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Have you ever seen a movie filmed in your area (or somewhere you've been) and realized you've driven by it many times?  I recall watching Dumb And Dumber on television when the guys drive out of Providence past a giant blue bug on a roof.  That is New England Pest Control mascot and I used to drive by it to work every day at my old job.  I think it was parodied on Family Guy once when they had a flea infestation. 

The other place I can recall is swimming at the beach where Jaws was filmed.  My father in-law's mother owns a house on Martha's Vineyard and usually has us up there in the summer time.

So what places can you list?

One scene, I believe the opening scene, of "Hunt for Red October" was taken in Resurrection Bay, the bay that the town I live in is on.

Oddly enough, I've been to three places where locals have claimed "Deliverance" was filmed. One in Texas, one in Oregon, and another in Oklahoma. I've been told it was filmed in Georgia, but I really don't know. Weird.

The film No Way Out featured some chase scenes in and around some sites in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC that were very familiar to me, including the footpath along the C & O Canal and the Georgetown Park Mall. In the movie, the shopping mall became the "Georgetown Metro Station". The residents of Georgetown, rather famously, refused to allow Metro to be built in their neighborhood. So that made it extra amusing for me when I recognized where they were.

Nobody old enough to have seen The Exorcist can go by a certain staircase next to a building on M Street without pointing out that the building and staircase featured prominently in that movie. Especially if they're with an out-of-towner. But I saw the movie long before I ever saw Georgetown, so I was the out-of-towner in that conversation.

The Key Bridge, which connects Georgetown with Arlington, VA, was the site of some Spielberg disaster movie involving a killer asteroid. I remember the call for extras, people to park on the bridge and look up and look scared. We briefly considered it, but ultimately decided not to. I think we had other plans that day and weren't going to be anywhere near. I've never seen the film, so I haven't had a chance to recognize the Key Bridge on film.

A good part of the movie BOYS DON'T CRY was filmed in Greenville, TX.  One of my former students is an extra - tall kid in an orange prison jumpsuit in the courthouse scene.

It's almost cheating to mention New York since so much stuff is filmed there, but I think this example is out of the mainstream. In Next Stop, Greenwich Village, I immediately recognized the coffee shop that the characters hang out in as "Cafe Reggio", one of my wife and my favorite hangouts when we're in NYC. I'm pretty sure it's never identified by name.

I also used to recognize a number of places in the title sequence of the TV show "Mad About You".

I live in a suburb of Cleveland Oh.  I've been to the places they shot scence for in Double Dragon, Air Force One and Spider Man 3

STRIPES was filmed here and some forgettable Bruce Willis Film was made here too, that I can't remember the name of.

"Velvet Goldmine" starring Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness's "The Man in the White Suit". More recently, the entire city of Manchester is shown engulfed in fire in "28 Days Later".

The movie Mallrats with Shannen Doherty was filmed in the Eden Prairie Center, a shopping mall in a suburb of Minneapolis.  I used to live in Eden Prairie and have shopped there numerous times.  They did a major remodel on the place a few years ago, and there's about a third more stores there now, so it's not really recognizable as the same mall any more.

I was working in Harvard Square when they were filming GOOD WILL HUNTING.  There's a scene at an outdoor cafe and I drove past it during filming.  At the time, I had no idea what the movie was.  There was also an equipment truck parked outside the window of the office where I was working that day.

I was also working at the Tobin Bridge just after Clint Eastwood finished filming MYSTIC RIVER.  The people in the office told me Clint was a really great, down-to-earth guy.  He needed to close down several toll booths on the bridge during filming.  To avoid a huge traffic jam, they needed to open the other toll booths for free and the production company paid the cost of the tolls.  They said when shooting was completed Clint had tents set up in the parking lot below the bridge and had a huge catered party for the film crew and bridge employees.

I live just a few miles from Boston, so I'm familiar with a lot of neighborhoods and buildings that you seen in movies filmed in the area.  City Hall plaza is a popular filming location.  I've seen several movies with scenes where a character (usually an attorney or politician) comes running out of the building.  In some movies, you often see the Prudential building in the background or the famous Kenmore Square Citgo sign.  Movies like THE VERDICT and THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE have lots of good Boston area scenes.

How could I forget?  The sci-fi classic LOGAN'S RUN was filmed at the Town East shopping mall over in Mesquite, TX.

