EG Hosts Movie Production

Just call us Hollywood East ... Greenwich that is. This week, Chad Verdi's production company began shooting "Self Storage," which stars Eric Roberts, Jonathan Silverman, and Michael Berryman.

The stars haven't arrived yet, but the crew is setting up at – surprise! – a local self-storage lot. On Tuesday, writer-director-actor Tom DeNucci, a Verdi regular now (having been in previous Verdi films), was working out a stunt that had him swinging from a rope on a boat.

The familiar filming call-and-response took place and DeNucci, a Cranston native who just happened to be celebrating his 28th birthday Tuesday, held on to a rope and swung over the dry-docked sailboat. After a couple of tries, everyone was happy.

Still, EG's Verdi told DeNucci, "If you want a stunt double, I can do that easy," to big laughs from the crew.

It's just another step in Verdi's transformation from venture capitalist to movie producer. Now, with three movies under his belt, two of which have been released, Verdi's feeling pretty comfortable.

He's particularly happy to have landed Eric Roberts for one of the starring roles in this latest film.

"I've been negotiating with him on a couple other projects," Verdi said. "What sold him this time was the track record of the first two films." He was referring to Inkubus and Loosies.

Filming will take a few weeks, he said, with 90 percent of it taking place in East Greenwich. There will also be scenes shot in Warwick and Cranston, he said.

It means money for local businesses. "We've been to hundreds of times," Verdi said. Catering is being done by Gregg's Restuarants, which Verdi co-owns with Bob and Bobbi Bacon.

EG Patch will be following the filming of Self Storage. Stay tuned!