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© NL Beeld
0 / 31 Fotos
'Chicago' (2002)
- This musical black comedy crime film, based on the 1975 stage musical, is set in the Jazz Age of Chicago, yet not one scene was filmed in the Windy City.
© NL Beeld
1 / 31 Fotos
'Chicago' (2002)
- The movie was shot entirely in Toronto, Canada! Locations included Osgoode Hall, Queen's Park, the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery, Casa Loma, the Elgin Theatre, Union Station, the Canada Life Building, the Danforth Music Hall, and Old City Hall.
© NL Beeld
2 / 31 Fotos
'Braveheart' (1995)
- The epic historical fiction war film set in 13th-century Scotland and starring Mel Gibson generated a huge boost to the Scottish tourist industry, estimated to have earned the country millions of dollars.
© NL Beeld
3 / 31 Fotos
'Braveheart' (1995)
- Little do most people know, however, that the majority of the film was actually shot in Ireland. Mel Gibson had reportedly abandoned his plans to film entirely in Scotland because the country wasn't “people-friendly” or “horse-friendly” enough.
© Getty Images
4 / 31 Fotos
'Titanic' (1997)
- Though it was notably one of the most expensive films ever made, no one expects that ‘Titanic’ was shot in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You may be surprised, however, to know the actors didn't even leave land.
© Getty Images
5 / 31 Fotos
'Titanic' (1997)
- Most of the scenes were actually shot in film studios across Vancouver, California, and the Baja Studios in Mexico. Filmmakers constructed a full-scale replica of half of the Titanic.
© Getty Images
6 / 31 Fotos
'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)
- Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto gave an amazing performance in this story about the difficulty to acquire medication for AIDS in 1980s Dallas. It was completely believable, even though it wasn’t shot in Dallas at all.
© NL Beeld
7 / 31 Fotos
'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)
- It was actually filmed in New Orleans, a city which has reportedly been doubling as Texas for a while. McConaughey was allegedly upset about not being able to shoot in his beloved Texas, but he enjoyed his Oscar anyway.
© NL Beeld
8 / 31 Fotos
'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)
- This Tom Hanks-starring film dramatizes the 1944 event when over 150,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in the hopes of ridding the world of tyranny during World War II. It looks like it’s filmed in Normandy, doesn't it?
© NL Beeld
9 / 31 Fotos
'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)
- Except there was hardly any real Normandy in the film at all! The film's D-Day scenes were shot in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland.
© Getty Images
10 / 31 Fotos
'Rocky' (1976)
- Rocky's neighbourhood is Kensington, north Philadelphia, and of course during training for his big break he runs past Philadelphia City Hall and other Philly landmarks.
© Getty Images
11 / 31 Fotos
'Rocky' (1976)
- But besides those obvious Philadelphia scenes, the film's shooting locations are in Los Angeles, from the Oscar de la Hoya Boxing Youth Center, to Shamrock Meats Inc. Even the climactic fight itself is in Los Angeles, at the Olympic Auditorium.
© Getty Images
12 / 31 Fotos
'Cold Mountain' (2003)
- This epic period war film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger is set on Cold Mountain, a real mountain located within the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.
© NL Beeld
13 / 31 Fotos
'Cold Mountain' (2003)
- The film, however, was shot mostly in Romania, specifically the Poiana Brasov in the Transylvanian Alps. It was cheaper since they didn’t have to digitally remove power lines and modern buildings.
© Getty Images
14 / 31 Fotos
'The Martian' (2015)
- Okay, so obviously the film wasn't shot on location on Mars, but the majority of the film wasn't shot in your typical Los Angeles either. Instead, interior scenes were filmed at Korda Studios, located just outside of Budapest in Hungary.
© NL Beeld
15 / 31 Fotos
'The Martian' (2015)
- And as for the external shots, to approximate Mars's dusty red environs, the crew went to Wadi Rum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in southern Jordan. Also called the Valley of the Moon, the 278-square-mile protected area looks about as Martian as it gets down here.
