Seattle on Film

I've been thinking a lot lately about our fair city on film. Before our in-store with director Rick Stevenson, I watched his SIFF '06 hit Expiration Date, where the main character works at the Alibi Room, lives on Queen Anne and hangs out a lot in Ballard. Shortly after that I read the PI's Big Blog post celebrating the 15th anniversary of Singles (and I still think to myself, "There's just no privacy anymore" when I go past the Virginia Inn). Then last week a wise person forwarded me the PDF of The Seattle Film Office's "Reel Life in Seattle: An Insider's Guide to Seattle Film Locations" brochure. This handy leaflet features a map of neighborhoods and various city landmarks and lists the movies in which they appear. While nobody needs a brochure to tell them the Space Needle is featured in pretty much every film shot in Seattle, there are plenty of interesting tidbits. I had no idea the bus tunnel appears in Disclosure. Did you know some lucky person in American Heart goes to the Lusty Lady? Me neither. It's been a long time since I saw Dogfight, so I'd completely forgotten that some of the main parts take place in the Nite Lite (at least I think it's the main parts, I'll have to watch it again). I was surprised the brochure doesn't mention 99 and 44/100% Dead, a 1974 film starring Richard Harris that prominently features the University Heights building right up the street from Scarecrow. I'm also surprised it doesn't mention Robinson Devor's Police Beat but I'm guessing that might just be because it hasn't been updated in awhile, since it makes no mention of Grey's Anatomy either. An unsettling fact is revealed in the last question on the brochure's "Reel Seattle Trivia" quiz. Can you guess how many Sleepless in Seattle shirts are sold every day at Sea-Tac? As they say in TV news, the answer may surprise (or in my case, nauseate) you. I'm curious to see the upcoming Battle In Seattle, since most of it was shot in Vancouver (of course) but some scenes were filmed right here in town next to the Cinerama. It will be interesting to see how that film portrays our city during WTO. Ray Liotta plays someone called "Mayor Jim Tobin." Could they find no one to play Paul Schell? Here are some questions for you: What's your favorite Seattle film? And if you made a movie here, what parts of Seattle would it feature?