HBO shooting in Cranford: NJ-set miniseries with Ryder, Turturro

Another New Jersey site will feature prominently in an HBO miniseries being filmed, as downtown Cranford will host film crews two nights this week.

"The Plot Against America" — starring Winona Ryder and John Turturro, as well as Zoe Kazan and Morgan Spector — is based on a novel by late Newark native, Philip Roth.

The novel and miniseries both explore an "alternative," fictional U-S history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was defeated in the 1940 presidential election by famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh. The story is told from the perspective of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey, according to HBO.

Township Mayor Patrick Giblin shared the news on Facebook, writing "They will be filming this week on Thursday and Friday from 8:30 p.m. until approximately 4 a.m. near Eastman Plaza/Street and under the train trestle. The area will be transformed into a set from 1942."

David Simon and Ed Burns are writers and executive producers of the miniseries.

Roth died in May 2018 at the age of 85. Simon shared a photo of Roth's childhood home in the Weequahic section of the city as he scouted locations back in Feb., lamenting the author's passing before the project was completed.

In April, the project filmed in Jersey City at Beth-El synagogue, where Simon shared a photo on set with Ryder and Turturro.

The series also has shot scenes in Newark, where stretches of Broad St. were transformed back to the 1940s, as shared in a tweet by Rutgers Newark — plus Maplewood, Paterson, South Orange and Union.

There's no release date set for HBO's "The Plot Against America."

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