I spent multiple hours on Google Earth spanning the California coast to find this location. From Santa Cruz to Crescent City, CA; It’s too rocky to be too near L.A. and I don’t think filming locations would expand into Oregon or Washington state for Homegrown (1998).
To me this is one of my favorite shots in all of film. I’ve seen over a thousand movies because I have them listed on my IMDB page. It’s almost like this shot isn’t real because it’s just too great. With Google Earth you have a bird’s eye view and that’s it, because there’s no street view unless it’s highways. So it’s difficult to tell how steep the rocky cliffs are from above and in this shot it’s holding nothing back, so beautiful.
My objective is to go to this place, even if it’s on someone’s land. There are no specific filming locations for Homegrown on IMDB, Bon Jovi’s house in the movie is also very nice except that would be impossible to find, at least with the house in this shot seems possible.
Maybe this house doesn’t exist anymore, it was 18-19 years ago. I’m quite excited if someone knows the answer.
I think you’re the victim of a matte shot. I would swear the gray mountains in the upper center of the picture are Catalina Island. And wasn’t that house Hawkeye’s family retreat (from “The Avengers”)?
Billy Bob Thorton is shown running down the hill toward the house as well as the BMW is shown driving down the dirt road, the waves also move in the background.
Having spent time in all those places, if I had to guess I’d say Mendocino, too.
It’s not SF and pretty sure it’s not Santa Cruz or Felton or Aptos. Although not listed, it could be San Mateo coast (south of Half Moon Bay, but well north of Santa Cruz).
Compare the shape of the two ridge lines. I think this is it. The second, taller peak sticking out of the sea would have been painted into the background. The house would be behind and above the camera location here.
Are you getting the same location I linked to? I linked to Trinidad, California, which is right in the neighbourhood where the film was made.
And there are lots of trees in the location I pointed at, too. Some of the photos I posted were taken down on the beach - I couldn’t find any from the exact vantage point, which is up on the wooded hill.
This is Street View on the dirt road that leads up to the hill where I believe the house is located. As you can see it is heavily wooded, and looks very similar to the woods in which the characters in the film are seen walking around.
Maybe it’s you who are in the UK, but all your links have google.uk in them. The house you linked to does not look like the same house as it does’t have enough gables, nor does it appear to have a turret.
Annotated. Bear in mind the film shot would be using a longer lens than the Google Earth view equivalent, and the extra peak looks like it’s added in the background.
Edit: to be clear, I am not suggesting the house is the same: it clearly isn’t. But it does appear to be in the right location and the landscape features match. And the film was shot nearly 20 years ago. (And yes I am in the UK. Zoom out of the Google Maps links and you will see where the location is)
And another comparison… I think the yellow part was added to beef up the landscape a bit.
Compare with this view from lower down. The house shot was taken from higher up, behind and to the right of the camera (pink arrow).
My guess is the house was located somewhere in the open grassy area just behind the trees, on the hilltop off McDonald Creek Road or Big Lagoon Ranch Road.
