A movie filmed on Cape Cod in 2021 is now available on Netflix.
“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry,” starring “Big Bang Theory’s” Kunal Nayyar (he played Raj Koothrappali in the long-running TV show) is now listed under “New on Netflix” on the streaming service. Shooting locations included Hyannis, Yarmouth and Dennis.
The 2022 movie, based on the 2014 Gabrielle Zevin book with the same title, is about a miserable bookstore owner on the fictional Alice Island whose life changes when a child is abandoned outside his shop.
Other actors in the movie include David Arquette, Lucy Hale, Christina Hendricks, Scott Foley, Blaire Brown, Lauren Stamile and Jordyn McIntosh.
Where on Cape Cod was ‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry’ filmed?
The movie was filmed in November and December at a handful of Cape Cod locations.
Parnassus Book Service in Yarmouth Port is Fikry’s bookstore, Hyannis Public Library is a police station and the Lighthouse Inn in West Dennis is a wedding venue. Other Hyannis scenes include Main Street, the harbor overlook, the train station and Keyes Memorial (Sea Street) Beach near the Kennedy compound.
Movie and makeup trailers used the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis for staging.
Producers briefly considered Martha’s Vineyard as a filming location, but the logistics were too complicated. The Hy-Line ferry makes an appearance in the film.
“I am thrilled we are shooting on Cape Cod,” Zevin said in a written statement in 2021. “‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry’ is set on Alice Island, an entirely fictional place that I describe as a ferry ride from Hyannis. Cape Cod, with its many bookstores, interestingly named roads, and distinctive coastal landscapes is perfectly cast in the role of Alice Island. I can’t imagine a better setting.”
Who is Kunal Nayyar?
Nayyar plays the title character in the movie.
He is most famous for his role as Raj Koothrappali on the sitcom “Big Bang Theory,” which ran from 2007 to 2019 and won 10 Emmy awards.
In a 2021 interview with the Cape Cod Times, director Hans Canosa said he and Zevin held out on making the movie until they could cast someone like Nayyar.
“As we met with producers, they would ask the question ‘Who’s going to play Fikry?’ It was ‘Benedict Cumberbatch.’ Or ‘Seth Rogen, he’d be such a fun curmudgeon,’” Canosa said in 2021, about movie discussions shortly after the book’s 2014 publish date. “But the character is written as having Indian heritage and not a single one of those producers ever mentioned somebody with Indian heritage.”
When Canosa and Zevin’s determination to cast such an actor met with resistance, he said, “We just decided we would go off and do other projects and wait until the time where the world changed enough that we could cast the right person. And then we finally could. Things changed.” And Nayyar was cast.
In a Publishers Weekly interview in 2021, Zevin noted: “Everything I’ve written has been from the point of view of a biracial Asian American person. A.J. Fikry is a biracial Southeast Asian, and I’m a biracial East Asian, and that book is a book about many biracial people in a bookstore.”
‘A.J. Fikry’ cast
Hendricks plays Ismay Evans, Fikry’s sister-in-law. Hendricks has been in dozens of movies and TV shows, including “Mad Men,” “Good Girls,” and the cult-classic “Firefly.”
Hale plays Amelia, Fikry’s sales rep. Also appearing in several shows, she is probably best known as Aria Montgomery in “Pretty Little Liars.”
Arquette, of the “Scream” movie franchise is police officer Lambiase.
Arquette had a schedule of only a few scenes each day that allowed him to see more of the area, according to the movie’s co-producer from BCDF Pictures Claude Dal Farra.
“He’s gone to the museums … and knows every restaurant in town,” Dal Farra said in 2021. “He’s really been the one who’s explored the region and he’s really liked it.”
Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll contributed to this report.
Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.capecodtimes.com ’
