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CRANSTON \u2013 Cumberland’s Abigail Spampinato may not be your typical 20-year-old.<\/p>\n
It’s true that she wouldn’t turn down a chance to pose for a selfie with 36-year-old movie star Glen Powell<\/a>, who’s in Rhode Island filming scenes for “Ghostwriter.”<\/a><\/p>\n “Loved ‘Top Gun,'” Spampinato said the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 19. “Very handsome,” she added, summing up Powell’s positive traits.<\/p>\n But there’s someone else connected to the movie “Ghostwriter” she’d rather meet: the movie’s 59-year-old director, J.J. Abrams<\/a>.<\/p>\n “He’s so iconic,” said Spampinato, who’s studying creative writing and political science at Rhode Island College. She had staked out a spot on a side street across Pontiac Avenue from The Time Capsule<\/a>, a comic book store Abrams had transformed into “Graffiti Comics” for the movie. Spampinato was joined by her 21-year-old cousin, Sara Laxton, of Cranston, also a RIC student.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve actually been working on a screenplay for three years together,” Spampinato said, perhaps further explaining her preference for meeting Abrams.<\/p>\n The two budding screenwriters saw the Aug. 19 filming in Cranston as an opportunity for a field trip.<\/p>\n “It’s cool to see how much work goes into one scene,” said Laxton.<\/p>\n It also took a bit of work to get to the roadside seat for this moviemaking practicum. They only learned about the shoot an hour before they showed up, thanks to a text from Laxton’s sister, of Georgia, who heard about the filming from a friend in Cranston.<\/p>\n The pair of cousins said they may try to find other “Ghostwriter” filming locations<\/a> this week, and they’re already looking forward to the movie’s release, thought to be for the summer of 2026.<\/p>\n Said Spampinato:<\/p>\n “We’ll be there!”<\/p>\n