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Michigan Movie Moments
by Kristi Kates
"Wouldn't it be
nice if life was like the movies?" is a phrase often heard - well, at least
regarding the movies with happy endings. But if you're lucky enough to live or
vacation in a place like Michigan, you might just find that you're surrounded by
plenty of the right elements to bring some of those perfect movie moments to
life. Trying to find something different to do this summer? Then check out our
Michigan movie moments guide to create your own mini-movie-locations-tour, where
you can tread the paths of where some Michigan-made movies were filmed! (And
don't forget your camera!)
 Somewhere in Time (1980) - starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour
Perhaps the best-known of the "made in Michigan" films, this
romantic-slash-time-travel escapade positions Reeve as Richard and Seymour as
Elise, the woman he pursues. There is, remarkably, still quite a following for
this movie, including a fan club and website, in spite of the fact that it's now
24 years old - and, since Mackinac Island is pretty much frozen in time itself,
you can visit many of the shooting locales from this movie and find many of them
looking just the same. Most notable are probably the scene in the gazebo on the
Great Lawn - on which you can picnic by simply grabbing some foodstuffs from one
of the many restaurants in town - and the scenes at the Grand Hotel. You can
visit the Grand Hotel any time, of course, strolling the same long porch that
the stars did, or browsing through the lobby and other areas; or you can go
whole hog and wait until October, when you can take part (dressed in period
attire, of course) in the "Somewhere in Time Weekend" (Oct. 29-31, 2004),
complete with receptions, meals, a screening of the film (of course), and
sometimes appearances from the cast; Jane Seymour herself showed up a couple of
years ago. On a side note, another film, 1947's *This Time For Keeps* was shot
at the Grand Hotel, too - but legend has it that *...Keeps* swimming star Esther
Williams found the water in the pool so cold that her swimming scenes were shot
on the backlot at MGM. That didn't prevent the Grand Hotel from naming their
pool after Miss Williams, however.
The Road to Perdition (2002) - Tom Hanks, Jude Law, Paul Newman
Starring Tom Hanks as a 1930's hitman on the run, *Perdition* is based both
in Chicago and in a fictitious town called Perdition, Michigan, and many of the
scenes set in this "town" take place in a makeshift cottage that was built on
the beach (locations used for the structure and for various shots of Lake
Michigan include Port Sheldon, Olive Township, Robinson Township and Saugatuck)
especially for the movie. The structure was taken down soon after filming
wrapped, but you can still stroll down the beach to check out the foundation,
and the land, which belongs to the public, is reportedly part of a plan to turn
the film site into a natural county park. And if you want sit in the same
theatre as Tom Hanks did, well, you can - kinda - if you catch a movie at the
Star Theatre in Holland, where Hanks grabbed some popcorn and watched "Pearl
Harbor" during a break in filming.
American Pie (1999) and American Pie 2 (2001) - Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan
Not all of this randy movie series was filmed in Michigan, but quite a bit
of it was - and many of the places that weren't actually shot in the state were
reproduced on soundstages elsewhere, with names tweaked to serve the script.
The actual filming included a few shots of the Grand Haven shoreline - the guys
in the movie go to the lakeside resort town of Grand Haven - renamed "Grand
Harbor" for the movie - echoing what many Grand Rapids residents do in the
summer. There are plenty of namedrops of Michigan State University and U of M.
The characters in the movie live in a town called "Great Falls," as based on the
writer's experiences growing up in Grand Rapids, while the kids go to "East
Great Falls High School," which is modelled after East Grand Rapids High, the
most preppy school in the area. And, if you stop by the 50-year-old hotdog shop
Yesterdog's in Grand Rapids for lunch, you'll find it eerily similar to the
restaurant called Yesteryear's in the movie - and for good reason, since
Yesteryear's was modelled after Yesterdog's on purpose.
And, if you're headed to the Motor City, you can investigate where these
Detroit-based movie hits were filmed:
8 Mile (2002) - Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, and Eminem
The production team for this big-budget flick reported wanted to use the
"grungiest" parts of Detroit in order to get that real inner-city feel for the
story of wannabe rapper Jimmy, and, although they filmed some scenes in New
York, much of the filming was done right in Detroit. The stamping company where
Jimmy worked in the film was actually an old General Motors factory that can be
seen at Milwaukee and Hastings streets. The trailer park where Jimmy lived in
the movie - and where much of the movie took place - is actually The Continental
Mobile Village in Warren, Michigan, while the house that was "torched" in the
film was located in Highland Park. If you drive or walk around the Eastern
Market and Chene Street, you're likely to see other familiar-to-the-movie
locales, as well.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) - John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd
With a screenplay set in the city of Grosse Pointe ("the Beverly Hills of
the Midwest") - Cusack (reluctant hit man Martin Blank) and Driver (Debi,
unsuspecting radio hostess and Blank's now-estranged high school sweetheart)
attend their high school reunion. Several location shots were taken of the
area, including the local high school, one of the lake shore drives and various
other streets. Many of the other locales, however, were shot in Pasadena,
California, which stands in for Grosse Pointe due to the film's budget concerns.
Here are some of the other films that have been shot in Michigan:
*Where the Boys Are* (1960) - Connie Francis travels from Michigan to
Florida for Spring Break (some things
never change)
*Evil Dead* (1982) and *Evil Dead II* (1987) - both shot in Michigan by
Michigan's favorite slapstick-horror guru, Bruce Campbell
*Roger and Me* (1989) and *Bowling for Columbine* (2002) - by Michigan's own
controversial Michael Moore
*Action Jackson* (1987) - with Carl Weathers and Sharon Stone; shot on location
in Denver, Colorado and in Detroit
*Below* (2002) - WWII story with Bruce Greenwood and Scott Foley that utilized
Muskegon's USS Silverside submarine for filming
*Escanaba In Da Moonlight* (2001) and *Supersucker* (2002) - both starring Jeff
Daniels, the first was shot in the U.P., the second in Jackson
*True Romance* (1993) - written by Quentin Tarantino and filmed in downtown
Detroit with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette
*Prancer* (1989) - with Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman; this holiday movie was
filmed in part in Three Oaks, Michigan
*Presumed Innocent* (1990) - with Harrison Ford; partly filmed in Detroit's
forboding Frank Murphy Hall of Justice
*Polish Wedding* (1998) - starring Claire Danes, much of this comedy was filmed
in Hamtramck
*Die Hard II* (1990) - with Bruce Willis; Minnesota was the original shooting
locale, but lack of snow moved the production to Alpena
*Aspen Extreme* (1992) - Paul Gross and Peter Berg's characters quit their
Detroit jobs to become ski instructors; plenty of shots of Detroit
*Sleeping Bear* (1995) - This family film was made in Michigan by Traverse
City's own Brauer Productions
*Hardball* (2000) - Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane; this film shot for two days at
Cobo Arena and one at the old Tiger Stadium
*Beverly Hills Cop* (1984) and *Beverly Hills Cop II* (1987) - before Eddie
Murphy was Donkey in Shrek, he was carousing around Detroit in these movies
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