August 10, 2025 • 7 mins
John Crowley is an Irish theatre and film director. He is best known for the films Brooklyn (2015) and his debut feature, Intermission (2003), for which he won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Director. He is a brother of the designer Bob Crowley. John became involved in theatre as a student, seeing it as a stepping stone to directing film. He began directing plays in Dublin in the early 1990s, reached London's West End by 1996 and eventually become an associate director at the Donmar Warehouse. In 2000, he directed Come and Go as part of the Beckett on Film series and made his feature debut Intermission (2003), a comedy drama set in Dublin, starring Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Kelly Macdonald, based on a screenplay by playwright Mark O'Rowe.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from dou Wor. Here again is
Larry Minty with the WOR Saturday morning show, Welcome Back.
John Crowley is the executive director of New Jersey Motion
Picture and Television Commission, and he's been in charge as
New Jersey has become one of the hottest places in
the country for TV shows and movies. Good morning, John.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Larry, how are you, my friend?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm doing well. It's been a long time. The last
time I talked to you it was about possibly doing
a commercial, so I can't say yes that you never
called me. As a matter of fact, you called me
right You called me yesterday. I was taking a nap,
but I thought to myself, why is John Crowley calling me?
And you know, I want to call you right back
because it might be some huge movie role. But but no,
(00:50):
it was just that you were coming on with us today.
How have you been. How's everything going.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm out well great. I mean, we're going like gangbusters
in New Jersey. But look, I got to drop the
I'm on you to your to your listeners because we
did the show together and I had said to Larry,
you know, I've never won an Emmy and that's sort
of a bucket list thing. We finished taping that night.
I don't know if you remember this, and you walked
up the aisle to me and you said, you just
(01:15):
won your first Emmy and I have you to thank Larry.
You were a fantastic hoast for that event. And you
know you went out of your way to make make
the Emmy folks aware of our program. And I owe
that that piece of hardware to you, my friend. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, and you were wonderful even at the time. You
got some Hollywood guests to come all the way to
New Jersey to appear in that. So yeah, No, it
was a wonderful. It was. It just let the people,
let people know that it was a town hall about
the opioid crisis and so and and we had some
people on the stage that had some heartbreaking stories. We
had the Attorney General.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It was.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It was a wonderful TV moment that I'm really proud of.
And John, I'm sure you are too.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I am. And and you just said we got some
Hollywood people to come to that. Well, we're getting even
more of them, uh these days with the with film
and TV production. Let me I'll just you want do
you want me to give you just some some good numbers.
Go ahead, go ahead, all right, So twenty so, historically
New Jersey has been like number seven, number eight in
(02:19):
terms of you know, production hubs to come to in
the United States. LA. Even though the numbers have been down,
LA is still number one. New York's number two. Georgia
has been number three, and then we're down around seven
or eight. Well, our goal on the film commission is
to get us into that number three spot. And it's
happening because in twenty twenty three we had five hundred
(02:43):
and ninety two million dollars in what is called qualified spend.
That's the money that productions are spending when they're here
in New Jersey. They don't come here with groceries and
hardware and fuel and cars things like that. They're getting
them here, they're renting them when they're here. So that
was fine. I've undred ninety two million dollars in New
Jersey on qualified spent twenty twenty four. Do you want
(03:05):
to take a guest, Larry, what the qualified spend was?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I have it in front of me, so it's not
a guess. I'm not going to achieve. Go ahead and
tell me.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Genie eight and ten million dollars qualified spend. Wow, so's
thirty seven percent that were up and La down, New
York and stagnant recovering, Georgia down, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico down,
down down. Those are all of our major competitors. Chicago down,
even Toronto is down.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Hey, you're just talking about the money. What about the jobs?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh so the jobs even more millarry they we twenty
twenty two sixteen thousand crew hires. Twenty twenty three was
like seventeen thousand crew hires. In twenty twenty four we
hit a new high, which was thirty thousand crew hires.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But absolutely some of the biggest some of the biggest
movies and some of the biggest shows of the last
couple of years. I don't think people were realize we're
done in New Jersey. Go through a few of them.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, you know, And that's the thing, right is like,
why is that happening? Well, New Jersey, you know, geographically
compact state, but this huge variety of locations. And that's
one of the biggest draws for production is they say, well,
we've got all these different things we need in our script.
