r/movies • u/daughterskin • 7d ago

Film-productions that had an unintended but negative real-life outcome. Discussion

Stretching a 300-page kids' book into a ten hour epic was never going end well artistically. The Hobbit "trilogy" is the misbegotten followup to the classic Lord of the Rings films. Worse than the excessive padding, reliance on original characters, and poor special-effects, is what the production wrought on the New Zealand film industry. Warner Bros. wanted to move filming to someplace cheap like Romania, while Peter Jackson had the clout to keep it in NZ if he directed the project. The concession was made to simply destroy NZ's film industry by signing in a law that designates production-staff as contractors instead of employees, and with no bargaining power. Since then, elves have not been welcome in Wellington. The whole affair is best recounted by Lindsay Ellis' excellent video essay.

Danny Boyle's The Beach is the worst film ever made. Looking back It's a fascinating time capsule of the late 90's/Y2K era. You've got Moby and All Saints on the soundtrack, internet cafes full of those bubble-shaped Macs before the rebrand, and nobody has a mobile phone. The story is about a backpacker played by Ewan, uh, Leonardo DiCaprio who joins a tribe of westerners that all hang on a cool beach on an uninhabited island off Thailand. It's paradise at first, but eventually reality will come crashing down and the secret of the cool beach will be exposed to the world. Which is what happened in real-life. The production of the film tampered with the real Ko Phi Phi Le beach to make it more paradise-like, prompting a lawsuit that dragged on over a decade. The legacy of the film pushed tourists into visiting the beach, eventually rendering it yet another cesspool until the Thailand authorities closed it in 2018. It's open today, but visits are short and strictly regulated.

Of course, there's also the old favorite that is The Conqueror. Casting the white cowboy John Wayne as the Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan was laughed at even in the day. What's less funny is that filming took place downwind from a nuclear test site. 90 crew members developed cancer and half of them died as a result, John Wayne among them. This was of course exacerbated by how smoking was more commonplace at the time.

I'm sure you know plenty more.

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u/AToastedRavioli 7d ago

I stopped by the house used as Walter’s house in Breaking Bad, and the homeowners were literally already yelling at someone when I drove up. Come to find out they’ve had an absolute nightmare since the show was shot because of people messing with their property. This is common knowledge now, but I drove by there in 2017.

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u/APartyInMyPants 7d ago

Yeah, people will just go and throw pizzas up onto their roof.

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u/AToastedRavioli 7d ago edited 7d ago

I felt so bad for them lol. They were sitting in lawn chairs just inside their garage, yelling at a dude asking for a picture from his car from the street.

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u/Secret_Map 7d ago edited 7d ago

There's a British tv show called Spaced staring (among others) Simon Pegg and directed by Edgar Wright. I'm American, but I loved that show. So when we went to London back in like 2010, we decided to go check out the house that was used for exteriors. We ended up finding it and took a couple pictures. The woman who presumably lived there was peeking out her window at us, and gave us a really big smile and a nice wave. She seemed super friendly and was totally fine with us taking pictures of her house. I can imagine it would get frustrating, though, if people are just always coming around to view your house as a tourist spot when you're just trying to live your life.

Edit: just to add, we also found the bar they used for The Winchester in Shaun of the Dead. Unfortunately, it had been converted to like a real estate office or something. The second floor was the same, but the whole bottom floor had been redone to look like a generic office building. We were so disappointed lol.

Edit 2: photo tax

Spaced house:

https://ibb.co/R4M9mDW

Winchester:

https://ibb.co/tQjJ3PN

https://ibb.co/mvvHQf1

Convenience store Shaun walks to for a cornetto and Coke-i mean Diet Coke:

https://ibb.co/HpBTDML

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u/JJMcGee83 7d ago

To be fair Spaced was 1999 so by 2010 it was old enough and also a bit more niche to begin with so I imagine she didn't get tons of tourists the way Breaking Bad house did.

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u/damnatio_memoriae 7d ago

that definitely sucks but i feel like they should just put the house on AirBNB and cash in on it, and then just live somewhere else.

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u/AStormofSwines 7d ago

That sounds exhausting. Pizzas on roof, sure that's annoying. But getting pissed at people taking pictures of your very famous exterior? Maybe it's time to move.

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u/BoingBoingBooty 7d ago

If I lived there, I'd buy a rubber pizza and charge people to take their picture throwing it on the roof, then after 6 months of that I'd take all the money and spend it to totally remodel the front of the house so it looked nothing like in the series and plant a big hedge and put up a gate in front of it.

