The Los Angeles metropolitan area sprawls almost 5,000 square miles, inside of which you can catch glimpses of Japan, Iran, even Siberia. At least, that’s what the film industry would have you believe. Los Angeles, with its geographic diversity, has been the backdrop to all kinds of exotic locations, from the Egyptian setting of Scorpion King to the Florida home of the Golden Girls.
In the 1920s, Paramount Studios even created a map of potential shooting locations in California, which marked all of the places producers could replicate without leaving the state. You could cheat Spain and Wales off the coast of Los Angeles; to the North, the Swiss Alps; to the East, the Sahara Desert.
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We revisited some of our favorite Los Angeles set locations that have appeared as other cities and countries in film.
See more of Nate Miller’s work here.
Queens Way Bridge as Spain in ‘Knight and Day’
Second Street Tunnel as Japan in ‘Kill Bill’
The Reserve as the New York bank robbed by Doc Ock in ‘Spiderman 2’
A house in Hollywood as Nancy’s house in Ohio in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’
Bronson Canyon as Egypt in ‘The Scorpion King’
El Carmen Restaurant as Mexico in ‘Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle’
VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center as Iran in ‘Argo’
Los Angeles courtyard as Colombia in ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’
Long Beach shoreline as China in ‘Transformers 2’
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