MovieMaker Magazine recently named New Orleans, Louisiana as the #1 small city for filmmakers to live and work in 2014. As if on cue, Jurassic World (Jurassic Park 4) and Terminator 5, both sequels to two very successful movie franchises, have chosen Louisiana as one of their filming locations.
What do Nightmare on Elm Street, American Horror Story, Home Alone, The Descendants, Scarface, Driving Miss Daisy, The Godfather, Charlie’s Angels, 500 Days of Summer, 13 Going On 30, Dan In Real Life, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Something’s Gotta Give, Before Midnight and Argo (the list goes on) ... all have in common?
Out of the many movies released in 2013, only nine have been nominated for Best Picture for the Oscars race in 2014. Among the few chosen is an indie film calledNebraska, shot on location partially in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming.
On January 16, 2014, the The Montana Film Office announced that Nebraska, a drama/comedy directed by previous Academy Award-winner Alexander Payne (The Descendants), was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bruce Dern), Best Supporting Actress (June Squibb), Best Original Screenplay (Bob Nelson) and Best Cinematography (Phedon Papamichael).
Last fall, Beneath The Harvest Sky, an indie movie shot entirely in Van Buren, Maine (a small town with a population of approximately 2200), had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The reviews were unanimous among audiences and critics alike. Beneath The Harvest Sky was “heartbreakingly authentic” (Variety), “gripping and realistic” (Pretty Clever Films). It’s “an impressively mounted indie” that “offers a solid sense of place” (The Hollywood Reporter) palpably complementing the small, soulful Maine town where the movie was filmed.
Last year, we wrote an article about the making of the indie film Ping Pong Summer in Ocean City, Maryland, the beautiful, nostalgic beach town of my childhood.
Recently, Ping Pong Summer shared on Facebook that the moviewill have its world premier at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to be held in January 2014 in Park City, Utah.
Filmed on location in Arkansas for 39 days starting on September 26, 2011, Mud was the largest film production to set up camp in “The Natural State.” When it opened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, the film received an 18-minute standing ovation.
Directed and written by Jeff Nichols, who grew up in Arkansas and was recently nominated for Best Director for the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards, Mud stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life), and Jacob Lofland (a young actor also from Arkansas).
If you haven’t seen the Volvo Trucks commercial featuring actor Jean-Claude Van Damme this past week yet, you’re among the few who has missed it. As of today, the YouTube commercial has already wowed over 36 million viewers (posted online on November 13).
The clip leaves me breathless and in awe, as well as converting me into a bona fide Van Damme fan. Most importantly, should I ever need a commercial truck, there’s no question which one to buy.
Imagine you own a little motel in the country. Business is steady, and you make a decent living. Not bad at all for a small business owner.
Then almost overnight, your motel becomes the talk of the town. More guests appear on the reservation list. People find excuses to drop by for impromptu visits, snapping photographs of your lobby, rooms, hotel sign, and parking lot. Dotting the internet are articles (such as this one) written about you - and your motel. What could possibly bring on such changes?
This past weekend, I discovered another one of my favorite movies so far this summer ... The Spectacular Now, filmed in the charming locations of Athens, Georgia.
Based on Tim Tharp’s novel and directed by Athens native James Ponsoldt, The Spectacular Nowfeatures two young, talented stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley.
After just one season, House of Cards was already nominated for nine Emmys. Even though the show is based and set in Washington, DC, only a few setting shots were filmed in DC. The rest of the production was filmed on a soundstage in Harford County as well as at locations in and around Baltimore City and surrounding counties.
Earlier this week, New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced that NBC's new TV series The Night Shift will begin filming in Albuquerque at the end of August. The Night Shift will employ over 100 local crew members and at least 300 New Mexico actors and extras per episode. Production is expected to continue through mid-November.
Another fun summer movie comes to the big screen today nationwide. The much-anticipated comedy We’re The Millers, starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis,Emma Roberts and Will Poulter, was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, last summer.
The plot centers around a stripper (Aniston) and a pot dealer (Sudeikis) who together portray a fake family to fool his supplier. Along the way, they recruited two teenage neighbors to join in on the adventure posing as their kids.
What do The Big Wedding, Everybody’s Fine, Revolutionary Road, The Town, All Good Things, Hope Springs, Righteous Kill, andWe Need to Talk About Kevin all have in common? They’re among many of the movies filmed in Connecticut in recent years.
Adding to the list this year is Diane Keaton‘s and Michael Douglas‘s first collaboration together, the Rob Reiner romantic comedy And So It Goes.
It looks like Missouri’s own Cape Girardeau has a good chance of standing in for the fictional town of North Carthage, Missouri, as the setting of Gone Girl. Last week, a location scout for 20th Century Fox reached out to homeowners in Cape Girardeau about using their homes in the movie.
A best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl will soon be adapted into a feature film directed by David Fincher(Fight Club, The Social Network, Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and produced by Reese Witherspoon(who obtained the screen rights to Gone Girl for a reported US$1.5 million).
Dig Two Graves, a Gothic mystery thriller, is back in Southern Illinois to film its final scenes.
Directed by Hunter Adams and based on the script he co-wrote with Jeremy Phillips, Dig Two Graves’ cast includes Ted Levine (The Bridge, Shutter Island), Kara Zediker (Contagion), Danny Goldring (The Dark Knight), and newcomer Samantha Isler.
You never know who may be knocking at your door asking if they could rent your home for a bit of filming.
In this case, it could be the young, talented director James Wan, fresh from the mega-success of his No. 1 box office film The Conjuring.
In an article published earlier this week, we wrote aboutThe Lone Ranger‘s Utah film locations. We also mentioned in the same article that Utah wasn’t the only state featured in the Disney blockbuster. The production also filmed for three months last year in New Mexico, in and around the Rio Puerco Valley.
After making the mega-successful summer blockbuster hit The Heat, Melissa McCarthy (the beloved Sookie St. James from Gilmore Girls and the hilarious Megan from Bridesmaids) came to Niagara Falls last month to film her next movie, a road comedy called Tammy.
With the august Niagara Falls gracing the background, Ms. McCarthy, Sandra Oh, and Academy Award winners Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates, filmed a scene from the observation deck at Niagara Falls State Park. Neither Ms. McCarthy nor Ms. Sarandon had seen the Falls before. Filming the movie there was a special treat for both.
Over the years, Utah’s Moab and Monument Valley area has hosted its impressive share of movies, from John Ford’s classics such asStagecoach (1939), to more current films within the last few decades including Thelma and Louise (1990),City Slickers II (1992), Mission Impossible II and Vertical Limit (both in 1999), and 127 Hours (2010).
Adding to the list this year is one of Walt Disney’s latest summer blockbusters The Lone Ranger. Directed by Gore Verbinski, The Lone Ranger filmed on location in Utah for 25 days last summer.
Ever wonder how a location scout would approach you if he or she was interested in renting your house to be used as a film location?
Last year, HBO location scout Laura Foley was in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in search of film locations for a production then known as the Untitled Larry David Project.
Ms. Foley scouted the idyllic New England town and dropped off the following letter at all the homes she was interested in using as film locations:
