We all know that "Ocean’s Eleven" was shot in Las Vegas, "The Blues Brothers" was shot in Chicago and "Manhattan" was shot in — duh — Manhattan.
But were there any movies that were shot here in Arlington? According to the people that issue film permits for the county, there were plenty.
While Arlington isn’t first in most people’s minds when it comes to Hollywood glamour, several movies and television shows, especially in the past few years, have chosen to use the county as their backdrop.
Scenes from films as wide ranging as "The Recruit," "Breach," and "Wedding Crashers" have been filmed in and around the Arlington area.
According to Rob Farr, who was the county’s film commissioner for ten years, the Tom Cruise action vehicle "Mission Impossible III" shot a few scenes on Route 50 in Arlington.
He also said that a post-apocalyptic scene from the 1998 film "Deep Impact" was shot in Arlington but ended up on the cutting room floor.
"They spent several days in Rosslyn but they never used the scene," Farr said. "It was supposed to be after the asteroid hit [with] people straggling across the Key Bridge."
One film that did film extensively in Arlington was Clint Eastwood’s WWII drama "Flags Of Our Fathers." The film follows the lives of the soldiers who raised the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in the famous Life Magazine photograph.
Farr said that Eastwood himself was in Arlington filming scenes at the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which features a statue of the iconic flag-raising image.
While not on the big screen, the recently-cancelled NBC television program "The West Wing" came to Arlington several times to shoot on location.
Kathryn Stephens, a manager at the Virginia Film Office, said that in 2002, 2003 and 2004 the show filmed scenes in the Northern Virginia area.
One of the show’s most famous episodes, in which President Josiah Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, is shot during an assassination attempt, features Arlington prominently.
"The presidential assassination was taped right outside the [former] Newseum on Freedom Plaza," Farr said. "All exteriors were done in Freedom Plaza even though the interiors were [shot] in Hollywood."
FARR ALSO NOTED that less-recent films have been filmed in Arlington as well.
Farr said that, in the 1993 presidential spoof "Dave," starring Kevin Klein and Sigourney Weaver, "There’s a scene where [Dave is] leaving a Doubletree Hotel on Eads Street and Jefferson Davis Highway by Crystal City."
He also said that parts of the 1993 legal thriller "The Pelican Brief," starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, were shot in Arlington.
But possibly the first film ever filmed in the county was D.W. Griffith’s "America," a sequel of sorts to his pioneering yet controversial epic "Birth Of A Nation." Farr said that parts of "America," the story of a family caught up in the Revolutionary War, were filmed at Ft. Myer in 1924.
"There are pictures of [Griffith] at Ft. Myer [today]," Farr said.
Emily Cassell, who took over for Farr as the county’s issuer of film permits a year ago, said that no major Hollywood productions are currently filming in Arlington right now.
"Mostly what I get are a lot of little film projects," she said, such as commercials, reenactments and NYU film students who grew up in the area.
She said that several Court TV programs have filmed crime reenactments in Arlington. Cassell also said that several filmmakers have requested the use of the county’s parks.
"It seems like most of them need parks," she said. She also speculated that it might be because the filmmakers have specific parks in mind that they want to shoot at.