© Getty Images
16 / 31 Fotos
'Scarface' (1983)
- The film is all about 1980s Miami, Florida, otherwise known as Little Havana, where Tony Montana, an immigrant from Cuba, gains extreme power in drug trafficking. You’d think Miami would be integral to filming, right?
© Getty Images
17 / 31 Fotos
'Scarface' (1983)
- Many don’t know that this cult-favorite flick was actually mostly shot in California. Famous scenes in the film, like Tony's vicious escape from an internment camp and his “El Paraiso” lunch stand, were all shot in LA.
© NL Beeld
18 / 31 Fotos
'Platoon' (1986)
- This Best Picture winner starring Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger is set in a crude battle within the steamy jungle of Vietnam.
© NL Beeld
19 / 31 Fotos
'Platoon' (1986)
- But the film is not actually shot in Vietnam at all! It was all filmed in the Philippines, which looked convincingly similar enough, though the working conditions were said to be very difficult.
© Getty Images
20 / 31 Fotos
'Selma' (2014)
- Don’t worry, the iconic scene recreating Martin Luther King Jr.’s march was shot on-location at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. But that was about the extent of it!
© NL Beeld
21 / 31 Fotos
'Selma' (2014)
- Of the 32 filming days, only four were in Alabama, and the majority of scenes were actually shot in Atlanta, Georgia. Other scenes were shot in multiple locations around Georgia, including the Alabama courtroom scene, which was filmed at the Rockdale County Courthouse in Conyers, Georgia.
© NL Beeld
22 / 31 Fotos
'Casablanca' (1942)
- Set during early World War II, this tale about a nightclub owner in Casablanca, Morocco deciding which side of history he will fall on is an absolute classic.
© Getty Images
23 / 31 Fotos
'Casablanca' (1942)
- Of course, it was not filmed anywhere near Morocco or even the continent of Africa. Instead, it was shot mainly on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.
© Getty Images
24 / 31 Fotos
'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938)
- The film was set in Merrie Olde England, and cost a whopping US$1.9 million due to the new Technicolor system, but also because of the sets…
© Getty Images
25 / 31 Fotos
'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938)
- The whole film was made in California! Sherwood Forest is actually Bidwell Park, the Plaster of Paris trees and rocks were imported by art director Carl Jules Weyl, the telephone poles were disguised with foliage, and the real grass was replaced with artificial turf to cut down the fire risk.
© Getty Images
26 / 31 Fotos
'The Philadelphia Story' (1940)
- This Hollywood classic about a newly divorced woman from Philadelphia who must choose between three of her loves had almost no scenes filmed anywhere near Philadelphia.
© Getty Images
27 / 31 Fotos
'The Philadelphia Story' (1940)
- Instead, the movie was filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, California.
© Getty Images
28 / 31 Fotos
'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' (2018)
- This film, starring Lily James and Michiel Huisman, is set in the Channel Island of Guernsey in the mid-1940s, and both the film and the book it is based on boosted tourism in Guernsey immensely.
© BrunoPress
29 / 31 Fotos
'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' (2018)
- Most fans of the film, however, did not realize that the Guernsey they visited was not actually the place seen in the film. It was actually mostly filmed in Bude, a picturesque seaside town in north Cornwall, England, due to budgetary constraints. See also: (The Telegraph) (Listverse) (Movie Locations) See also: Beautiful and strange locations made famous by movies
© Getty Images
30 / 31 Fotos
© NL Beeld
0 / 31 Fotos
'Chicago' (2002)
- This musical black comedy crime film, based on the 1975 stage musical, is set in the Jazz Age of Chicago, yet not one scene was filmed in the Windy City.
