It looks like the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station will be the set for not just one Boston Marathon movie but both of the Hollywood films being planned about the 2013 terrorist bombings and their aftermath.
An official at SouthField, the mixed-use development sprouting on the shuttered air base, said two movies will be made there simultaneously this spring. Shooting for one will take place on a set being built on an old runway, and the other will be filmed inside a repurposed hangar.
The building that once housed fighter jets and the runway already were used in 2015 to film the new “Ghostbusters’’ movie starring Melissa McCarthy, which comes out in July.
“We’re really excited,’’ said Matthew Barry, SouthField’s division president. “We’ve owned the property for 10 months now and been able to sign three movies. That’s a pretty high percentage of movies coming to Massachusetts.’’
Barry said SouthField had signed a confidentiality agreement, so he couldn’t disclose the names of the films that will be shot this spring.
But Weymouth officials confirmed this month that they had approved permits for “Patriots Day,’’ starring Mark Wahlberg as a Boston police officer investigating the April 15, 2013, bombings by two brothers that killed three civilians and injured an estimated 264 other people.
And the Massachusetts Film Office lists only one other movie currently under production in the state: “Stronger,’’ an adaptation of Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman’s book about the attack that ripped off his legs and its aftermath.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal will play Bauman, according to media reports.
Barry said crews are building a streetscape on the runway for the first film, and work is starting on a set inside the hangar for the second movie.
A production representative for a company involved in the shooting of the Wahlberg movie said the scene of the actual bombings on Boylston Street in Boston will be reproduced in Weymouth.
CBS Films and Lionsgate had unsuccessfully sought permission to film “Patriots Day’’ in the Watertown neighborhood where bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured after his older brother was killed. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where the younger Tsarnaev was a student, also declined a request to shoot scenes on campus, saying it would be “too disruptive.’’
Filmmakers are looking for other sites, the production representative said.
Weymouth officials issued all the necessary permits for the filming to take place at SouthField, the 1,400-acre site being developed as a mini-city with potentially 3,900 housing units and millions of square feet of office space.
Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.
