HOPEDALE — Bruce Willis' new movie - or "the circus," as production staff jokingly described it yesterday - will start filming June 24 at the Draper mill complex and likely last a week.

There will be explosions, though minor, as part of a helicopter chase scene being filmed there. Bruce Willis will be on the set for the final few days, but, staff cautioned, probably not walking around downtown.

"We want to thank you for allowing us to come visit and be your guests," Benjamin Dewey, assistant location manager for "The Surrogates," told people during an informational meeting. "The oldest analogy is we are the circus that comes to town, but we also have a lot of work that needs to be done."

In a sign of how much interest the movie is creating, nearly as many people attended the meeting as last month's annual Town Meeting.

Among the questions people had: Yes, there will likely be a reserved spot to watch the filming from, but, no, extras are not needed (the production is required to use Screen Actors Guild members). And heartthrob Ashton Kutcher, husband of Willis' ex-wife, Demi Moore, will not be there.

On the logistical side, filming will only happen on the Draper property, no roads will be closed, and the crew will usually arrive shortly before 7 a.m. and the workday will last about 12 hours, staff said. Residents at Atria Draper Place, the assisted-living facility across the street, will also be warned before any explosions happen.

Dewey said he first saw the Draper complex, in the center of town, in January, while scouting another location in Hopedale. He said the factory building is a "great backdrop" for the action scene.

"We were looking for a site that had a distinguishing piece of architecture and this certainly has that," he said, and an open space where the crew could build a set. Construction has been happening behind the building for at least the past two weeks.

The scene being filmed here is the end of a helicopter chase that is also being shot in a few other Massachusetts locales, including Boston.

The helicopter's crash is a computer-generated effect. But its aftermath involves pre-wrecked parts going through part of the set, some low-grade bombs, a foot chase through a "cat-and-mouse maze" and a hill of 1,200 rubber rocks "so Bruce Willis won't hurt himself tumbling down," staff said.

"It should be a very, very exciting set," said Allen Hall, the special effects director. "We all realize how precious your community is to you, and we're on our toes not to offend anybody and will do our job as fast as possible," he said.

Neither the Draper factory nor other buildings would be damaged, he said.

The production will pay for the police and fire details it uses, but the town will not directly benefit financially from the filming. Some crew will be staying at local hotels and eating at local restaurants.

Overall, Dewey said, the film wants to keep as low a profile as possible, with representatives saying they are trying to strike a "balance between public outreach and doing our work. We'll be polite but also focused on what we need to get done."

"The Surrogates," a sci-fi thriller, is set in the near future, a time when humans interact through surrogate robots. Willis plays a cop who investigates the murders of other people's surrogates. The movie is based on a graphic novel of the same name and also stars Ving Rhames and Radha Mitchell, among others.

The film's second unit, consisting of the stunt and photo doubles, will film from June 24 to June 28, production staff said. Its first unit, which includes the star actors, is expected to arrive on June 30 and film through July 2.