SWAT teams and sharpshooters took over a corner of 11th and Somerset Streets in North Philly for two days of drama last week. And this coming week, look out for the steak-out unit.
It’s all for Law Abiding Citizen, the thriller being filmed in town with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler.
Christian Stolte (guard Keith Stolte in Prison Break) plays a man wanted for the murder of the wife and daughter of Butler’s character. In scenes filmed Wednesday and Thursday, Stolte was holed up in a house on the 2800 block of North 11th Street that was ringed by cops, including detectives played by Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Michael Irby (Line of Fire, The Unit). Despite the dragnet, Stolte’s character gets away.
Director F. Gary Gray and company will be at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton this week, which is where the steak-out factors in. Del Frisco’s, the new steak house at 15th and Chestnut Streets, will send food to be used in a prison scene with Foxx and Butler. Foxx plays a district attorney trying to butter up the incarcerated Butler with a Del Frisco’s meal. It will be so branded, says Del Frisco’s general manager Shang Skipper. He met the filmmakers while buying suits at Les Richards in Liberty Place, and they’ve been regulars.