warn them about the shoot and to offer to compensate any who would find it too inconvenient, by putting them up "somewhere even nicer" for the three days. He said that and other forms of compensation were "typical" of big studio productions.

Sayed At Home

Frank Notarianni, who is spending the whole summer on Whalers Lane, remembered the notice but said no one asked him about closing off the road. Mr. Notarianni likes to walk on the beach, about 400 feet from his door, early in the morning. He managed a walk Tuesday, then decided not to leave the house yesterday, but said he would try again this morning.

"It's a bit of a nuisance, but having them here is good for our community," he said.

Mr. Spielberg and Joan Bradshaw are the executive producers of "Deep Impact." His DreamWorks studio is sharing the production credit with Paramount Pictures, which is to handle domestic distribution, according to Mr. Fink.

Close To Home

Besides Mr. Schell and Ms. Leoni, the movie stars Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Vanessa Redgrave, and Elijah Wood. They are getting a break between filming at the last location, in Washington D.C., and the next, in Manhattan's Washington Square Park.

After Manhattan, the entire operation returns to Los Angeles, said Mr. Fink.

This is the director's, Ms. Leder's, second film. Her first, "The Peacemaker," DreamWorks's first theatrical release, is to come out in September. She has won two Emmys, for "China Beach" and "E.R."

The proximity of this week's Amagansett setting to Mr. Spielberg's summer house on Georgica Pond in East Hampton was no coincidence, said Mr. Fink.