Making Spotlight was a true joy for all of the producers, in spite of the many obstacles that were thrown at us in the eight years since the project was conceived. But getting [director] Tom McCarthy his shoot days in Boston — now that was something.

We had to schedule the bulk of the production for Toronto to make our numbers work — and Tom was adamant that we shoot all of our exteriors in Boston — so, initially, we planned for four shoot days in Boston. We started there, shot our first night at Fenway during a live game and got some beautiful stuff. But, as fine filmmakers oft do, Tom wanted more. We didn't have the money, but we went again — on a weekend — and we really couldn't afford it, so we said, "This is the last time!"

Then we went again. On a weekend. We had to find the money! And Tom wanted winter shots. It was September. We wrapped in November. So we went again in April to get "winter shots."

These "extra days in Boston" were quite difficult — so many moving pieces: cast availability, locations and a shrinking budget. We originally anticipated going once to Boston, but went four times. But when we saw how Tom captured not just the exteriors of Boston, but the essence of the city, it was clear we made the right choice.

Sugar is a producer of Open Road's Spotlight.

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From THR's Review: A would-be All the Cardinal's Men, the less-than-resonantly titled Spotlight makes a dry affair of the sensational story of a small circle of Boston Globe journalists who, more than a decade ago, exposed the Roman Catholic church's institutional protection of sexually abusive priests. As numerous notable films have demonstrated, the spectacle of lowly scribes bringing down the great and powerful can make for exciting, agitating cinema, but director and co-writer Tom McCarthy's fifth feature is populated with one-dimensional characters enacting a connect-the-dots screenplay quite devoid of life's, or melodrama's, juices, which are what distantly motivate this story in the first place. Virtuous only by nature of its subject matter, this Open Road release, set to open in November, might have been more at home on the small screen.