No, Richard Gere has not joined the NYPD.
The 58-year-old Hollywood icon was spied in uniform this week in Brighton Beach, where he is filming “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a cop thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Michael Martin, a former transit worker who grew up in East New York.
The film, set for a 2009 release, is loaded with star power, including Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin and Don Cheadle.
Online observers note that filming has also taken place in East New York, Fort Greene, Homecrest, as well as in Queens and Manhattan.
The film, which tells the story of three unconnected cops drawn together by fate and circumstance, is said to be a combination of “Training Day,” which Fuqua directed, and the Academy Award-winning “Crash.”
Sheepshead Bay resident Bernie Schachner was washing his clothes at a 24-hour laundromat on Emmons Avenue when he noticed something was up.
“I saw a couple of big movie trailer trucks and a sign that said ‘BF,’” he recalled.
“After I put my laundry in the dryer, I went down and asked one of the guys what was going on. They tell me it’s Richard Gere,” he continued.
Schachner, who runs a marine salvage company and was a photographer in the United States Navy, rushed home to grab his camera.
“I picked up my clothes and went down to the movie shoot,” he said.
He snapped the pictures on Brighton Beach Avenue as Gere was headed to his trailer, parked on Brighton 11th Street.
Schachner wasn’t star-struck.
“I screamed ‘Richard!’ so he would look at the camera,” he said.
