Binghamton Preparing for Film Production of City Native's Novel

A Binghamton native is looking forward to the start of shooting for a movie based on a book he released several years ago.

Everett De Morier wrote the novel Thirty-Three Cecils which features some Binghamton locations, including the Belmar Pub on Main Street and an apartment building in the West Side neighborhood.

De Morier, who now lives in Delaware, incorporated some of those spots into the story because he was intimately familiar with that part of Binghamton. He said: "I knew the Belmar. I knew that whole block. I knew what people were like."

The Belmar Pub and Grill on Main Street in Binghamton on May 31, 2017. (Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News)

Thirty-Three Cecils is set in Binghamton and in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Speaking on WNBF Radio's Binghamton Now program, De Morier said he's excited that production of the screenplay based on his book could start soon. But he said "it'll be real to me when I'm sitting in a seat" and able to watch the movie.

De Morier noted producer Brian Esquivel has said the actor Dustin Hoffman "read the script 14 times." With that level of interest, De Morier is hoping Hoffman will have a role in the film.

When De Morier asked the producer whether the movie actually could be shot in Binghamton, he said the reply was: "It doesn't make sense to make it anywhere else."

De Morier said: "It's a Binghamton story and I'm a Binghamton guy." He said "I'm so excited it's going to be made here."