Has your city ever been used by Hollywood?

[Mary Ann]

I remember a car chase scene being filmed on the residential street where we lived in Montreal when I was about 8, but I couldn't tell you what film it was for. It was definitely set in the US because some of my neighbours were asked to take down their Canadian flags. Toronto, where I spent my teens and half my 20s, has been used in oodles of films. There's a popular urban legend that whenever an American film company uses Toronto to represent an American city the film crew have to throw more garbage on the street because Toronto's too clean to pass off as an American city. The pier in Weston-super-Mare which burned down a few years ago was used in Remains of the Day. This was a few years before I moved there but my husband was born and raised there.

 

[Timby]

Dubuque, Iowa, where I lived for eight years, was used for Field of Dreams (which makes sense, as the actual Field of Dreams is about twenty miles west of Dubuque), as well as noted classics of cinema F.I.S.T. and Take This Job and Shove It.

Madison, Wisconsin, where I live now, hasn't had a ton of movies shot here. The Last Kiss was almost totally shot here, and Public Enemies did some shooting around the Capitol Square and inside the Capitol itself. I think they did a very little bit of shooting in the Dane County Court House, but most of their court shooting was done down in Lafayette County, about an hour and a half from here.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yeah, plenty. Ones that I can think of spontaneously are The Third Man, Before Sunrise (a really cheesy romance film with Ethan Hawke) and a Timothy Dalton Bond movie. I'm sure there's much more, but I think most of the time a Hollywood movie is set in Vienna they actually shoot it in Budapest or something.

 

[Warp Coil]

I grew up just outside of Washington, D.C., so yeah, it's been used a few times. I went to the University of Maryland, College Park for undergrad, and the campus has been used in a few movies (St. Elmo's Fire, Species, and National Treasure 2... probably more).

 

[Guartho]

One early 60s low budget teenager movie was shot in my rural town of 10k people. It was mostly shot in our high school which looked pretty much the same when I attended it 40 years later. Unfortunately it was torn down a few years ago.

Anyway, the school was called "Wilson High School" in the movie, but there is a scene in which they use a podium on which a clearly readable sign denotes it as a gift from "CHS Class of 1952." That podium is was still there and in use when I went to school there and it is still there today.

My elementary school nurse was cast in a minor role in the film. She even had a line or two. The home of the parents of a friend of mine was used as the home of the "spoiled rich kid" main character.

 

[sojourner]

Denver hasn't been used a whole lot, but a lot of Things to do in Denver when you're Dead was filmed here. A lot of the filming was done around my office, and the exterior shots of Andy Garcia's office building were shot from the roof of the court of appeals building right across the street from me.

I have to laugh at how Stargate portrays the city of Colorado Springs. I know they use Vancouver as a substitute, but it's laughably inaccurate.

Yeah, back when SG-1 was still on I had a friend that worked in Cheyenne Mountain. Lots of Stargate jokes.

 

[siskokid888]

Eh, a lot of scenes that take place in NYC actually are filmed in LA anyway.

Actually, in Vancouver. As LA, a poor substitute, nonetheless

I can understand Vancouver being substituted for Seattle...I know it is all the time, but as much as LA is a poor substitute for NYC, Vancouver's just as bad!

The best was Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx", where Vancouver stood in for the Bronx, mountains and all! I never realized I could see the Cascade Range from my old neighborhood on 133rd st.!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There's a popular urban legend that whenever an American film company uses Toronto to represent an American city the film crew have to throw more garbage on the street because Toronto's too clean to pass off as an American city.

That actually did happen with the TV series Night Heat, where not only would that very thing happen, but helpful Canadians would actually clean up the mess before the film crew could use it!

 

[Sky]

Helsinki subbed for Soviet Union in many 60's - 80's films. Gorky Park, Doctor Zhivago, White Nights, Reds, Telefon...

 

[tomalak301]

My city was the site of movies like The Rock (Despite what everyone says about Michael Bay, I still think this is his best movie) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, amongst other movies. I think my city could be like the second or third most used city in movies, next to New York and LA.

 

[thestrangequark]

Actually, in Vancouver. As LA, a poor substitute, nonetheless

I can understand Vancouver being substituted for Seattle...I know it is all the time, but as much as LA is a poor substitute for NYC, Vancouver's just as bad!

