My mother moved near Charlotte, North Carolina. During a recent visit, my wife and I ventured out to do some exploring and found this cool hiking area called Chimney Rock. While there, it finally dawned on me why it looked so familiar. It is where they filmed a good portion of Last of the Mohicans. Last of the Mohicans is one of my all time favorite movies. So, have you ever knowingly or unknowingly visited a location from a movie or tv show? Have you ever gone hunting for movie locations? I have been to Satin Dolls many time, known to you as Bada Bing from The Sopranos. However that was many years ago, during my youth. So I don't think that one really counts.
The mansion from "A League of Their Own" where Tom Hanks is told that he is going to be coaching women's baseball is from a war museum called Cantigne in the Chicago suburbs. I have visited there a few times.
I've been inside the hotel that was used as the setting for Johnny Depp's "Nick of Time." The hotel was also the site of the banquet in "True Lies" when Schwarzanegger rode a horse in the elevator. We actually used that exact elevator. They even have a plaque talking about it.
The ship used in 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty was docked in Toronto's harbour for a few days. Boarding her was cool.
When I went out to LA years ago, the one attraction I made a point of visiting was Vasquez Rocks, where many Star Trek episodes (and the occasional movie) were filmed -- along with many other TV shows and movies over the decades. (I also visited Paramount Studios, but that was business, so I didn't really see anything but office buildings.) I've been to various places in Manhattan that have often been film locations, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, and the Empire State Building. It's kind of hard to avoid film/TV locations in Manhattan. But once when I was at the NYPL, I did make a point of finding the street corner where Uncle Ben died in Spider-Man. I've had film locations come to me a couple of times, as it were. Back when I was in high school, a TV movie called The Pride of Jesse Hallam (starring Johnny Cash as an illiterate man who goes back to school) was filmed at my school. And when I was in college, John Sayles' City of Hope did some filming at my university, and I watched them shoot a scene one day (a driving scene -- but the setup of the scene had the car drivng the wrong way down what was actually a one-way street on campus).
I've been to the Cetacean Institute (AKA the Monterey Bay Aquarium). And I lived in and near two locations used for the town of Cedar Creek in Outbreak. And I've strolled through the forest moon of Endor (Redwood National Park) a time or two.
Well, there's a French-Canadian TV show that's been filmed locally, so yeah. It's kind of cool seeing locations you recognize. Men with Brooms was also filmed here.
I'm certainly not the only one, but every time I climb the steps of the Canal St. entrance of Chicago Union Station, I want to replay the famous "The Untouchables" scene.
When I was in Oahu last year I went with the fam to see the beaches where Lost was filmed. It was certainly a beautiful area. While there we also saw the area where several movies have filmed some scenes, such as Jurassic Park and Mighty Joe Young. Closer to home, I used to live outside of Modesto, where several scenes from American Graffiti were filmed. I've driven by the Full House house before. Phenomenon was filmed at several locations in Northern California that I have lived or visited.
I've been onboard the Lady Washington a few times, the boat that was in the holodeck scenes early in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS and also appears in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL.
Living in Durham, I recognize many of the sites in Bull Durham, especially the old stadium where I saw many games as a kid and even got the chance to play a high school game years later after the Bulls moved to the current stadium. More exotically, I visited Hong Kong earlier this year. While I didn't recognize the cityscape (day or night) while I was there, I watched The Dark Knight a couple of weeks later and found myself saying "I recognize that building and that building and Oooo! I remember that building!"
I happen to live in a city where several movies have been filmed and coincidentally visited various locations on numerous occasions. I've also been to Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, LA where scenes from Interview with a Vampire and Primary Colors were shot. One of the things I enjoyed about watching the HBO show Treme was picking out all the locations they shoot at. I've had the pleasure of visiting most of them.
Don't we have anyone here from Vancouver? You probably can't walk ten paces there without tripping over a film location.
In 1991 I spent a month travelling in Britain and a highlight of the trip was a day spent exploring Portmeirion, Wales, the resort community feature in the original version of The Prisoner. I hope to go back there again someday - it is one of the single most coolest places I've ever visited. During the same trip I had a chance to visit the Wookey Hole, one of England's biggest cave systems, within which they filmed part of the Doctor Who story Revenge of the Cybermen. Also one of the coolest places I've ever been to! Other than that I've had a chance to visit in passing a few locations, such as the Griffith Observatory where they filmed Rebel Without a Cause. But Portmeirion remains the biggie for me. Alex
I recently visited the Warner Bros. studio in L.A./Burbank and was taken on a tour by a friend who worked there. I saw a set for The Hangover 2, I saw the Conan set while it was still being constructed, I saw the building used for "Merlottes" on True Blood (although, the building had been dressed for a Chuck shoot), Timothy Dalton walked right by me (He was there for the Chuck shoot, and I saw Vik Sahay from Chuck (who was also there for... nevermind.) I walked through the studio museum and saw the outfits worn by Bale and Ledger in The Dark Knight, Rorschack's outfit and Dr. Manhatten's motion capture suit from Watchmen, a whole lot of crap from the Harry Potter movies, and a whole lot more. And, of course, being the Animaniacs fan that I am, my biggest priority was to have my picture taken with the studio watertower.
On a family trip to Newfoundland several years ago, we drove to a village near Trinity Bay that was constructed to film a 2002 miniseries that starred Colm Meaney called Random Passage, which was pretty cool. I've spent a fair bit of time in Wawa, Ontario, where Snow Cake was filmed with Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, and Carrie Ann Moss. A few of my friends met Rickman, for which I'm eternally jealous. In Toronto, I've been clubbing several times at Fly, which was used as Babylon Nightclub in the American version of Queer as Folk. Otherwise, other random locales in Toronto and Montreal, and there was a cheesy horror movie called Decoys filmed at the University of Ottawa, which is where I went to school.
I was in the Redwood tree forest used to shoot the Endor scenes in Return of the Jedi. Those trees are f***ing amazing. Even though they're just huge trees, they remain one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.
About Schmidt was filmed in my city (Omaha, NE). I've been to many of the places in it. The mini-mall where Jack Nicholson does the "I thought you might want THESE back!!" scene, is only about a mile from my house. Also the grocery store where his character goes shopping in another scene, is supposed to be the store I work at, but they filmed it mostly at another branch (although I think they may have used our parking lot). I have been to Georgetown and have seen the staircase from the final scene in The Exorcist. And of course everyone here knows about my obsession with Katz's Deli in New York City. I've sat at the table where they did the lunch scene from When Harry Met Sally.