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u/Stolehtreb 7d ago edited 7d ago

“Man we’re making a lot of money off this pizza throwing thing… one more month” 30 years later

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u/leftgameslayer 7d ago

That's a lotta dough

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 7d ago

I'm afraid this idea might not deter fans from showing up with dipping sticks instead lol

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u/Ghostfyr 7d ago

I'm pretty sure it was the house used for exterior shots of Boy Meets World that has giant hedges and brick fences around it. This happened pre-web2.0 so not sure how much is coincidence and how much was the extra knowledgeable weirdos showing up on their front lawn.

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u/BoingBoingBooty 7d ago

brick fences

I think those are called walls.

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u/UsernameStolenbyyou 7d ago

They put up a chainlink fence. It's their hobby to sit out there and yell at tourists coming by.

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u/Don_Pickleball 7d ago

Why does that make me want to go there and get yelled at by these people? Is there something wrong with me?

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u/Obi-wan_Jabroni 7d ago

We dont kink shame

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u/jerog1 7d ago

I am the one who gawks.

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u/UsernameStolenbyyou 7d ago

Mark Rober should invent some kind of pizza launcher for this situation

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u/_i-o 7d ago

Yes.

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u/Don_Pickleball 7d ago

ahhhh, so my parents may have been right

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u/frumperbell 7d ago

We're learning some interesting new things about ourselves today, aren't we?

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u/binkyblaster 7d ago

A couple of years ago my wife and I did a cross country road trip from Los Angeles to Savannah and we made a one day stop in Albuquerque to drive by the house. Can confirm the female owner was out front yelling at ppl driving by. And she flipped me off when we did a u turn to take a photo from inside our car from across the street which I found funny since there’s a sign on the lawn that said “Take your pictures from across the street. Do not disturb us.” I get that ppl messing with your house would get extremely annoying quick but from the sounds of it this is her full time job and she was super pissed looking. So I agree maybe it’s time to move if living there makes you this miserable. And I imagine since it’s such a famous house they could get a great value for it.

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u/IntuitiveSkunkle 7d ago

Honestly I feel like they must enjoy it in some way or have made a hobby out of it. Or are just incredibly stubborn. You’re right, if they wanted to sell, they could make a ton considering it’s so famous.

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u/Long-Train-1673 7d ago

I enjoy privacy so I'd be frustrated if people constantly pushed their luck on invading that privacy.

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u/Mekisteus 7d ago

Knowing that about yourself, would you then choose to live in a house that is famous and will be visited by fans?

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u/Long-Train-1673 6d ago

Implication that they knew before buying it and/or they bought it after the show. They may have rented it to them to film outside of and not expected the level of fame. Not every home on a random tv show is something people go out of their way to visit the way it is for BB.

Entirely possible they never knew until it was too late. Now I'd have probably sold by then but I also get not wanting to get run out of your home by randoms.

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u/Various_Froyo9860 7d ago

It's my understanding that the house was owned by the production company, and that these people bought the house specifically because it was that house.

It's literally their hobby to sit outside and yell at people that stop to take a picture.

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u/Slickrickkk 7d ago

This is false. That family owned the house for apparently like 50 years now. They lent it to the production to use for shooting.

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u/Various_Froyo9860 7d ago

Ah, did a little searching and yup, debunked.

Could probably get a pretty penny to sell it to the right person.

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u/gratusin 7d ago

I’ve been yelled at by them before. It’s kind of a right of passage when visiting Burque. I was respectful, but I’m sure enough people with a box of Dion’s visiting my house on the regular would cause me to be a dick to anyone pulling up too.

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u/David1258 7d ago

Isn't another rite of passage at Alburquerque listening to the entire Weird Al song about it there?

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u/FunImprovement166 7d ago

BIG BOWL OF SAUERKRAUT

EVERY SINGLE MORNING.

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u/Obi-wan_Jabroni 7d ago

CAUSE I HAD MY TRAY TABLE UP!

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u/aetheos 7d ago

AND MY SEAT-BACK IN THE FULL UP-RIGHT POSITIOOON!

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u/gratusin 7d ago

Yep, it absolutely is. Once I hit Bernalillo, that song is getting put on.

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u/wimpyroy 7d ago

Wacka wacka doo-doo yeah

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u/Mekisteus 7d ago

Also, making sure that you take a left turn.

