Many of us saw the Big Apple for the first time on the big screen. When famous locations are used in movies, we know and love, visiting those locations is even more exciting. We’ve compiled a list of popular films that depict iconic New York City locations. Do you know what movie was granted permission to shut down Times Square?
Vanilla Sky was the only film to be granted permission to close Times Square for an extended period of time.
Vanilla at Times Square
In an interview with Vulture, writer-director Cameron Crowe discussed filming the iconic scene and how no one else could replicate it, including Danny DeVito. According to Crowe, the idea of an empty Times Square was part of the story since he decided to adapt Alejandro Amenábar’s Abre Los Ojos, which has a similar scene set in a deserted Madrid.
Very early on, our producers, Don Lee and Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, went to see Rudy Giuliani and his people to see if we could do this, I said, ‘Great news! What’s the condition?’ And they said, ‘You! Somebody, there has done some research on you, and heard that you do a lot of takes.’ I was like, ‘What?! I’m a thorough director, but this intel is in the mayor’s office?’ They were like, ‘Yeah, somebody there is worried. They don’t want you in Times Square running around with Tom Cruise, with you shooting stuff, with no clear plan.
Cameron Crowe, Director of Vanilla Sky
As it turns out, the former New York Mayor had only one condition before agreeing to close one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.
I’ll just run. I’ll just run back and forth and you can do running shots. Which was what the mayor’s office was afraid we’d be doing.
Tom Cruise, Actor
Crowe and his team then spend weeks preparing for and practicing the sequence. The production had Times Square for three hours on a Sunday morning for the shoot, and everything went far too smoothly. Crowe claims that they completed multiple takes with more than an hour remaining.
We had an hour and 15 minutes or so left, so Tom just ran. And it was beautiful. It was just — we were in gravy land. We got even that done early, and I’m telling you, it was a count of 15 before all of the traffic and the people just returned to Times Square. It was stunning. It was like, what we’d done never happened.
Cameron Crowe, Director of Vanilla Sky
(Source: The Playlist)
Shutting Down the Times Square Will Never Happen Again
Following the completion of the production, other requests to close Times Square were denied.
The thing they told us from the beginning to the end is that this will never happen again. And I wish that it hadn’t, As for who else put in a request, Danny DeVito. I’m not sure for what movie, it was a couple of months after us. Sorry, Danny.
Cameron Crowe, Director of Vanilla Sky
(Source: The Playlist)
Image from Twitter