Theres Something About Mary has a few familiar scenes from Providence.   From what I understand, a good portion of Amistad was filmed in Newport RI which is a few towns over from me.

Richard Gere was supposedly one town over from me filming a movie.  I'm not sure what the title was. 

The British Rom-com "Gregory's Girl" was filmed in Cumbernauld, my home town back in circa 1979. It was mostly set in Abronhill but the shopping mall that appears in some scenes including the large clock (actually a leftover from a demolished Glasgow railway station) and the little cafe is Cumbernauld Town Centre in North Carbrain.

A whole movie called SHUDDER http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233228/ was shot in and around my house a couple of years ago. It's got Gunnar Hansen and Edwin Neal, both of the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fame, in it.  It's also got Indians, hillbillies, slaves, moonshiners, a pig head, and crazy murderers - something for the entire family.

I got to hang out with Hansen and Neal during the month or so the film crew took over the place.

Here's what I learned:
Gunnar is really a nice guy who is originally from Iceland and likes to writes poetry.
Edwin Neal is quite the bizarre fellow and he's got a huge collection of rare and valuable movie posters.

Tiffany Shepis (ABOMINABLE, BOOBIES, TROMEO AND JULIET) is in it, too, but I didn't know who she was 'till later.
She plays an Indian.

While it isn't a good movie, "Blood Cult" had some exterior shots of the college campus shot at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK, which is where I went to college (for too many years).  Made by the same people, "Terror At Tenkiller" also had a few scenes shot on campus and around Lake Tenkiller, which wasn't far from Tahlequah.

I also visited Spokane,WA, where "Benny And Joon" was shot and saw the park and the weird restaurant shaped like a milk bottle.  Also shot there was "Tiki", a strange little horror film by Ron Ford, whom I count as a friend, and he used some areas of the college there for a few scenes, if I'm not mistaken.

Around here (San Gabriel, Ca.) the most recognizable place is the Queen Anne Cottage and the surrounding area at the L. A. County Arboretum. It's the former Baldwin Family home and can be seen in commercials, TV series such as Fantasy Island, and lots of movies from Operation Burma to Curse of the Komodo. When we're watching something and we see it's been filmed here it destroys what ever effect the movie makers were going for.
If you ever get to the Los Angeles area and have the time this is a great place to visit, we used to go there quite a bit when our daughter was young, lots of stuff to see and it's relatively inexpensive.

Back in 2006, I was an extra in the movie "The Final Season".

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Kp8FjSGNk


The baseball stadium they're playing at in the clip below is only a few miles away from my place.
I've been there to watch baseball games countless times.
Notice the Hy-Vee sign behind the pitcher...  I shop there all the time.   :smile:  (it's a grocery store)

He's Gonna Hang One For You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEtF9ew5Os

William Girdler's ABBY was filmed near my grandmother's old neighborhood.  I didn't see her house, though.  Maybe I should get the DVD and search through it frame by frame.

When I lived in Las Vegas, I passed all sorts of film locations.  More than once, I walked by while crews were filming scenes.  RUSH HOUR 2 was one, as well as some of the location shoots for the TV series "Las Vegas."

Man, so many . . . I'll stick with the ones that come to mind most readily:

I was invited to spend Christmas break once with a family in Palos Verdes, CA.  Their next door neighbor had the yard wherein the "Big W" sequence, with the crossed palm trees, from "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", was filmed.  The coconut palms still looked the same.

Practically the only shot of Colorado in Kubrick's "The Shining", was a shot of the Flatirons (local rock formation) taken from the parking lot of these crappy apartments I lived in in '82 in Boulder, CO.  The story is supposed to be set in Colorado, but the rest of it was shot in Canada.

"ROBO-C.H.I.C.", "Ah! Marie!", "Kill Line", etc., all contain very familiar shots of Pueblo and Colorado Springs, CO -- oh, wait, I was in those!

"Crazy People", a 1990 Dudley Moore/Darryl Hannah vehicle, was shot in and around Charlottesville, VA, where I went to graduate school.  Practically the whole film is a travelogue of that part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I visited Castle Doune and Castle Stalker, in and around Stirling & Oban, Scotland -- site of Castle Arrgh! and almost the entirety of "Monty Python and The Holy Grail"!!  You can even get a little xeroxed booklet in the main office that outlines where the Trojan Rabbit sequences, etc. etc., were all shot.  Amazing!!

