ActorJesse Eisenberghas begun venturing into filmmaking, and his latest project tells one of the most unique stories to ever come out of an American mall. Eisenberg is an executive producer onSecret Mall Apartment,anupcoming documentarythat just released its official trailer. The film follows the true story of eight Rhode Islanders who secretly build an apartment inside one of the state’s busiest mallsas a prank— and end up living there for four years.
The trailer begins to unravel the mystery behind the debacle, which took place at the Providence Place mall in Rhode Island’s capital city, Providence. The eight youngsters devised a plan in 2003 to build a fully functioning apartment in the mall, and they lived there until 2007, when they were caught. “When the mall was being built, I saw a space that I could not figure out what it would be used for,” one of the mall inhabitants says in the trailer. “We went looking for that anomoly in the architecture and we snuck ourselves in there.”
As the trailer shows, this apartment was hardly just a small void in the mall. The eight people “snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock,” according to the film’s synopsis. They also filmed almost every aspect of the elaborate prank, allowing original footage from the time to be includedin the documentary.
Eisenberg Connected with the Story Easily
For Eisenberg, the collaboration between himself andSecret Mall Apartment’sdirector,Jeremy Workman,seemed natural. “I thought Jeremy had lightning in a bottle, because this movie was so amazing. It turns out that he is just very talented,” Eisenberg toldColliderabout the film. “This new movie is also like lightning in a bottle, you watch this movie and think, ‘Wow, I bet this is just the — complete luck of this filmmaker that he had this footage, had this access to the story.’ But it’s really just Jeremy being very talented.” Eisenberg added of the film:
“It was just like this incredible story … this is a movie about a cultural shift happening at that moment.”
In addition to directingSecret Mall Apartment, Workman also serves as a producer through Wheelhouse Creative. Additional executive producers includeAllen Altman, Cathie Altman, Matthew Spain, Ivan Williams, Peter Haberman, Lance Hoffman, Marnie Black, Scott Black, Amy Zelnick,andBrad Zelnick.
Secret Mall Apartmentis in select theaters on March 21.
Secret Mall Apartment
In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside a busy mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. Far more than a prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all involved.