The best was Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx", where Vancouver stood in for the Bronx, mountains and all! I never realized I could see the Cascade Range from my old neighborhood on 133rd st.!

Ahhh...the expansive evergreen forests of East Harlem...

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

Well I live in Los Angeles, 2 blocks from a major studio. I should not even bother commenting further.

 

[siskokid888]

I can understand Vancouver being substituted for Seattle...I know it is all the time, but as much as LA is a poor substitute for NYC, Vancouver's just as bad!

The best was Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx", where Vancouver stood in for the Bronx, mountains and all! I never realized I could see the Cascade Range from my old neighborhood on 133rd st.!

Ahhh...the expansive evergreen forests of East Harlem...

The cool rushing waters of the Harlem river as it tumbles under the Third Avenue bridge

 

[Goji]

John Carpenter filmed two movies in the town I live in, first "The Fog" in 1980 and then his remake of "Village of the Damned" in 1995. I didn't move here until 2003 so I missed both of them, and for the first I hadn't even been born yet.

It's an odd coincidence since I happen to be a fan of the original "Village" as well as the book it was based on. The remake is trash, though it is amusing watching the climax, wherein all sorts of extraterrestrial horror goes down on the street I cross every day.

 

[mari]

My town was in one tv movie back in the 70s, Disaster on the Coastliner (that one where Shatner rode on top of a speeding train). East Lyme, CT stood in for a fictional CA town of the same name. I watched it recently and had a great time pointing out continuity errors.

 

[T'Girl]

Robin Williams made World's Greatest Dad here (Seattle) a couple of years ago, and I think I saw him as they filmed a street scene. But I'm short and so is Robin, so who knows?

Definatey saw Angelina Jolie filming here about nine years ago.

 

[HobartFloyt]

I've lived in two cities that have been used by Hollywood.

The first was Bloomington, Indiana which was featured in Breaking Away and the other was Corpus Christi, TX for The Legend of Billie Jean.

I can barely watch either one. Breaking Away makes me cringe from how the locals are portrayed, starting with "Cutters" and the lame local/college student conflict and going on from there. When I was younger the out-of-sequence landscapes drove me up a wall though I've mellowed on that. Some other stuff in there is good so I can grit my teeth when necessary and watch it.

OTOH, I don't think I've ever managed to sit through an entire viewing of Billie Jean. Where Breaking Away is irritating Billie Jean is flat out insulting to the locals and their institutions. As a result I'm not especially impressed when someone think Hollywood is coming to town

 

[RobertVA]

The "Ocean View" footage of the seventies' Roller Coaster. Yes, an east coast park was the location for a park that was supposed to be in California in the film. The actor that played that park's inspector/mechanic was the president of a computer club I was in (George Segal portrayed a government inspector).

Location footage for a made for TV movie Death of Ocean View Park. Unfortunately the coaster that was subject to fake sabotage in Roller Coaster was being demolished and the film used footage of that event as part of it's story. That time the park was portrayed as being located in Virginia.

Portions of Navy Seals filmed on the Norfolk VA waterfront and in the Virginia Beach resort area.

Bridge scenes for Mission Impossible III on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (south end in Virginia Beach).

Not a theatrical film, but The 700 Club talk show is recorded most weekdays in a Virginia Beach studio. Before ABC/Disney purchased it the Family Channel was run from that location (I'm not sure if it still is). I couldn't tolerate much time visiting the Family Channel's web site because it insisted on playing the same video advertising the upcomming Muppet's movie on every page!

 

[Capn Flukie]

^ I used to live in Norfolk on East Ocean View and I used to go to that park in the early 70s. I lived on the corner of East Ocean View and 27th Bay. The beach was my front yard. Best days of my life. I have seen that movie, quite a while back, and it just made me sad.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I can barely watch either one. Breaking Away makes me cringe from how the locals are portrayed, starting with "Cutters" and the lame local/college student conflict and going on from there. When I was younger the out-of-sequence landscapes drove me up a wall though I've mellowed on that. Some other stuff in there is good so I can grit my teeth when necessary and watch it.

I love Breaking Away, I think it's a great movie.