© NL Beeld
1 / 31 Fotos
'Chicago' (2002)
- The movie was shot entirely in Toronto, Canada! Locations included Osgoode Hall, Queen's Park, the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery, Casa Loma, the Elgin Theatre, Union Station, the Canada Life Building, the Danforth Music Hall, and Old City Hall.
© NL Beeld
2 / 31 Fotos
'Braveheart' (1995)
- The epic historical fiction war film set in 13th-century Scotland and starring Mel Gibson generated a huge boost to the Scottish tourist industry, estimated to have earned the country millions of dollars.
© NL Beeld
3 / 31 Fotos
'Braveheart' (1995)
- Little do most people know, however, that the majority of the film was actually shot in Ireland. Mel Gibson had reportedly abandoned his plans to film entirely in Scotland because the country wasn't “people-friendly” or “horse-friendly” enough.
© Getty Images
4 / 31 Fotos
'Titanic' (1997)
- Though it was notably one of the most expensive films ever made, no one expects that ‘Titanic’ was shot in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You may be surprised, however, to know the actors didn't even leave land.
© Getty Images
5 / 31 Fotos
'Titanic' (1997)
- Most of the scenes were actually shot in film studios across Vancouver, California, and the Baja Studios in Mexico. Filmmakers constructed a full-scale replica of half of the Titanic.
© Getty Images
6 / 31 Fotos
'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)
- Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto gave an amazing performance in this story about the difficulty to acquire medication for AIDS in 1980s Dallas. It was completely believable, even though it wasn’t shot in Dallas at all.
© NL Beeld
7 / 31 Fotos
'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)
- It was actually filmed in New Orleans, a city which has reportedly been doubling as Texas for a while. McConaughey was allegedly upset about not being able to shoot in his beloved Texas, but he enjoyed his Oscar anyway.
© NL Beeld
8 / 31 Fotos
'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)
- This Tom Hanks-starring film dramatizes the 1944 event when over 150,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in the hopes of ridding the world of tyranny during World War II. It looks like it’s filmed in Normandy, doesn't it?
© NL Beeld
9 / 31 Fotos
'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)
- Except there was hardly any real Normandy in the film at all! The film's D-Day scenes were shot in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland.
© Getty Images
10 / 31 Fotos
'Rocky' (1976)
- Rocky's neighbourhood is Kensington, north Philadelphia, and of course during training for his big break he runs past Philadelphia City Hall and other Philly landmarks.
© Getty Images
11 / 31 Fotos
'Rocky' (1976)
- But besides those obvious Philadelphia scenes, the film's shooting locations are in Los Angeles, from the Oscar de la Hoya Boxing Youth Center, to Shamrock Meats Inc. Even the climactic fight itself is in Los Angeles, at the Olympic Auditorium.
© Getty Images
12 / 31 Fotos
'Cold Mountain' (2003)
- This epic period war film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger is set on Cold Mountain, a real mountain located within the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.
© NL Beeld
13 / 31 Fotos
'Cold Mountain' (2003)
- The film, however, was shot mostly in Romania, specifically the Poiana Brasov in the Transylvanian Alps. It was cheaper since they didn’t have to digitally remove power lines and modern buildings.
© Getty Images
14 / 31 Fotos
'The Martian' (2015)
- Okay, so obviously the film wasn't shot on location on Mars, but the majority of the film wasn't shot in your typical Los Angeles either. Instead, interior scenes were filmed at Korda Studios, located just outside of Budapest in Hungary.
© NL Beeld
15 / 31 Fotos
'The Martian' (2015)
- And as for the external shots, to approximate Mars's dusty red environs, the crew went to Wadi Rum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in southern Jordan. Also called the Valley of the Moon, the 278-square-mile protected area looks about as Martian as it gets down here.
© Getty Images
16 / 31 Fotos
'Scarface' (1983)
- The film is all about 1980s Miami, Florida, otherwise known as Little Havana, where Tony Montana, an immigrant from Cuba, gains extreme power in drug trafficking. You’d think Miami would be integral to filming, right?
