From real-life to the small screen
At first glance, the cinema, the hospitality industry, and the real estate industry probably don’t seem to have anything in common. In reality, however, many buildings presented in popular productions have been sold for millions of dollars and today host tourists from all over the world, eager to follow in the footsteps of their favourite TV characters.
Here are some very real properties, which have hosted, over time, some of the most beloved movies and series in history.
The playful rooms
If we take a walk through the suburbs of Chicago, in Winnetka we will come across an imposing colonial-style house. What attracts the curious is not only its century-old history and the special architecture but the fact that it hosted some of the most important scenes of the well-known production "Home Alone". The kitchen, the hall, and the high staircase are just some of the places where Kevin's mischiefs were filmed, although the current elegance of the house is not reminiscent of the sets used in the film. After it was put up for sale, the four-bedroom and three-bathroom property were purchased in 2012 for USD 1.6 million.
The enchanted residence
To transpose us into the magical world of wizards, the creators of the famous Harry Potter series used all the assets they had, from special effects to custom sets. For the production of such magnitude, you can't limit yourself to a studio, so filming was moved to various locations to add charm and authenticity to the action. One of the choices was the medieval British village of Lavenham, in Suffolk County, transformed into the main character's hometown. But not only the city where the action takes place is real, but also the house where the little wizard was born. The De Vere House residence, which once belonged to the aristocrats of the same name, was built in the 14th century and has been impressively preserved. Behind the illusion of an abandoned place, made by the producers, hides a chic house with six bedrooms and four bathrooms, decorated with stone fireplaces, a medieval staircase, and carved wooden ceilings. Sold three years ago for USD 1.2 million, the property can now be rented on AirBnB.
In a galaxy not so far away
The house where the beloved Luke Skywalker, one of the protagonists of the Star Wars phenomenon series was born, can also be visited by the curious. In addition, it is not as far away as the galaxy in which the film action takes place, but is located in the Tunisian city of Marmata, being known to "mortals" as the Sidi Driss Hotel. In the four-star location, visitors can spend the night in the underground rooms built by the Berber population a few centuries ago, and which in the film represents the place where the hero grew up on the planet Tatooine.
Nostalgia for dance steps
From the outside, Mountain Lake Lodge, a huge stone-covered hotel, looks just like a picturesque building surrounded by spectacular scenery. In the world of cinema and the millions of fans of Dirty Dancing, however, this place will always have a special significance. And that's because many passionate scenes between the two protagonists were filmed here, the place being known on the small screens as Kellerman's Resort. Also here, the walls witnessed the utterance of one of the most famous lines in the world of film: "Nobody puts Baby in the corner". The royal hotel was built in the 1930s and is located in Pembroke, Virginia.
The house of experiments
Although it is not at all recommended to follow their example, the protagonists of the Breaking Bad series have performed countless chemical experiments right in the basement of the house of Jesse Pinkman, the student of Professor Walter White. The Spanish colonial-style residence used to film the scenes is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was bought by the current owner in 2015 for more than USD 1.5 million. The house is a real gem, still preserving the original floors, fireplaces, and doors framed in stone.
The outside matters
The exterior of a building is often even more famous than the interior, therefore it is worth mentioning the exteriors of two apartments that became epic by being featured in dozens of frames of two of the most famous sitcoms of all time: Seinfeld and Friends, although their interior didn't host the stories in the series. In the first case, it’s the block wall located in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, where Jerry Seinfeld lived, in fact, the building, known as Shelly, is located in Koreatown, Los Angeles. And the exterior of the Manhattan apartment building, where the daily meetings of the six members of the Friends gang take place, actually belongs to a Brooklyn building.
Data for this article was obtained from: cntraveler.com, discovertunisia.com, loveproperty.com, housebeautiful.com. Photo credit: ©dacosta/123RF.COM.
