Judging from the “locations” section of IMDB there’s a new movie that was partially filmed in Wetumpka AL. I didn’t grow up there but it wasn’t far from where I did grow up.
Later, after I moved to Tennessee, part of one of those Elvis biography made-for-TV things was filmed just down the street from my house. But I don’t count Tennessee as where I grew up since I was already “adult” when I got here.
There’s a good sized list of things partially filmed in Montgomery AL, but nothing jumps out at me as either famous or noteworthy for scenes I’d remember. I was in Montgomery for high school years, so it’s a candidate for the OP’s theme, just not the place I associate with “growing up.” That would be Prattville, and I don’t find anything filmed there listed on IMDB. So the best answer from me is “No.”
Towards the end of Cast Away, Tom Hanks is driving along a stretch of highway, taking a drink of bottled water. Well, I was * trying* to drive down that same stretch of road at the same time. I had to detour down about 10 miles of dirt road while towing a boat. The shot lasted about 5 seconds. I thought it was a bad wreck or toxic spill to close the road. Nope, just Tom Hanks. Look real hard and you can juuust see the dirt cloud that was the Duke (not really, I would have been behind the camera view).
A Summer Place (Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee, 1959–probably more famous for its theme music) was shot in my hometown, standing in for someplace in Massachusetts.
And an episode of Then Came Bronson. Woohoo! Most exciting thing that happened there when I was growing up
Truly. Madly, Deeply (Alan Rickman/Juliet Stevenson)
(http://www.rickmanistareview.com/tmd.html)
was filmed around Highgate and Muswell Hill in North London which I call my home.
Hey, I could add that to the chick flicks I have liked thread…
The bad sci-fi movie Puppet Masters was set in my hometown of Des Moines. They shot some helecopter shots downtown, but all of the streets scenes were shot in Fresno, Ca. Palm trees… in IOWA???
Bridges of Madison County and parts of Twister were both filmed nearby. Recently, someone has been trying to burn down sites associated with Bridges. They destroyed the Cedar Bridge that was on the books cover and damaged a bridge used in the movie and Francesca’s house.
Ignoring such immortal locally-produced classics like The Beast from the Beginning of Time and King Kung Fu, Wichita, Kansas provided the exteriors for the 1979 move The Attic (Carrie Snodgrass, Ray Milland). The house in which the main characters lived was catty-corner from the church that sponsored my Boy Scout troop (I still drive past it occasionally).
One scene unintentionally left the locals rolling in the aisles. The Snodgrass character goes to a downtown movie theater where she lets herself be “picked up” by some young stud in a sailor suit [note to Hollywood: one sees very few Navy uniforms in Wichita; for the reason this is so, look at a freaking map, you mor– Ahem.] Cut to exterior shot of theater; pull out to wide shot including the neon sign denoting their destination - the Eaton Hotel. In those days the Eaton was little more than a flophouse, and thus the perfect place for a couple intent on some anonymous sheet-staining.
Superdude, stole my answer. But I can one-up him as I actually live in Louisville. And the scene where Bill Murray stops the car on the bridge going to aht airport? He’s going north and the airport is south. So there, Mr Reitman!
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was filmed here in the '70s. My parain (godfather) is the scary looking guy in the boat spying on the slaves having a secret meeting. He was working construction on the set and the producers thought he looked menacing.
Sex, Lies and Videotape really messed up my nightlife back in the mid-eighties. My regular hang-out, The Bayou (now sadly burned and rebuilt as a Jaimacan restaurant) was the bar where Laura San Giacomo’s character, Cynthia, worked. The place was closed for a whole week and I had to play pool in a frat bar (shudder). We laughed at how clean the phone was. They must have used a prop because that phone probably hadn’t been wiped down since 1977. The apartment that James Spader’s character, Graham, lived in was the same apartment an ex-boyfriend of mine lived in when we were in high school. It was just a tad creepy seeing on the big screen floors I had rolled around on in various stages of undress.
Everybody’s All American was filmed here also in the mid-eighties. LSU’s Death Valley is actually louder than they protray in the movie. I met John Goodman in a bar when he was down here for the movie. Really nice guy, bought me and my then boyfriend a few beers because my boyfriend was the oyster shucker in the bar.
In the outlying areas, there has been filming I’ve either been privileged to watch or caused my plans to be interrupted. The second Fletch movie was filmed at some of the plantations along River Road. The scene in which he dreams of the house he’s inhereted (along with white slaves) was filmed at Houmas House. My mother worked there at the time. We got to watch them. Chevy Chase was actually very nice, but watched the Lakers game in between shots. I loved the way they made it seem the houses were just down the street from each other, like you could actually walk to any one of them from the other.
The Badge (straight to cable) with Billy Bob Thornton had some scenes filmed at a Gentlemen’s Club where a friend of mine worked at the time. She’s in a couple scenes as a background dancer. This movie also interrupted a boat outing on the Amite River. We had to stop and let them film scene for about 30 minutes. We had plenty of beer, though, so we didn’t really feel put out.
