5 WITHIN 50: Film Locations

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Walking with zombies in Senoia. At the bus stop with Forrest. Hanging with vampires in Covington. Georgia’s landscapes and towns have set the scene for countless movies and TV shows!

BLUE CAT LODGE – OZARK
6979 BELLS FERRY ROAD | CANTON
Filmed on the site of the former Little River Grill restaurant on Lake Allatoona, the fictional Blue Cat Lodge serves as the front to Marty Byrde’s money laundering business in Netflix’s popular Ozark series. If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, that ship has sailed: the lease for the building was acquired by the proprietor of J.D’s BarB-Que, and opened for business this past summer as J.D.’s on the Lake. J.D.’s kept a few of the décor nods to the Blue Cat, so it’s worth a visit. The Little River Marina across the street has also been used for filming.

THE SWAN HOUSE – THE HUNGER GAMES SERIES
3130 SLATON DRIVE | ATLANTA
Interesting that a fictional world full of hovercrafts, bioengineered creatures and force fields would also feature a mansion built in 1928 as the home of the leader of this dystopian future. Located on the campus of the Atlanta History Center, the historic Swan House is an extensive museum on Atlanta’s history, with historic gardens and a farm. The home’s interiors and exteriors served as President Snow’s mansion in the Capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games movie series, and the 19th season of The Amazing Race even finished here.

WHISTLE STOP CAFÉ – FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
443 MCCRACKEN STREET | JULIETTE
This one’s a bit of a #throwback, but a classic nonetheless. Standing in for the fictional town of Whistlestop, Alabama, Juliette, Georgia is the real-life home to the iconic Whistle Stop Café. A bustling railroad community during the early 1900s, Juliette was nearly forgotten until 1991 when movie producers re-discovered the charming southern town. The cemetery includes the graves of Buddy Threadgood and Ruth Jamison, and a third grave by he barbecue pit reads, “Here lies Frank Bennet of Valdosta. The secret was in the sauce.”

TALLULAH GORGE STATE PARK – DELIVERANCE
338 JANE HURT YARN DRIVE | TALLULAH FALLS
Despite the best efforts of the director and cinematographer of Deliverance to make the Tallulah Falls landscape less pretty by desaturating the color, the wild, unspoiled riverscape featured in the film is absolutely gorgeous. Credited with starting Georgia’s movie boom back in 1972, thousands of visitors enjoy the outdoor adventure aspects of the film while paddling through Northeast Georgia at Tallulah Gorge State Park every year. A bit of advice paddle faster if you hear banjos.

“MARVEL” AT THIS!
Since Marvel Studios started working with Fayetteville’s Pinewood Studios, there has been a near-endless stream of superhero blockbusters to come out of Georgia. Find your favorite characters from the pages of comic books into the streets of Atlanta and beyond:
• Spider-Man: Homecoming – Perimeter Center Embassy Suites in Dunwoody, Downtown Cartersville
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 – Downtown Cartersville
• Captain America: Civil War – Hapeville’s Porsche Experience Center, “The Gulch” downtown near Philips Arena
• Ant-Man and the Wasp – Norfolk Southern Building, Emory University
• Avengers: Infinity War – Tallulah Gorge and around the metro Atlanta area
• Black Panther – Vulcan Materials quarry in Stockbridge, High Museum of Art, Bouckaert Farm in Chattahoochee Hills…Wakanda Forever!

Looking for more? Check out the Georgia Film Trail Guided Tours and more at ExploreGeorgia.com