Netflix film 'Women Like Us' plans Shelter Island film shoot

Shelter Island is about to trade its late-summer quiet for a burst of Hollywood energy.

A new Netflix film starring Whoopi Goldberg — and backed by former First Lady Michelle Obama — plans to shoot in the East End community next month, bringing a dose of star power to the small town during its shoulder season.

Netflix has applied with the town to film the original comedy “Women Like Us,” starring Goldberg, Jenifer Lewis, Vanessa Williams and Vivica Fox. The film will bring roughly 150 cast and crew members to Shelter Island between Sept. 21 and Oct. 1, officials said.

“We are going to play Shelter Island for itself, as a location in the movie where these women go and have this kind of reunion, where they get to spend time with each other and go through rededicating their friendships,” Ryan Ferguson, the film’s location manager, told the town board during a presentation on Tuesday.

Filming is expected to take place primarily at the Pridwin Hotel and Cottages, a waterfront resort and restaurant, Ferguson said. Producers are also seeking permission to close part of Crescent Beach for one or two days to shoot a scene there.

“It's got a lot of moving pieces, but it is all coming together nicely,” Ferguson said. “We are very, very excited about doing this.”

Based on the scale of its production, “Women Like Us” qualifies as a “mega film” under Shelter Island’s town code, Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams told Newsday. She estimates the town will collect at least $30,000 in fees, calculated from a mix of per-day filming charges, parking fees and traffic control costs. The final total is expected to be determined next week.

Brach-Williams noted that while Shelter Island has hosted film productions before, projects of this size are relatively rare. Past productions filmed on the island include the 2007 movie “Margot at the Wedding,” starring Nicole Kidman and Jack Black, and the 1988 film “Masquerade,” with Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly.

“Once in a while we get something big, but not that frequently,” the supervisor said.

The influx of cast and crew could also provide a welcome boost to local businesses, particularly restaurants that typically scale back operations after Labor Day, Brach-Williams said.

“I think it's a little bit of a bump for various businesses on Shelter Island, which is nice,” she said.

Ferguson said cast and crew will be housed in hotels both on Shelter Island and in nearby communities.

According to Tudum, a Netflix-run website, the film “follows a recently widowed woman who is dragged to the Hamptons by her lifelong best friends and sister on what should have been her 30th wedding anniversary.”

“The weekend becomes a reckoning with grief, marriage, and the sisterhood that’s carried them throughout the years — as well as the realization that dreams don’t have an expiration date,” the article states. “In other words, there’s plenty of emotional baggage coming along for the trip.”

“Women Like Us” is being produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, along with MACRO Film Studios. Tasha Smith is directing the film.