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About The Locations
Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer are known for making sophisticated, intelligent movies that are set in beautiful and detail-filled locations ... in short, fantasy worlds.
"We actually wanted to create two different worlds," states writer/producer Charles Shyer. "One girl lives on a vineyard in Napa, California with wide open spaces. The other lives in the big city. What's the best big city in the world? To me, it's London.
"I would definitely live in London if I wasn't in the movie business," Shyer continues. "If you're going to write movies, you might as well put them in locations you want to visit."
"This is Hollywood at its best," says Natasha Richardson. "This is not the real world. This is a movie about people with dream jobs who live in dream locations. Elizabeth is English, so I have a butler and sit down for silver service tea everyday. I have a Bentley and a chauffeur and I live in this extraordinary house near Harrods. Elizabeth is a designer of wedding gowns. I can't think of anything more romantic than that."
To realize these fantasy worlds, Meyers and Shyer again turned to Academy Award¨ winning production designer Dean Tavoularis, with whom the couple previously worked on "I Love Trouble." Tavoularis, coincidentally, worked on the original "The Parent Trap" as an assistant at the beginning of his career.
"I think he's just the best production designer in the world, pure and simple," states Shyer. "Every idea he has is great, you can trust Dean, he's got impeccable taste."
"Dean Tavoularis is brilliant," agrees Meyers. "I feel really privileged to direct a movie that he designed. He's a great filmmaker and helped me in countless ways. For example, he doesn't just create the bedroom for Hallie, he creates her world. He helps you tell the story in every frame. He just makes everything better."
"We all agreed to make it a world that doesn't have problems," says Tavoularis about the look of the film. "There are always flowers and beautiful things. The environment is trouble-free, a fairy-tale kind of place. Charles and Nancy are very particular about every little item. All the detail is based on the premise of having everything look beautiful."
While the original film was primarily shot on stage, the filmmakers chose to shoot the majority of this film on location. Shooting took place in the summer and fall of 1997 beginning in London, before moving to California for location shooting in Napa Valley, San Francisco, the Lake Arrowhead area and Los Angeles.
Walt Disney Pictures' "The Parent Trap" began principal production in London on July 15, 1997. The crew filmed at several of London's most famous locations, including Buckingham Palace, Berkeley Square, Piccadilly Circus, Abbey Road, Bond Street, the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral and Trafalgar Square before concluding their work in England at Shepperton Studios, where the interior of Elizabeth's townhouse was built on a soundstage.
"Nancy and Charles wanted to get a catalogue of great London shots," says Tavoularis. "When the little girl arrives in London, they pick her up and just assume she's coming home. But in reality, she is a little girl from California who has never been to London so she's got her head out the car window, taking in all the sights."
Tavoularis filled Elizabeth James' townhouse with antique furnishings, silver accessories, and framed drawings on the walls that Tavoularis' brother Alex rendered himself. "Elizabeth's home had a bit of this prim, stiff kind of English element, but since she's a designer, we added a few free, sort of cuckoo ideas to make her more complex."
After a month of shooting in England, the project moved back to the United States and began shooting in Napa Valley, California at the Staglin Family vineyard to film the sequences that take place at the fictional Parker-Knoll vineyard where Nick, Hallie and Chessy live.
"We could have never built a home like this ... it would have cost almost as much as the entire film," Shyer says.
Tavoularis adds, "We were quite lucky to find the Nick Parker house. It was a masculine, dark color outside with ivy and with beautiful vineyards all the way around it. The home also contained beautiful art, much of which we basically used." The Staglins' wines as well as their vineyard are also included in the film.
The Staglin family vineyard is home to Garen and Shari Staglin and their two children; it sits on 62 acres of hillside above the wine-making community of Rutherford. Fifty acres are planted with Chardonnay and Cabernet grapes; it is consistently rated as one of the top five vineyards in California.
The house reflects the family's interest in wine and art and celebrates Garen Staglin's Italian heritage. Designed as a classic Tuscan Villa, the 9,000 square foot home features a multi-colored (a color blend that matches the local Rutherford dust) tile roof, country pine woodwork with whitewash accent, and terra cotta floors in wood colors that stretch indoors and out.
The grounds feature more of the family's art collection as well as oak trees and rosemary that scents the air. The rear patio area is surrounded by olive trees and the pool features hand-painted tiles.
Located off the next country lane down the road from filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's Niebaum-Coppola Winery (where the barrel room scene and the horseback riding scene were shot), the Staglin home is a private vineyard, open to the public only by appointment.
Looking out from the home's loggia at harvest sunset over rolling, lush Cabernet vineyards, Quaid comments, "This is better than I imagined. This is why I like working with Charles and Nancy; they have such a great eye for the world ... and it's great to live in their world!"
The production company then arrived in the Lake Arrowhead area, greeted by heavy rains, courtesy of Hurricane Linda. Despite the drama provided by nature, filming went smoothly and involved approximately 160 local girls.
"We were looking for something that looked like those Eastern camps that were built in the '20s and '30s." says Tavoularis. About thirty camps were scouted, but the filmmakers selected Camp Seeley in Crestline, California, to portray Camp Walden. (Meyers and Shyer's daughter had attended the real Camp Walden in Maine.)
"It had a beautiful lodge building and a nice amphitheater," says Tavoularis. "It just needed cleaning up and painting."
Five weeks of construction were needed for the improvements, which included adding awnings and new colors to pre-existing buildings and constructing additional cabins to fit the story's specifications.
The original film shot many of its camp scenes at Bluff Lake near Big Bear, California. The production company planned to shoot there as well, but was unable to, due to the six inches of snow courtesy of an early season snowstorm. Alternate locations had to be found at a lower elevation. But fun remained the order of the day at Camp Walden.
"The camp was really fun because there were lots of girls my age there," remembers Lohan. The assistant directors wore the Camp Walden counselor outfits and the girls used many of the camp's facilities, such as the basketball court, to pass time between scenes.
The film takes care to mix adult romanticism with classic comedy. Many of the film's sight gags take place at camp. "I felt so nervous ... almost guilty," commented Meyers right before dousing Polly Holliday and Maggie Wheeler with chocolate syrup.
The reunion of ex-spouses Nick and Elizabeth takes place at the fictional Stafford Hotel in San Francisco. The lobby was actually the dressed-up tea room of the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. The exterior was shot on Treasure Island in San Francisco, and the pool was at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey.
"The Ritz-Carlton Hotels have a distinctive look, whether you are in Pasadena or Marina del Rey," says Dean Tavoularis. "That kind of English furniture, breakfront moldings, china ... they have a very classy look."
Much of the fast-paced story action takes place in the lobby, but filmmakers could not take over the working registration/lobby area of the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel. Instead they went to the hotel's tea room and constructed a false lobby. Sconces and molding were added and the faux elevators proved so convincing that real hotel guests tried to use them.
The company also traveled to Long Beach Harbor to film parts of the romantically challenged reunion dinner on board a 115' yacht. There are also flashback scenes of Nick and Elizabeth's initial QE II shipboard romance, which were filmed aboard the Queen Mary. The Napa County Airport was created at the Long Beach Airport. Additional filming took place on sound stages at Sony Studios where the several interior sets were built. Your Comments and Suggestions are Always Welcome. © 2010 2®, All Rights Reserved. |
