Brunswick gets an old-fashion makeover for Ben Affleck movie

The storefronts and vacant lots along the city’s Newcastle and some connecting streets have been transformed as a movie stand-in for Prohibition-era Ybor City, the Cuban enclave and cigar-rolling district where rum was shipped north to speakeasies in the big city. Filming of Ybor City scenes in the Ben Affleck movie, "Live by Night" will begin Nov. 2 and continue several days.

Affleck will direct and star in the film that is based on a novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. "Live by Night" is an Irish and Italian gangster tale set in Boston and Ybor City.

Crews have been working for several weeks, constructing a store and restaurant from scratch and dressing up others, several with new facades. On Monday, dirt and mulch were piled high in the median waiting to be spread onto the street, which is now closed to traffic.

"It’s meant to give it the look of a sandy, old dirt road," City Manager Jim Drumm said. "There was no asphalt on the streets back then."

Drumm said the dirt also will be spread into the 1400 block of Newcastle and onto Mansfield Street, which intersects with Newcastle.