Piper Field Movie Set a No Go

At a time while Swampscott is considering an artificial surface and other improvements at , Marblehead has had a field issue of its own.

Its debate revolved around a portion of the upcoming production of Grown Ups 2, a movie being shot in Marblehead — and Swampscott — that was to include scenes at Piper Field.

It appears the movie won't be shot at Piper and the movie production team is exploring alternative set locations.

A proposal to film scenes for the upcoming Adam Sandler movie Grown Ups 2 at Marblehead High School's Christopher M. Piper Field was officially scrapped at a School Committee meeting Thursday night.

The decision came just one night after town residents railed against the proposal at a public forum at Village School.

They didn't think Columbia Pictures' offer of $125,000 to shoot at Piper Field was worth the memories that local athletes and their families would forfeit by missing out on a season's worth of home games.

And they didn't want to see Christopher Piper Field, already in dire need of repairs, dug up and restored unless it meant that the $125,000 would be used as "seed money" toward the installation of a $2 million artificial turf field.

On Thursday, the movie's producer, Barry Bernardi, appeared before a small crowd of town residents at the school's library to "gracefully withdraw" Columbia Pictures' offer to erect a set on the field for $125,000.

"We never wanted to force ourselves on anyone, we offered a business proposition and if our set can't be at this particular place then we have no problem with that," Bernardi said. "We want to be where you want us. We are guests in your community and we want to be where you want us."

Bernardi's explanation drew a round of applause from those in attendance and he said afterward that Columbia Pictures are already exploring alternative locations for the set, which would have included tennis courts and an in-ground swimming pool.

"We’re not here to hurt anybody's feelings. We don’t want to step on any toes,  we don’t want to assume anything," Bernardi said. "We are going to be here for three months, we’re going to have hundreds of people here and we're going to spend millions of dollars in your community. We just want to do it in a way that leaves everyone feeling like they were included in the process."