North Carolina might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of blockbuster movies, but it is actually one of the most popular states for movie-making. Since the state’s layout is so varied, with mountains in the west, beaches on the east coast, and big cities and delightful small towns scattered throughout, there is no shortage of available scenery.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant provides a 25% rebate on qualifying in-state spending of filmmakers. From Wilmington to Sylva, the cities most often chosen for movies and TV shows look like any town in the US, which makes them especially desirable. A list of some of the most famous movies filmed in North Carolina, along with their filming locations, follows.
Asheville
Asheville offers numerous incentives that make it especially desirable to movie-makers: lots of forested areas, a modern downtown that has retained its historic Art Deco architecture, and the Biltmore Estate. America’s largest private home was built at the end of the nineteenth century by George Vanderbilt, heir to the family’s fortune. After his death, the mansion and its grounds were passed to his heirs, who still own them and are open to using them for the movie industry.
Since the estate sits on 8,000 acres, the gardens and forests surrounding the property were the perfect private filming locations for 1992’s “The Last of the Mohicans,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The house itself was used as Macaulay Culkin’s home in 1994’s “Richie Rich.”
The trails on the estate and views of the Blue Ridge Mountains provided a scenic backdrop for Forrest Gump’s running adventure in the 1994 movie of the same name. The 2023 movie “A Biltmore Christmas” for the Hallmark Channel was filmed almost entirely in the house, as well as in local businesses like Antidote at Chemist Spirits in the city’s South Slope district.
The 2016 Zach Galifianakis and Owen Wilson movie “Masterminds” was shot in numerous locales around the city, including the county courthouse and Harrah’s Cherokee Center, the auditorium and sports arena downtown. Parts of the 1988 Kevin Costner movie “Bull Durham” were filmed in the Asheville Tourists’ minor league baseball team’s McCormick Field.
Brevard
The production crew of “The Last of the Mohicans” filmed scenes throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains and in DuPont State Forest, located in Transylvania County near Brevard. DuPont also served as a setting for the wooded scenes in “The Hunger Games,” the 2012 film that launched the blockbuster series based on Suzanne Collins’ books. The Triple Falls was used for the scene in which Katniss finds Peeta, injured and hidden by rocks.
Brevard’s small-town downtown and its proximity to Pisgah National Forest made it an appealing filming location for Danny McBride’s 2018 film “The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter” and the 2022 drama “Rosebud Lane.” The premiere for “Rosebud Lane” was screened at Brevard’s Co-Ed Cinema, which still features first-run movies on one screen.
Dillsboro and Sylva
The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town of Dillsboro and its slightly bigger neighbor, Sylva, in Western North Carolina’s Jackson County, have been used in several movies. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad line runs through Dillsboro, which provided an optimal spot for the train wreck scene in 1993’s “The Fugitive” starring Harrison Ford. A few years later, the 1996 release “My Fellow Americans” also used the train tracks in Dillsboro, as well as the Biltmore Estate, as filming locations.
More recently, the Oscar-winning movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” used Sylva as a replacement for the title town. Several of the locations used during filming, including Sassy Frass consignment boutique, which was transformed into the town’s police station, and the former TenBiz office, were used for shots of Ebbing Advertising Co. The Jackson County Public Library (formerly the county courthouse) features prominently in the movie, as it overlooks the city’s downtown from a high vantage point. The award-winning 1972 film “Deliverance” was also filmed in parts of Sylva’s downtown, according to the Business North Carolina website.
Durham
The 1988 Kevin Costner movie “Bull Durham” was mostly filmed in Durham, at “The DAP,” aka Durham Athletic Park, the home to the real Durham Bulls team from 1926 through 1994. The team now plays at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which seats 10,000 fans. Although it wasn’t featured in the movie, any fan of the movie should stop at the Bull Durham Bar for a Bull Durham burger.
Before the TV series was made famous, “The Handmaid’s Tale” was made into a 1990 movie. Duke University’s campus in Durham was used for an execution scene, and the exterior of what is now the American Tobacco Campus served as the Red Center for training handmaids. These days, the campus is a multi-use destination for restaurants, shops, meetings, events, and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Duke’s Chapel was also used for a scene in the 1997 film, “Kiss the Girls.”
Wilmington
The coastal city is known as “Hollywood East” because it is home to Cinespace Wilmington (formerly EUE/Screen Gems), widely considered one of the largest and most significant film studio facilities in the United States outside of California. Wilmington’s prominence in the movie-making business is due in part to its beaches, warm climate, and easy navigability.
Since there have been approximately 350 movies and TV shows shot in Wilmington (including the popular “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Dawson’s Creek,” and “One Tree Hill”), it’s not possible to list them all here. But some of the big ones include “Iron Man 3,” which was mostly shot in the studio, but still used the Wilmington Riverwalk along the Cape Fear River, the Cape Fear Club (a private men’s club), and the Wilmington International Airport for some scenes.
In 1986, Legendary director David Lynch filmed his seminal 1986 cult classic “Blue Velvet” in private homes and in the Wilmington Police Headquarters. The 2022 reboot of the horror film “Scream” was shot in locations around the city, including Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern, a live music venue, and Williston Middle School.
“The Crow,” starring Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, was filmed in the Screen Gems Studio. Tragically, Brandon Lee was killed during filming after a prop gun malfunctioned, causing a projectile from a dummy round to strike him. He was just 28 years old.
North Carolina’s film history is as diverse as its geography, and its long list of movies filmed there proves that the state can stand in for just about any US state. From rugged mountain forests to small towns and busy cities, filmmakers choose the state for its scenery, incentives, and welcoming locals who make it easy to film.
Whether relaxing on the beaches of Wilmington, hiking the trails near Asheville, or catching a movie at a theater in Brevard, visitors are never far from a place where cinematic history was made. For film lovers and fans, North Carolina’s towns offer the chance to step into the scenes of some of Hollywood’s most memorable stories.
Source link
