| By Sam Molineaux If you want to feel like you're on a holiday straight out of a movie, why not go to where the movies were made in the first place? From the tropical to the rugged, we take you to four famous movie destinations where you can tread where your heroes once trod and get a little sun, sea and sand thrown into the deal. Monument Valley, USA
There are few places in the West that offer vistas as impressive as Utah's Monument Valley. With its red sandstone mesas and buttes rising above miles and miles of open desert, it seems almost too empty without a wagon trail traversing its expanse or gangs of outlaws stalking each other on horseback. If you listen hard, you can almost hear the gunshots ricocheting off the monolithic rocks. Ever since the 1930s, Monument Valley has served as one of the world's grandest and most instantly recognizable movie locations. It was Harry Goulding, founder of Goulding's Trading Post, a small Indian town on the Utah/Arizona border, who first brought Monument Valley to Hollywood's attention, convincing director John Ford that this dramatic landscape would be the ideal backdrop for his westerns. Soon, the likes of John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson and, later, Clint Eastwood were starring in films made here, adding their notoriety to the region's appeal as a tourist spot. Today, the original trading post building is Goulding's Museum, which houses a collection of leftover props and movie memorabilia. The 62-room Gouldings Lodge is the place to stay, with its "every table has a view" Stagecoach dining room and selection of John Wayne videos in every guest room. Year-round tours of the valley offer the visitor the full-on Wild West experience. There is only one main road that passes by, the US163 which links Kayenta, Arizona, with US191 in Utah, so you'll need to rent a four-wheel drive at the visitor center to tour the valley by dirt track or, alternatively, go in by horseback. As one of the most remote places on earth, Monument Valley provides a glorious retreat. And to this day, it continues to draw filmmakers inspired by the majestic surroundings. Famous flicks: The Vanishing American, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master, The Searchers, Sergeant Rutledge, Cheyenne Autumn, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Once Upon A Time in the West, Easy Rider, The Eiger Sanction, National Lampoon's Vacation, Back to the Future Part lll, Thelma & Louise, Forrest Gump, Wild Wild West, Austin Powers: Goldmember. Utah tourist office:
www.utah.com/monumentvalley/ Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission:
http://www.filmmoab.com/ Fiji, South Pacific With its pristine beaches, crystal blue water and spectacular scenery, Fiji is one of the world's great tropical paradises. In amongst the honeymooners, surfers and rich types relaxing, it's not uncommon to run into a camera crew or two. Ever since Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. played self-imposed maroonee Steve Drexel in Edward Sutherland's black and white classic Mr. Robinson Crusoe, Hollywood has come a-canoeing to this exotic location. Like many tourist spots around the world, Fiji actively encourages filmmakers to its idyllic isles. The nation's government got wise to the value of Hollywood after the huge success of Tom Hanks' blockbuster Cast Away, which was lensed on the uninhabited island of Monu-riki, off the western side of the main island Viti Levu. Director Robert Zemeckis returned to the isles for the famous heaven sequence from his 1997 sci-fi drama Contact. And of course, who could forget Blue Lagoon? Shot mainly in the Yasawas, near a lagoon off Nanuya Levu Island, the Brooke Shields starrer, it's original 1949 version and the 1991 sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon, featured various local paradise spots including the stunning Lavena Beach and Bouma Falls on Taveuni Island. Comprising 332 islands over an area about the size of New Jersey, this tropical destination offers the types of virginal vistas most people only ever get to see in the movies ... or dream about, in the case of Jim Carrey's Truman Burbank, desperate to escape the sterility of Seahaven for the breathtaking beauty of Fiji in The Truman Show.
Famous flicks: Mr. Robinson Crusoe, The Blue Lagoon (1949), His Majesty O'Keefe, The Dove, Blue Lagoon (1979), Savage Islands: Nate & Hayes, Return to the Blue Lagoon, My Forgotten Man, Cast Away, Contact, Coral Reef Adventure, The Land Has Eyes, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. Fiji Visitors Bureau:
www.bulafiji.com Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, USA
San Diego's Hotel del Coronado is Victorian opulence at its best. Situated on the water's edge on the island of Coronado in Southern California, the "grand lady by the sea," as it is known, is just as luxurious today as when it was first opened in 1888. Back then it was a luxury fishing and hunting resort, with electric lights, telephones, water pressure, elevators, fine china and the latest linen from Europe. It quickly became a Mecca for sophisticated travelers from the east. In the Roaring Twenties along came Hollywood, at first in the shape of Tinseltown party-goers attracted to the hotel for its island locale - and proximity to Mexico, which meant horse-racing and liquor. And then the cameras arrived. The del Coronado was firmly stamped on the nation's psyche in 1958 as the very recognizable backdrop to Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Although the red turreted hotel dominates the film, the cast and crew were actually only there for a little over a week. Marilyn Monroe was accompanied by her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and her entourage; Tony Curtis came with his wife, Janet Leigh, who was pregnant with Jamie Lee Curtis at the time; and Jack Lemmon and his wife, Felicia Farr rounded out the celebrity troop. Twenty years later, the hotel was famously "blown up" in the Peter O'Toole-starring cult classic The Stunt Man. The del Coronado's recorded celebrity sightings read like a who's who of Hollywood from its very earliest days (when Charlie Chaplin was a frequent guest) right up to the present. Completely unspoiled by the sands of time, it offers visitors today the same level of opulence and elegance, of course with a dollop of Hollywood history thrown in. And, for stargazers, plenty of opportunities to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Famous flicks: Knights of Pythias Camp; Tent City; Pearl of the Pacific; My Husband's Wives; The Flying Fleet; Coronado; Yours for the Asking; Dive Bomber; Cry for Happy; The Easy Way; Some Like It Hot; The Stunt Man; Wicked, Wicked; $; K-9; My Blue Heaven; Mr. Wrong.
Hotel del Coronado:
http://www.hoteldel.com/
New Zealand
A handful of international films have shone a light on New Zealand's rugged scenery and breathtaking landscapes, but none as impactful of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The country's vast, wild beauty became the living embodiment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, prompting New Zealand tourist officials to give it the label "best supporting country." Where it used to be backpacker and guide-book terrain, now the country boasts a variety of Lord of the Rings-oriented tour operators who'll take you to the furthest flung corners of the antipodean nation and to the hundreds of unspoiled filming locations of the famous trilogy. You'll visit the area around Matamata in North Island, that became the village of Hobbiton, where Frodo began his perilous journey. You can follow the same green paths to he took to Bag End and the Party Tree; or visit the frowning slopes of Weathertop Hollow in North Island's Port Waikato, where Frodo was stabbed by the Black Rider. Or visit North Island's Mount Ruapehu, a staggering landscape which became the looming wastes of Mordor in The Return of the King. While visiting the various sites of epic battles, like the Battle of Pelennor Fields in South Island's Ben Ohau Station, Twizel, you might get to stay at the same hotels the stars used during the three-year shoot. Many locals you meet have stories of how they were drafted in as extras. Red Carpet Tours, one of the bigger Middle Earth tour operators, offers explorations of private land as well as tourist spots on a range of customized tours of filming sites on both North and South Island. Or you can take the full 12-day tour of the whole country. And when you get your fill of Lord of the Rings folklore, there's always bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown - the very spot it was invented.
Famous Flicks: Willow, An Angel at My Table, The Piano, Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Whale Rider, The Last Samurai. New Zealand Tourist Office:
www.newzealand.com Red Carpet Tours:
http://www.redcarpet-tours.com/ |