You know, we need to Washington, DC look alike, or
we need to play like Times Square in New York,
(04:30):
but we don't want to deal with the traffic of
going to New York. And we've got all that huge
amount of variety locations, little towns, big cities, mountains with snow, oceans.
So severances shooting, you know, has been shooting in Holmeedale
at the Bell Labs building.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No bigger show, no bigger show on TV right now?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's right, yeah, right, Larry, are you in any air
and outy We we'll figure that out later. Yeah. So
that's for your Severance fans, that's for your seventh fans.
That's nothing to do with your belly button, but seven
referance a complete unknown. That was the Bob Dylan biopick
that was here, the new Bruce Springsteen biopick that's coming out,
(05:10):
Delivered Me from Nowhere, filmed here. Steven Spielberg, he's got
a new film that's coming out. That was down in
Kate may I got to tell you about that too.
That was crazy in terms of that money that we
talk about. They had three hundred and fifty crew members
that were down there in Kate may Well. They were
all coming from else, you know, from Northern Jersey, central Jersey, wherever.
(05:33):
So they put them up in hotels. They the three
hundred and fifty crew were in eight different hotels and
an average of two hundred and eighty five dollars per night.
See you do the math. And that's in the off season.
That was like February March. So the hotel owners were ecstatic.
And then when everybody wrapped filming for the end of
the day, they went and they took their per diem
and they were buying dinner at restaurants all around Kate
(05:55):
May area. So again, between the jobs and the qualified
spend the money that they're spending, that's that's why we
do that. But we've all happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore just
released what about a week week and a half ago
on Netflix. Shot here for like sixty some of days,
and they spent one hundred and fifty two million dollars
while they were here in state. Eighteen million. That was
(06:17):
just in location fees at golf courses and stores and
you know, restaurants everywhere that you've seen in the movie.
They were paying location fees.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And you have so much being built in New Jersey
and John we're running out of time, but you know what,
we got to have you back, so let's talk again
soon and come back on you know you have. It's
an open door policy. Apparently I've been shut out to
any production in New Jersey, but for you, sir, it's
an open door policy to come on the show to
talk about what's happening on there.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Don Larry, I'm sure. I'm sure we'll get jumped down
here I began. I got to talk to you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
With you great, all right, so we'll definitely do that. John,
congratulations on the gig and congratulations on your success.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thanks a lot, Thank you, sir, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
John Crowley the executive director of the New Jersey Motion
Picture and Television Commission. This has been a podcast from
wor
This is a podcast from dou Wor. Here again is
Larry Minty with the WOR Saturday morning show, Welcome Back.
John Crowley is the executive director of New Jersey Motion
Picture and Television Commission, and he's been in charge as
New Jersey has become one of the hottest places in
the country for TV shows and movies. Good morning, John.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Larry, how are you, my friend?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm doing well. It's been a long time. The last
time I talked to you it was about possibly doing
a commercial, so I can't say yes that you never
called me. As a matter of fact, you called me
right You called me yesterday. I was taking a nap,
but I thought to myself, why is John Crowley calling me?
And you know, I want to call you right back
because it might be some huge movie role. But but no,
(00:50):
it was just that you were coming on with us today.
How have you been. How's everything going.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm out well great. I mean, we're going like gangbusters
in New Jersey. But look, I got to drop the
I'm on you to your to your listeners because we
did the show together and I had said to Larry,
you know, I've never won an Emmy and that's sort
of a bucket list thing. We finished taping that night.
I don't know if you remember this, and you walked
up the aisle to me and you said, you just
(01:15):
won your first Emmy and I have you to thank Larry.
You were a fantastic hoast for that event. And you
know you went out of your way to make make
the Emmy folks aware of our program. And I owe
that that piece of hardware to you, my friend. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, and you were wonderful even at the time. You
got some Hollywood guests to come all the way to
New Jersey to appear in that. So yeah, No, it
was a wonderful. It was. It just let the people,
let people know that it was a town hall about
the opioid crisis and so and and we had some
people on the stage that had some heartbreaking stories. We
had the Attorney General.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It was.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It was a wonderful TV moment that I'm really proud of.
And John, I'm sure you are too.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I am. And and you just said we got some
Hollywood people to come to that. Well, we're getting even
more of them, uh these days with the with film
and TV production. Let me I'll just you want do
you want me to give you just some some good numbers.
