Orange County among filming locations for new Brendan Fraser movie The Whale

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ORANGE COUNTY – The movie The Whale, marking actor Brendan Fraser’s return with a performance gaining Oscar buzz, was filmed largely in Orange County.

Scenes of the $3 million feature were shot at Umbra Stages in Newburgh, making it one of several current and upcoming movies and television shows filmed at least partly in Orange County.

Fraser has been garnering Oscar talk and extended standing ovations at film festivals for his portrayal of a reclusive English teacher, suffering from severe obesity, who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenaged daughter. Sadie Sink, who plays the daughter, is a fan favorite from the Netflix hit Stranger Things, in which she plays hard-edged high schooler Max Mayfield.

The Whale used Umbra’s stage 4, an 18,000-square-foot drive-on sound stage.

With a budget of $3 million, the film was directed by Darren Aronofsky, whose movies include Black Swan and The Wrestler. It was written by Samuel D. Hunter and also stars Ty Simpkins, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan and Jacey Sink.

“Filmmakers are discovering a home away from home in Orange County, N.Y.,” said Orange County Tourism & Film Director Amanda Dana. “With so many movie-ready mountains, farms, waterfronts and streetscapes, plus state-of-the-art Umbra Stages, all just an hour from New York City, Orange County is always ready for its close-up. And our office makes it easy for them. Production companies, crews and movie stars are discovering what so many other visitors have – that Orange County is a great place to spend a day, enjoy a weekend, or maximize the time it takes to finish filming a movie.”

Other Hudson Valley locations for The Whale include the Shawangunk Mountains and an aerial shot of Beacon, N.Y.

The Whale came out in general release on Tuesday, December 20.

Other movies and series filmed at least partly in Orange County include:

  • A Holiday Spectacular, a just-released Hallmark Channel feature about a woman in the 1958 who puts her wedding on hold to follow her secret dream of dancing in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.
  • Poker Face, a murder-mystery limited series starring Natasha Lyonne, to debut on Peacock on Jan. 26, 2023.
  • The White House Plumbers, a miniseries about how President Nixon operatives E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy masterminded Watergate and accidentally toppled the president they were trying to protect. It will premiere on HBO in March, 2023.

Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, a movie about Roger Sharpe, who successfully advocated to lift New York City’s ban on pinball in 1976. The fan favorite has won multiple film festival awards. It is scheduled for theatrical release on March 17, 2023




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