They also filmed in Baton Rouge the TV movie about the ex-Marine in Austin that shot all those people from the tower on campus. They used our state capital building as the tower. Can’t remember the name of the movie.
zeldarae, I guess this is the first post of yours that I’ve seen. Since I came along much later than you, I guess the similarity in our UserNames is more my doing than yours. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused you and/or others.
Not long ago, Crunchy Frog and THE Crunchy Frog ran into this sort of thing, but until now I had thought Zeldar was a nearly unique name. Guess not. Wonder how many other variations are out there that I haven’t seen…
zeldarae, I was going to add sex, lies and videotape and Everybody’s All-American because I forgot them the first time around. I remember when Billy Bob was in town, but I never realized what movie he was filming, so thanks for that.
I saw Runaway Jury Sunday, and it was neat recognizing some places in New Orleans–the Cafe du Monde, the Esplanade Mall, and other French Quarter areas.
Scott Rosenberg grew up in my hometown so Beautiful Girls, even though it was filmed in Colorado, takes place in a town that looks an awful lot like Needham, MA. Including a Crest-like drugstore and Rosemary Pond lookalike.
I don’t know of any movies filmed (or set) in my home town in NJ, but Pepper Mill grew up in Grover’s Mill, N.J., which is where the Martians landed in the Mercury Theater on the Air production of “War of the Worlds” back in 1938. Howard Koch wrote the script that transplanted the Martians from H.G. Wells’ London to Orson Welles’ New Jersey. They shot scenes for the Tv series “War of the Worlds” there in the park that has a sculpture commemorating the event, on the 50th anniversary of the broadcast:
Picture of the WOTW scuplture:
Of course, they set parts of the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eighth Dimension in Grover’s Mill:
…but they sure as heck didn’t film it there. No palm trees in NJ. And I’m not sure the Yoyodyne factory would fit in Grover’s Mill.
I grew up in Dodge City, but any resemblance of the actual place to its screen portrayls (National Lampoon’s Vacation, although the t-shirts were authentic, 193-something’s Dodge City, Gunsmoke) is purely coincidental. I’ve never heard of anything actually shot there.
The K-State t-shirts from some 80’s Michael J. Fox movie - Secret Of My Success, maybe - actually came from K-State.
And a miniseries, Cross of Fire, about the KKK in 1920’s Indiana, shot some scenes in and around my grandparents’ hometown of Ottawa KS.
Zeldar, my UserName is just the squeezing together of my mother’s first and middle name. She won’t let me name a daughter after her, but I love her name so I use it here.
Since I’m mostly a lurker, I don’t think too much confusion will ensue.
Thanks, zeldarae, for that reply. I agree that the confusion should be minimal, and there are other usernames that are similar enough to be as confusing as ours. I guess we’ll just need to be aware that both of us are here in case somebody else gets confused.
There’s a Zelda Road in Montgomery AL named after Ms. F Scott Fitzgerald, and I suppose Norma Rae (Sally Fields movie) also comes to mind. In any case, I like your name! I also have some friends in the Cajun Country. Lafayette to be precise.
I went to high school in Highland Park, Illinois in the mid-1980s. A number of movies were made in Highland Park, all of which I found summarized in this website about movie filming locations in Illinois for the 1980s. (Isn’t the internet amazing? )
Anyway, many exterior scenes of Risky Business were filmed in Highland Park. In particular, the scenes where Tom Cruise’s character speeds around town in his father’s Porsche, under a bridge and around a parking lot, were right next to the public library I often went to.
The shower scene in Lucas were filmed in the boy’s locker room in Highland Park High School. Our swim practice was delayed due to filming that day.
Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was filmed in Highland Park. I actually toured the art museum Ferris visited a few weeks before the movie came out. (I also skipped school once to go to a mid-day Cubs game!)
i live right near Bucks County, PA - set of Signs…can’t say i appriciated how the movie made it seem like we’re a bunch of cowtipping farmers who live in the sticks (Sean, don’t say it, i do NOT live in the sticks!..damn wombats)
And, of course, Sixth Sense was filmed in Philadelphia, and i’ve walked those particular streets a few times on field trips into the city…those townhouses are unmistakable…
Rocky - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up and down the art museum steps…actually, we usually use the back entrance…
oh, and this may or may not count…but my high school marching band had appearances both in Blowout and Rocky V. Plenty of us band geeks swear that we’ll rent them just so we can see our band march through the picture, but we’ve yet to do so…
I lived in Monroeville for many years growing up, a suburb of Pittsburgh and also the home of the Monroeville Mall.
Of course, the Monroeville Mall is the setting for the movie Dawn of the Dead. I lived on Monroeville Blvd. which is at the top of the hill above the mall.
)