As was said, to say "New York" is like cheating, but I have to say I've visited the Santa Monica Pier, in CA, which has had more exterior shots done than perhaps any other place in the LA area, with the exception of the Universal back-lot.

"Meteor", a made-for-TV/Movie of The Week from years gone by, had all its exterior shots done in Longmont, CO, the town I live in now.

I know there are others, but these most readily spring to mind --

peter johnson/denny tourist

Quote from: peter johnson on January 05, 2009, 03:02:33 PM

As was said, to say "New York" is like cheating, but I have to say I've visited the Santa Monica Pier, in CA, which has had more exterior shots done than perhaps any other place in the LA area, with the exception of the Universal back-lot.

That's funny... I didn't even consider thinking of Manhattan.  I used to visit quite a bit.  I remember one time I was separating from my friend, a native New Yorker and a movie fiend, and he asked me to meet him later that night "where Bad Lieutenant was shot."  It was a little like a trivia question wrapped in a scavenger hunt, but I found him.   :wink: 

In the horrible John Travolta film Lucky Numbers was filmed in several places in my home town.  The Denny's they filmed at is about 5 or 6 miles from where I live.

Girl, Interrupted was filmed in several locations in central PA.  Some of the film was filmed I think maybe 1 or 2 miles from my house.  They also filmed at the former state hospital in Harrisburg which closed some years ago.

There is another film being made about the area that going on right now at the former state hospital.  I considered trying to get a part as an extra in the film for something to do but I wasn't well enough health wise to try out for it.

I've been to the City of London, as used in the 28 Days Later films...
It's a 20 min' tube journey away from me but well worth it. :teddyr:

My nephew told me the movie MALL COP was filmed at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA.  It's about a 15 minute drive from my house and I shop there regularly (most recently, for Christmas).  I didn't see any of the filming, however.

Quote from: Raffine on January 03, 2009, 10:36:40 AM
It's also got Indians, hillbillies, slaves, moonshiners, a pig head, and crazy murderers - something for the entire family.

:bouncegiggle: :teddyr:

Stephen Hopkins' The Ghost & The Darkness was partly filmed in Pretoria, as was Darrell Roodt's Cry The Beloved Country. Parts of Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom were filmed in Gweru, Zimbabwe, my home town.

The mansion where they filmed many Dark Shadows episodes is about a half hour drive from my house.

Quote from: peter johnson on January 05, 2009, 03:02:33 PM
Man, so many . . . I'll stick with the ones that come to mind most readily:

I was invited to spend Christmas break once with a family in Palos Verdes, CA.  Their next door neighbor had the yard wherein the "Big W" sequence, with the crossed palm trees, from "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", was filmed.  The coconut palms still looked the same...

How cool is that?  Must have been some beautiful backyards!!!   :smile:  :thumbup:

I have no cool stories to relate except that I had lived in Asbury Park, NJ for a few years and a number of films I've taken no interest in were filmed there, and I believe also part of an episode of "The Sopranos" a TV program I've never looked at.   :lookingup:

A bit of the terrible Elizabethtown was filmed in Louisvile and there's a driving sequence with many familiar sights.

I saw a house where some of The Insider was filmed, wee.

A couple of years ago I visited the Ohio State Reformatory where parts of The Shawshank Redemption were filmed.  The tour points out many areas of interest and they have a prop tunnel that Tim Robbin's character crawled through.  Oh, and I think a bit of Air Force One was shot there, as well as a Li'l Wayne music video (there was a jail cell with a toilet painted gold).

There have been a few great movies that feature Oregon, the gorgeous state I call home, but "Stand By Me" is particularly close to my hometown and even though a lot has change in the last how ever many years, it is still recognizable to us who know the area. Also "The Hunted" had scenes in our fantastic forests. Although "Without A Paddle"'s plot suggests the story takes place in Oregon, really the only scene that does is the one with the small town at the end.

Hello there,
Let me give my experiences if I could.

I used to live in Tucson, AZ and four films immediately come to mind.

"Revenge of the Nerds"
All of the external shots of Atoms college is in fact the University of Arizona (my alma mater). I never could figure out where exactly the nerd house was shot, but I definitely recognized the final scene where wormser is thrown in the water fountain (Old Main).