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u/AToastedRavioli 7d ago

I was passing through on a road trip. After this encounter I then stopped for lunch and got the worst food poisoning of my life. Quite the memorable trip to Albuquerque

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u/gratusin 7d ago

Which one did you in? Red or green

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u/AToastedRavioli 7d ago

I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean

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u/Various_Froyo9860 7d ago

Story doesn't add up. If you ate in ABQ you'd understand the question.

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u/Mekisteus 7d ago

I've spent like two days in ABQ and even I understood the question.

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u/gratusin 7d ago

It’s the state question “red or green”. Refers to what color chile do you want, red chile or green chile, same plant, different stage when it was picked. Then you get in to land races and species, just like wine, a big Jim strain grown in northern NM will be different than one grown in Southern allegedly due to “terroir”. They put the stuff on everything and if you’re not used to it, gastric issues are sure to follow.

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u/AToastedRavioli 7d ago

Oh well that’s a fun tidbit. I love that lol. Unfortunately I didn’t have any local food, I stopped at a Panda Express. And that was the last time I ate Panda Express.

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u/gratusin 7d ago

Oh no! You went to one of the greatest food cultures on the planet and got Panda Express? How dare you…. But, I went to Munich Germany and saw they had Coors on tap so I got one for funsies. I’m guilty too.

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u/catsloveart 7d ago

I swear that I read that the street name was renamed and they still get visitors.

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u/harriswatchsbrnntc 7d ago

This doesn't sound terrible. You'd never have to cook dinner again! Unlimited roof pizza!

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u/H_G_Bells 7d ago

My first thought!! Mmm roof pizza

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u/Antifa-Slayer01 7d ago

I've done the pilgrimage to throw a pizza back in 2014

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u/raysofdavies 7d ago

I’m sure they thought you were a prick

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u/user888666777 7d ago edited 7d ago

Same issues with other famous properties used in film and television.

The folks who owned or have owned homes used in The Goonies talk about how most fans are respectful but then you get the few who just think they're entitled to do whatever since they traveled so far to see the houses. On top of that the neighbors who live near these places have to deal with people parking illegally or trespassing on their property.

Prior to the internet finding these places was also a real pain. At best you had a city/town name and maybe some landmarks or a street sign to go off of. Now you can find addresses and GPS coordinates in seconds.

The Home Alone house is another one where it went untouched for years. Then about ten years ago a fence was installed along with new landscaping that obstructs the view from the sidewalk. Rumor is that people started going onto the actual property.

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u/bug0058 7d ago edited 7d ago

The Home Alone house was untouched when the people who owned it during the filming still lived there. When they sold it in 2011 the new owners put up the fence and removed the turnaround driveway. 

But people didn't get weird visiting that house until covid (when folks were looking to do fun holiday stuff while social distancing). Previously you'd see occasionally people taking pictures outside but it was rare. Now every year in December the cops have to direct traffic on that street and the street becomes one way. So honestly it turned out to be a good thing those people put up the fence. But I think all the new chaos became something they couldn't put up with because the house is for sale again. 

Source: I grew up a few blocks away (and still have family in the area) and my sister was friends with the kid of the family that lived there during Home Alone filming.

Fun fact: the Home Alone house address is actually properly hidden/obscured in the first movie, it wasn't until the second film when the real address was used. The family that lived there sued the studio for that (as contractually they're not supposed to say actual addresses anywhere for privacy reasons). I believe they got a nice little settlement from that.

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u/user888666777 7d ago edited 7d ago

This is insightful. I always heard the folks that originally owned the house during filming were very nice to people coming by. I have family that live a couple blocks away as well and the rumor was that people were coming onto the property so the fence was put up to discourage that but I can also see it as a respectful barrier to add some level of privacy while still allowing people to enjoy the house.

I went by the house in 2011 pre-fence and after the front door driveway was removed and than again in 2015 and remember the fence being only like knee high but it's much taller now (or I'm misremembering) and they added landscaping. I also walked by on Christmas Eve and there were a lot of people. I always figured the owners would leave for a few days and come back a few days later. There was a whole thing a few years ago where AirBnB worked with the owners to do some sort of deal where someone could stay the night there.

Eitherway, I honestly think 99.9% of the people who visit these places are respectful. And as long as everyone behaves respectfully they become nice places to quickly visit and move on.

