OBD movie star..

Hotel Barclay as seen from 4th Street in the film End of Days (1999)

Woke up and went to turn on the news.. The TV was tuned to the StarzHD channel where End of Days (1999) had recently started. I've never seen this movie (not a big Schwarzenegger fan honestly) but what caught my eye of course was the locations. The film supposdely takes place in NYC, but of course LA is the star of many locations including Broadway's Tower Theatre and what I think was a re-dressed Bar 107. What really played a role in the early scenes is a helicopter chase that ends at 4th & Main..

Old Bank District..


Helicopter flying past the Continental Bldg at 4th & Spring.

At some point the helicopter lands on 4th Street and one of the 'bad guys' falls through a fake overhang on the 4th Street entrance to the Hellman Bldg.. The Hellman Bldg doesn't actually have any glass overhangs.. one can surmise it was built especially for the film.. The Hallman is about 100 years old, you know. ;P


Helicopter landing on 4th (in the larger image you can make out the San Fernando Bldg and the Farmers & Merchants Bank & part of the Hellman Annex (4th St facades) on the right.

The Barclay Hotel is on the left.. guessing they used special effects to put the other buildings into the image.. they just aren't there. In 1999 the corner of 4th & Main across from Barclay was a parking lot and the construction on the Medallion project was many years away.

Old Bank District buildings star in many many movies.. (most recently last summer's Eagle Eye) As an example, one can easily point out the Hotel Barclay in many films, tv spots and primetime tv shows. On one hand it's kind of fun pointing out familiar places (I love "location spotting" when I'm watching CSI and can see where they filmed downtown or in the Arts District) but if it's easy for me, I wonder if some locations are being over-used?? What about the residents who live there (me being one of them I stay away from the filming and have been fortunate not to have bright lights shining in my bedroom from an all night film shoot.. some of my neighbors have not been so lucky).

This movie was shot in 1999 (or maybe 1998?) and so the Old Bank District Lofts hadn't been completely developed yet (the San Fernando Bldg at 4th & Main was the first.. then the Hellman across the street, and last the Continental at 4th & Spring) but people do (and did at that time) live downtown. The film industry was using downtown LA as its own backlot for years, nevermind what people living there had to say about it. As downtown LA becomes more populated, one wonders if landing a helicopter on Main Street is so easily done these days. =)

Still, I like spotting my neighborhood. I hope they continue using downtown and the OBD as a star location, as long as they respect the businesses and people who are inconvenienced by all the disruption. It's fun seeing OBD in movies.. even the bad ones. =)