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Scenes For Film About Andrea Doria Shipwreck To Be Shot In Ferndale This Weekend

FERNDALE (WWJ/AP) - Shooting is expected to start in metro Detroit on a portion of a short film commemorating next year's 60th anniversary of the Andrea Doria sinking.

Pierette Simpson, who lives in Novi, says crews will film scenes Sunday in a Ferndale neighborhood made to resemble the Detroit neighborhood where her family settled after leaving Italy. Local actors will be performing re-enactments of her family.

The rest of the movie will be shot next month in Italy.

Simpson was 9 when she and her grandparents were saved after the Italian luxury liner collided with another liner in fog on July 25, 1956 off Massachusetts. The tragedy cost 51 lives.

The film will, in part, support Andrea Doria Capt. Piero Calamai who did not immediately sound an abandon ship alarm. His last words, "Are the Passengers Saved?" will be immortalized as the title of the film.

Simpson is producing the film and has written two books on the Andrea Doria.

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