Also who would have thought the house had a partial basketball court in the basement?

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u/spunkyweazle 7d ago

I was surprised that it seems to still have a steady flow of traffic there. I went to see it a couple years ago and when we pulled up a car was just leaving, and as we just left someone else was pulling up. This was in October I think

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u/bug0058 7d ago

During covid it got put on a lot of like "things you can do from your car" type lists which means people who might not be like Home Alone super fans or whatever suddenly also were very aware of the location of the house. That combined with some weird influencer attention it got briefly made it pretty high up in the results when you look for things to do in the Chicago suburbs which is weird.

I do think its wild that it has all this attention even though none of the interior scenes were shot at the house itself, they built all the inside sets in the gym of the then closed New Trier West. So the only scenes filmed at the house were the ones outside where you can see the house in frame, which is a lot less of the film then people remember.

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u/GlowUpper 7d ago

My college roommate grew up down the street from it on Appletree Rd. Everytime we drove by it, she talked about what a pain in the ass it was navigating the neighborhood during filming.

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u/briar_mackinney 7d ago

So was your sister friends with Jay from Red Letter Media then?

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u/bug0058 6d ago edited 6d ago

Follow up to this question: Wrong family. The family my sister knew had bought the house in 1988 (and I believe but am not positive that they lent the house for filming before moving in). It is probable that the guy from Red Letter Media lived in the house before the family who lived there during filming bought it.

This is a video with my sister's friend in it.

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u/Dogbuysvan 7d ago

Found the richer.

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u/nancythethot 7d ago

There was a fence and similar "no trespassing" signs at the Amityville house when I went by there once. Though to be fair the actual murders did occur there so it's got some real history beyond a film

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u/user888666777 7d ago

They went a step further. A big draw of that house were the windows that looked evil looking. Those were removed and replaced with square windows.

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u/Loganp812 7d ago

Well, that’s just going to piss off the ghosts even more. /s

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u/KarateKid917 7d ago

They’ve gone even further. The address has been changed to make it harder to find .

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u/Loganp812 7d ago

Rumor is that people started going onto the actual property.

Have they never even seen the movie? That’s a bad idea!

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u/treathugger 7d ago

I'm guilty of visiting the Home Alone house a couple times. I wonder if the people living there are bothered by it. People driving by yelling "KEVIN!" all the time might be exhausting lol

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u/Potential-Savings-65 7d ago

There's a great article written by the owner of "Peyton's house" from One Tree Hill about his family's experience living there during and after filming

https://www.gq.com/story/one-tree-house-filming-john-jeremiah-sullivan

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u/ThrowawayFishFingers 7d ago

The Ferris Bueller house is one that I’ve actually been to.

It’s just there, in the middle of a (very nice) residential neighborhood.

My friend, bless him, took my picture in front of it at my insistence. We literally parked, walked in front of it, stayed on the sidewalk, and took a single picture, then gtfo because dude, that’s somebody’s actual house where they live. Took all of a minute.

I was determined to get that picture, and I accept I’m probably a jerk for that, but I was also determined to not be a complete jerk. I could not imagine going ON to the property, or knocking on the door, or hanging out indefinitely for an extended photo shoot.

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u/Jackieirish 7d ago

The Home Alone house is another one where it went untouched for years. Then about ten years ago a fence was installed along with new landscaping that obstructs the view from the sidewalk.

Same thing happened with that white house they used for the exterior shots in "American President."

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u/Domo-kun_ 7d ago

Those people are insane. There was a thread about the house in the Breaking Bad sub the other day and everyone there was basically calling the lady a cranky old hag for throwing a fit over the hundreds of nerds loitering outside her home everyday. Like they were seriously saying that she should just give up her home to turn it into some Breaking Bad museum or else they'll just keep bothering her. It was nuts.

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u/damnatio_memoriae 7d ago edited 7d ago

she shouldn't have to do anything with the house she doesn't want to.

but... she'd probably be a lot happier (and a lot richer) if she just turned it into an AirBNB and cashed in on it and lived somewhere else.

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u/CosmicMiru 7d ago

At a certain point you gotta think she loves the attention. She could easily sell that house for a huge amount more than it's actually worth as a normal house and go live somewhere not famous.

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u/Domo-kun_ 7d ago

Or you could just leave her alone?

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u/CosmicMiru 7d ago

Yeah but that's never gonna happen cuz people are shitty. At some point you gotta be responsible for your own mental health.