© Getty Images
17 / 31 Fotos
'Scarface' (1983)
- Many don’t know that this cult-favorite flick was actually mostly shot in California. Famous scenes in the film, like Tony's vicious escape from an internment camp and his “El Paraiso” lunch stand, were all shot in LA.
© NL Beeld
18 / 31 Fotos
'Platoon' (1986)
- This Best Picture winner starring Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger is set in a crude battle within the steamy jungle of Vietnam.
© NL Beeld
19 / 31 Fotos
'Platoon' (1986)
- But the film is not actually shot in Vietnam at all! It was all filmed in the Philippines, which looked convincingly similar enough, though the working conditions were said to be very difficult.
© Getty Images
20 / 31 Fotos
'Selma' (2014)
- Don’t worry, the iconic scene recreating Martin Luther King Jr.’s march was shot on-location at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. But that was about the extent of it!
© NL Beeld
21 / 31 Fotos
'Selma' (2014)
- Of the 32 filming days, only four were in Alabama, and the majority of scenes were actually shot in Atlanta, Georgia. Other scenes were shot in multiple locations around Georgia, including the Alabama courtroom scene, which was filmed at the Rockdale County Courthouse in Conyers, Georgia.
© NL Beeld
22 / 31 Fotos
'Casablanca' (1942)
- Set during early World War II, this tale about a nightclub owner in Casablanca, Morocco deciding which side of history he will fall on is an absolute classic.
© Getty Images
23 / 31 Fotos
'Casablanca' (1942)
- Of course, it was not filmed anywhere near Morocco or even the continent of Africa. Instead, it was shot mainly on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.
© Getty Images
24 / 31 Fotos
'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938)
- The film was set in Merrie Olde England, and cost a whopping US$1.9 million due to the new Technicolor system, but also because of the sets…
© Getty Images
25 / 31 Fotos
'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938)
- The whole film was made in California! Sherwood Forest is actually Bidwell Park, the Plaster of Paris trees and rocks were imported by art director Carl Jules Weyl, the telephone poles were disguised with foliage, and the real grass was replaced with artificial turf to cut down the fire risk.
© Getty Images
26 / 31 Fotos
'The Philadelphia Story' (1940)
- This Hollywood classic about a newly divorced woman from Philadelphia who must choose between three of her loves had almost no scenes filmed anywhere near Philadelphia.
© Getty Images
27 / 31 Fotos
'The Philadelphia Story' (1940)
- Instead, the movie was filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, California.
© Getty Images
28 / 31 Fotos
'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' (2018)
- This film, starring Lily James and Michiel Huisman, is set in the Channel Island of Guernsey in the mid-1940s, and both the film and the book it is based on boosted tourism in Guernsey immensely.
© BrunoPress
29 / 31 Fotos
'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' (2018)
- Most fans of the film, however, did not realize that the Guernsey they visited was not actually the place seen in the film. It was actually mostly filmed in Bude, a picturesque seaside town in north Cornwall, England, due to budgetary constraints. See also: (The Telegraph) (Listverse) (Movie Locations) See also: Beautiful and strange locations made famous by movies
© Getty Images
30 / 31 Fotos
Movies that weren’t filmed where you think
Fooled by movie magic once again!
© NL Beeld
Cinema is all about diving into a different world, suspending disbelief and instead choosing to invest in whatever we’re shown on screen. Sometimes what's shown to us is genuine, like scenes shot on-location in the places where stories are actually set, but other times we're fooled by movie magic, which makes it appear like you’re seeing one place when really it's another.
In the filmmaking industry, there are often tight parameters around shooting, from budgets to specific rules determined by cities, and that can make the intended shooting location impossible. The movies must then be shot in a completely different place, and the filmmakers must do their best to disguise it on camera.
Click through to see some surprising examples of movies that appear to be in one place but were actually shot in another.
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