It’s important to remember that these would have been for black and white movies. No, the LA coast isn’t nearly dreary enough to stand in for Wales, but an underexposed monochrome shot could easily look sufficiently gloomy.

Wales out here catching strays

Beastmaster is one of my all time favorite sword and sorcery flicks, with location shoots and big sets made to look “ancient”. Then they made the sequel and said “fuck that, he takes a portal to modern LA”. It’s even better now because it’s an unintentional time capsule of 90s LA.

Here’s a woozy - due to filming constraints, most planets in the entirety of the Stargate franchise look like the forests of British Columbia. The occasional desert planet? Shot in the sulfur pits of the harbour of Vancouver.

Some of the locations are spot on. Others are…less so. It is unclear if any Paramount executives had ever been to Kentucky or New England.

Good news! Most of their audiences haven’t been there either.

Beautiful and diverse state.

One of my favorite quotes from Austin Powers is when he and Vanessa are driving around and he turns to the camera and says “Ain’t it weird how the British countryside looks nothing at all like Southern California?” Cuz it was filmed entirely in and around LA.

It’s always fun to identify when they’re definitely not shooting on location. I think it was Cabin in the Woods that takes place in West Virginia and the establishing shot has white capped mountain peaks.

After 99 years, I gotta wonder how accurate it is.