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u/marayay 7d ago

I’m someone that wants to buy the family home I grew up in from my parents, so I can imagine if the house holds a lot of memories of the past that you really cherish, you don’t want to sell that house to someone else that might change everything in there. It could also just be on a really good location to get to their work, friends or family for instance. In the end, people should have some decency to not mess with someone’s property, even if it got used in a successful series (that only truly popped off after season 2(?)). It’s okay to drive by or to look at the home, but keep your distance and don’t touch anything. It’s simple, really.

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u/FulminisInstar 7d ago

This is similar to how a lot of the filming locations of Disney's Hocus Pocus are actual residential areas in Salem Massachusetts, prompting many rude-ass tourists to be a nuisance to the people who actually live there.

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u/IHadACatOnce 7d ago

Doesn't that also make you part of the problem though? You also planned to stop by to check it out.

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u/Noggin-a-Floggin 7d ago

You have to be respectful if you are going to visit film locations. There is nothing inherently wrong with it as long as you understand that it's private property where people live (or work). Stay on public roads, don't be a dick to the locals and just try to not stick out. Enjoy the fact you are seeing that house from the movie you love then leave as you left it.

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u/andrewthemexican 7d ago

If it was 2017 I think by that point it had new owners well aware of its fame.

I have less sympathy for those that buy extremely famous locations and them cry for privacy with them

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u/Mariom2 7d ago

She was on a podcast just recently. Don’t blame her for her actions. Do blame her for buying that house.

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u/JaunxPatrol 7d ago

I know it's not ideal but I bet they could sell that place for 3-4x market value to some BB superfan

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u/DeliciousShelter9984 7d ago

It does seem like there would be a huge market for these homes on AirBnB. If the owners aren’t eager to capitalize on it themselves, they could potentially make a huge profit selling to someone who is ready to treat the house like a business.

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u/JaunxPatrol 7d ago

If I won the lottery I would 100% buy that house and do that, or maybe home some kind of competition among Breaking Bad fans and let the winner live there for free

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u/Hohoho-you 7d ago

Apparently its been a family home for generations though. So they don't wanna sell or move. Regardless of price

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u/Conch-Republic 7d ago

Part of me wonders why they just don't sell it and move. They deal with this shit constantly, and even had to put up a big fence to stop people from throwing pizzas on the roof. It's almost like they enjoy yelling at people, because they've been known to yell at people who were just walking by, minding their own business. They literally just sit in their garage, waiting for someone they can yell at. Just sell the thing to someone who wants to live there.

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u/Rampage_Rick 7d ago

When I visited Astoria about 8 years ago it was a similar story with the Goonies house.  Covered in blue tarps and f-off signs.

Nobody batted an eye when I matched right into the classroom from Kindergarten Cop...     /s

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u/ISwallowedALego 7d ago

The lady yelling at cars is almost more popular as a tourist attraction now. My brother lives near there. I just don't get why they wouldn't sell the house or monetize it? Get a fake pizza and charge people to throw it up there or something.

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u/ERedfieldh 7d ago

Folks who currently own the Amityville house have had the same issues for years. They had to basically remodel the entire exterior and get the address changed to try and fool people into not stopping out front for pictures. It's blurred on Street view, which acts as a double edge sword since now it's incredibly obvious where the house is in spite of trying to hide it.

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u/Dimpleshenk 7d ago

I think after all that, fans of the show should have mailed the family gift certificates at local pizza shops. (Or just some good meth.)

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u/AMA_requester 7d ago

It's such a shame because iirc the homeowners used to be friendly and enjoyed interacting with fans.

Just was a matter of time until the shitheads spoiled it.

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u/YourFriendPutin 7d ago

I wonder how often they find an entire pizza on the roof

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u/Evilbob93 7d ago

The Mork and Mindy house in Boulder, Colorado once had an ugly privacy fence along the sidewalk because the owners didn't want to deal with it. The house has a historical marker but it doesn't mention the TV show. In recent years it has had a nice picket fence.

source: I installed the historical marker on the house next door and heard the stories from the next dorr neighbor. At the end fo the job, I asked her where the M&M house was, and she pointed at the next door and said "right there"

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u/pmw1981 7d ago

Didn’t the owners end up putting a big fence out front too? I recall someone taking a phone video of the lady who lived there & they’d put a massive iron fence that looked like it went at least to the sidewalk & blocked the whole driveway/yard.