"Can't Buy Me Love"
The scenes in the mall were areas I would walk through countless times. The place is the Tucson Mall.

"Bodies, Rest & Motion"
This underrepresented indie flick was shot in the early 90's. The intro shots from a car were shot going north on Oracle (right down the road from where I lived) road leading to the Tucson Mall. The restaraunt scene with Tim Roth and Phoebe Cates is in the Red Robin entrance of the mall.

"Tin Cup"
There is an outdoor scene between Kevin Costner and Cheech Marin that was shot on 4th ave in downtown Tucson. There was also another shot with Kevin driving down the street and Rene Russo watches him go--the building is the old hotel congress.

I Once Visited Boston On A Tour Bus And Our Tour Guide Pointed Out A Building Where They Filmed Some Of The Show BOSTON LEGAL

i've never even seen the show though

You should watch at least an episode or 2 of Boston Legal, if for no other reason than to find out why I sign off . . .

peter johnson/DENNY CRANE!!

Perfect topic, as I recently saw the terrible Sci Fi original Showdown at Area 51.  Much of this was filmed in Missouri.  Best part: at the end they go into this underground abandoned "alien" place, and it's clearly the City Museum in St. Louis!  It's cool looking, but in a movie like this, comes across as tacky.  It's this big museum with these giant kind of creepy looking metal slides, a carved cave with a dragon built into the wall (which you can see in the film), airplanes wired up that you can climb into, etc.  But yeah, VERY clearly the City Museum, they didn't even add anything except a cheap "alien" artifact.  Pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqFq8ec193g

Living in the England, I too can make a claim to 28 Days Later - I have been on a stretch of motorway they drive down (there's a sign that points to Preston on the motorway which is almost where I live).

Also, I live maybe 10 minutes drive away from Stonyhurst College, which features in Three Men And A Little Lady

As well as this, the area in which I live, known as the Ribble Valley is thought to have been the inspiration for Tolkien's Middle Earth, and therefore the Lord Of The Rings trilogy

They actually filmed part of that Home of the Brave movie on my street a few years ago.  They sent us fliers asking us to park in our lawns, which I did, and then one of the crew blocked my car in by parking in front of my lawn.  I was steaming p**sed, especially since I was working a late shift that day, plus my roommate had to get to work.  She went and chewed them a little, and they were pretty compliant.  Argh! 

As mentioned, it is almost cheating to mention a city like Toronto as it is so often used but:  I was walking home after a night class at university one dark evening and saw them filming behind the main library (affectionately known at the time as "Fort Book" - rather a futurisitic-looking edifice).  Turned out to be "Starship Invasions" starring Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee.  I have held special affection for that film ever since.

It is fun to spot distinctive and familiar buildings in film and TV.  The University is used a lot.

There is a restored train station in a park near here that was regularly used in the Anne of Green Gables TV series.  I have ridden the trails there on my horses - it's a bit of a giggle to ride by and see tourists snapping pic's.

More recently: we have an old airport in our small town, complete with old hangars and grass runways.  It was used last year in the filming of "Amelia" with Richard Gere and Hilary Swank - both of whom stayed in town for a day or two at local B and B's.  Lots of locals were cast as extras - the whole town went ga-ga for weeks.

Me and a friend went to the actual convenience store where "Clerks" was filmed, which is in Red Bank, NJ. Its not much to look at, really. Another friend, who works at Temple College, claims that part of the Avatar movie is or was being filmed there.

Clean and Sober- 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton.  Filmed a scene or two in the church/parochial school I attended for several years.  Kinda cool.

The Lovely Bones- 2009 movie starring Mark Whalberg and Susan Sarandon.  There's several scenes taking place in a mall.  The scenes were filmed in a pretty much abandoned mall in my area.  The mall now has about two stores in it.  So they just took the abandoned/empty stores, remodeled them, and filmed their scenes there.  I actually went in after the filming, and the fronts were still how they had them modeled for the movie.  Brought back memories, though, as it was a mall I spent a good portion of my youth.

Invincible- Another Mark Whalberg movie.  This is the movie about the Philadelphia Eagles player Vince Papale and the story of how he went from working in a bar in a small suburb of Philly to being on the team.  Several scenes were filmed minutes from my job.  Kinda fun.