March 14, 2025, is a day that Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky will never forget. It’s when filming wrapped in the tiny Cape May County borough (population 3,000) on the new Steven Spielberg blockbuster, Disclosure Day.
As the legendary director, who spent part of his childhood in Camden County, was about to helicopter out of there for his New York City home, the mayor realized it would be his last chance to present Spielberg with a parting gift he’d prepared. Approaching him, Pikolycky offered him an oversized brass key to the town. Spielberg appeared both grateful and surprised, the mayor recalls.
“He seemed really moved. He jumped up in the air and said, ‘No one’s ever presented me with a key.’”
Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s fourth sci-fi film about the possibility of life beyond our planet, is set for release on June 12.
The bulk of it was filmed in New Jersey, although the fictitious setting for the flick, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, is Kansas City. In addition to Woodbine, scenes were filmed in places including Buena Vista Township, Jersey City, Middlesex County, Milmay, Montville, Morris Township and Tuckahoe.
Though fans are familiar with Spielberg’s takes on other-worldly beings, New Jersey itself isn’t alien to the 79-year-old, who spent five of his very early years, from 1952 to 1957, in Haddon Township, when his father worked as an engineer at RCA in Camden. After watching his first-ever movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, in 1952 at the Westmont Theatre, young Spielberg went home and commandeered his dad’s new movie camera to film his own version of the colossal train wreck he had just viewed on-screen.
Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky presents Spielberg with a key to the town. Photo: Laurie E. Boyd
His semi-autobiographical 2002 film, The Fabelmans, includes memories of his years in Jersey. And on March 7, 2023, the Camden County Board of Commissioners installed a historical marker down the street from the Westmont Theatre (now a fitness center) commemorating the site where Spielberg was inspired to become a filmmaker.
Since his childhood in Jersey, Spielberg has been back at least four times to film. In Disclosure Day, a particularly thrilling car-chase scene filmed in Wildwood. The Exxon station on Route 202 in Montville appears on-screen, and spectacular train-crash scenes explode along historic tracks in Woodbine and Tuckahoe.
“They really liked the Woodbine area,” Pikolycky says. “For one thing, we have trains, tracks and a train yard that could be used for the train-crash scene. We also have a vacant factory that was big enough to put a train and all the necessary paraphernalia for the movie inside.”
Tony Macrie, president, CEO and general manager of Cape May Seashore Lines, which owns the train complex, says he was grateful to be part of the shoot. “It’s good for the community and the state of New Jersey. We stayed in the background, trying not to be obnoxious, but helped with whatever was needed,” he says.
In Woodbine, Pikolycky gave Spielberg and the crew office space in municipal buildings “and arranged with a realtor for the 150 crew members to rent houses and condos in Ocean City, Sea Isle, Avalon, Strathmere and Stone Harbor.”
Filming also boosted the local economy, a trend that many towns have experienced with the recent influx of film projects.
“The crew’s presence here brought in lots of money,” the mayor says. “Our restaurants, caterers and coffee shops had a rush of business.”
During his time in town, Spielberg was “really down-to-earth,” says the mayor—even though he arrived daily to set by helicopter. “He wore blue jeans like anyone else,” Pikolycky adds.
“Getting Steven Spielberg here wasn’t a shock. My reaction was, Well, if you’re going to get anybody, you might as well get the best.”
