‘Good Burger 2’ filming begins in Rhode Island on May 18
PROVIDENCE — A vacant Friendly’s restaurant in North Providence will be used to film “Good Burger 2,” the sequel to the 1997 movie based on the Nickelodeon series “All That,” the Rhode Island Film & Television Office announced May 2.
The old Friendly’s on Mineral Spring Avenue will eventually be replaced with a car wash, but first it will be the scene of the new movie starring Kenan Thompson, a longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast member, and Kel Mitchell, who also starred in the original “Good Burger,” said Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film & Television Office.
Filming is set to begin on May 18 and last through June 20, Feinberg said. The film will employ 150 to 200 crew members and include at least 150 extras, he said, and Nickelodeon Studios and Paramount+ is expected to release it at the end of this year.
The announcement came on the same day that Hollywood movie and television writers went on strike, bringing many productions to a halt and dealing a blow to an industry that has been rocked in recent years by the pandemic and sweeping technological shifts.
Feinberg, who has been a member of the Writers Guild of America since 1987, said he does not expect the strike to affect the local production.
“I’ve been told picket lines will be around studios and networks and not around productions, especially productions on locations,” he said.
In addition to filming at the former Friendly’s, the production company plans to lease the town’s former police and fire station on Mineral Spring Avenue for at least two months, Lombardi said, though he wasn’t sure for what purpose. “We’ve been very accommodating,” he said. “I hope they come back.”
Feinberg said the production will include locations in other parts of Rhode Island as well as the North Providence site.
Last year, Rhode Islanders watched witches flying over Federal Hill as part of the filming of “Hocus Pocus 2, and film crews captured the grandeur of a Newport mansion for the second season of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.”
The Film & Television Office uses motion picture production film tax credits to try to bring film crews to Rhode Island. To qualify, productions must shoot at least 51 percent of a film in Rhode Island or spend $10 million in a 12-month period, and this film is being shot 100 percent in Rhode Island, Feinberg said. The motion picture tax credit is 30 percent of the statecertified production costs incurred in Rhode Island.
Last year, the Rhode Island Office of Revenue Analysis issued a report saying the state’s tax credit program fails to break even, its goals are “vague,” and data reporting requirements “lead to inconsistent and unreliable data on program performance.”
But Feinberg strongly disagreed, saying the report contained “miscalculations” and “omissions.” He said Industrial Economics, a company based in Cambridge, produced a report in March saying that every $1 in film tax credits generated $5.44 in economic activity, and that the benefit extended to nearly every city and town in the state.