A special Buffalo premiere of “Marshall,” which includes scenes shot at Daemen House as part of filming done last year in Western New York, will take place at 8 p.m. Oct. 7 at the North Park Theatre at 1428 Hertel Ave.
The legal thriller stars Chadwick Boseman as a young Thurgood Marshall, a future Supreme Court justice. Filming took place over several weeks in 2016 at locations throughout the Buffalo-Niagara region, including the Amherst home owned by Daemen College.
“As the film premiere approaches, we look forward to seeing the scenes captured at Daemen House for this major motion picture,” said Daemen President Gary A. Olson. “We are excited to be a part of a film that will place some of the architecture of Buffalo at the center of a movie that will be seen by audiences across the country.”
Chosen for its historical look and feel that reflects the film’s period, Daemen House serves in the movie as the residence of wealthy socialite Eleanor Strubing, played by star Kate Hudson. Furniture and other 1940s-era historical adjustments were made to the first and second floors of the home to film scenes with Hudson and Sterling K. Brown, known for his starring role in “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” for which he won an Emmy. In addition to filming done inside the home, the building’s exterior was captured for an important scene in the movie.
Among other notable area locations used to film the Buffalo-made movie included the Dillon Courthouse, Central Terminal, and the Genesee County Courthouse.
The movie was inspired by a notorious trial early in the career of Thurgood Marshall. As a brilliant young attorney for the NAACP, Marshall traveled across the nation defending black men unjustly accused of crimes. In 1940 on the eve of World War II, Marshall partnered with Sam Friedman, a Jewish lawyer from Bridgeport, Conn., to defend Joseph Spell, a black chauffeur accused of sexually assaulting his employer, socialite Eleanor Strubing. Marshall later became the first African-American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.