Go ahead, go ahead, all right, So twenty so, historically
New Jersey has been like number seven, number eight in
(02:19):
terms of you know, production hubs to come to in
the United States. LA. Even though the numbers have been down,
LA is still number one. New York's number two. Georgia
has been number three, and then we're down around seven
or eight. Well, our goal on the film commission is
to get us into that number three spot. And it's
happening because in twenty twenty three we had five hundred
(02:43):
and ninety two million dollars in what is called qualified spend.
That's the money that productions are spending when they're here
in New Jersey. They don't come here with groceries and
hardware and fuel and cars things like that. They're getting
them here, they're renting them when they're here. So that
was fine. I've undred ninety two million dollars in New
Jersey on qualified spent twenty twenty four. Do you want
(03:05):
to take a guest, Larry, what the qualified spend was?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I have it in front of me, so it's not
a guess. I'm not going to achieve. Go ahead and
tell me.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Genie eight and ten million dollars qualified spend. Wow, so's
thirty seven percent that were up and La down, New
York and stagnant recovering, Georgia down, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico down,
down down. Those are all of our major competitors. Chicago down,
even Toronto is down.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Hey, you're just talking about the money. What about the jobs?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh so the jobs even more millarry they we twenty
twenty two sixteen thousand crew hires. Twenty twenty three was
like seventeen thousand crew hires. In twenty twenty four we
hit a new high, which was thirty thousand crew hires.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But absolutely some of the biggest some of the biggest
movies and some of the biggest shows of the last
couple of years. I don't think people were realize we're
done in New Jersey. Go through a few of them.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, you know, And that's the thing, right is like,
why is that happening? Well, New Jersey, you know, geographically
compact state, but this huge variety of locations. And that's
one of the biggest draws for production is they say, well,
we've got all these different things we need in our script.
You know, we need to Washington, DC look alike, or
we need to play like Times Square in New York,
(04:30):
but we don't want to deal with the traffic of
going to New York. And we've got all that huge
amount of variety locations, little towns, big cities, mountains with snow, oceans.
So severances shooting, you know, has been shooting in Holmeedale
at the Bell Labs building.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No bigger show, no bigger show on TV right now?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's right, yeah, right, Larry, are you in any air
and outy We we'll figure that out later. Yeah. So
that's for your Severance fans, that's for your seventh fans.
That's nothing to do with your belly button, but seven
referance a complete unknown. That was the Bob Dylan biopick
that was here, the new Bruce Springsteen biopick that's coming out,
(05:10):
Delivered Me from Nowhere, filmed here. Steven Spielberg, he's got
a new film that's coming out. That was down in
Kate may I got to tell you about that too.
That was crazy in terms of that money that we
talk about. They had three hundred and fifty crew members
that were down there in Kate may Well. They were
all coming from else, you know, from Northern Jersey, central Jersey, wherever.
(05:33):
So they put them up in hotels. They the three
hundred and fifty crew were in eight different hotels and
an average of two hundred and eighty five dollars per night.
See you do the math. And that's in the off season.
That was like February March. So the hotel owners were ecstatic.
And then when everybody wrapped filming for the end of
the day, they went and they took their per diem
and they were buying dinner at restaurants all around Kate
(05:55):
May area. So again, between the jobs and the qualified
spend the money that they're spending, that's that's why we
do that. But we've all happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore just
released what about a week week and a half ago
on Netflix. Shot here for like sixty some of days,
and they spent one hundred and fifty two million dollars
while they were here in state. Eighteen million. That was
(06:17):
just in location fees at golf courses and stores and
you know, restaurants everywhere that you've seen in the movie.
They were paying location fees.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And you have so much being built in New Jersey
and John we're running out of time, but you know what,
we got to have you back, so let's talk again
soon and come back on you know you have. It's
an open door policy. Apparently I've been shut out to
any production in New Jersey, but for you, sir, it's
an open door policy to come on the show to
talk about what's happening on there.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Don Larry, I'm sure. I'm sure we'll get jumped down
here I began. I got to talk to you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
With you great, all right, so we'll definitely do that. John,
congratulations on the gig and congratulations on your success.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thanks a lot, Thank you, sir, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
John Crowley the executive director of the New Jersey Motion
Picture and Television Commission. This has been a podcast from
wor
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