The Florida Movie/Television Trail
Lights, Camera, Action in the Sunshine State
A popular spot in films and TV - check out where to find some famous filming locations in the Sunshine State.
For fans of the 1980s sitcom classic The Golden Girls – bad news! The closest Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia ever got to the real Miami was if craft services was serving Florida orange juice on the Southern California set.
Luckily while in Florida, you can visit the places made famous by their celluloid past.
Grab a map, pop some corn and take notes.
He was not particularly handsome, but the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) did possess some great lungs. The underwater scenes were filmed in Wakulla Springs and Silver Springs. The state park at the former features a Creature Fest every October.
The clear bubbling waters have also played host to the most famous Tarzan of them all - Johnny Weissmuller. Both Tarzan’s New York Adventure and Tarzans Secret Adventure were shot here in the 1940s.
For those with a literary bent to cinematic viewing – a visit to Pulitzer Prize winning author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home at Cross Creek is a must. A 1983 movie of the same name celebrated the life of the woman who called Florida, “her land of enchantment”, and among her inspirational writings of the hammock was The Yearling.
Head to Central West Florida and discover where rejuvenated seniors Don Ameche and Gwen Vernon danced in Cocoon (1985) at St. Petersburg’s Coliseum.
Nearby Tampa hosted Thomas Jane as comic book character, The Punisher in 2004.
Johnny Depp spent time as Edward Scissorhands, not a pirate or murderous barber, in Dade City, Lutz. Wesley Chapel and the Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland.
Further south on the Gulf Coast, singer Jimmy Buffett became a movie producer and actor with 2006’s Hoot, shot in Boca Grande, where Denzel Washington starred in Out of Time had been shot three years prior.
Many people remember Sarasota as the winter home of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was not surprise when Cecille B. DeMille directed 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth it was entirely on location here. Stroll down the Art Deco downtown and you can still see some of the same buildings 55 years later.
Cape Canaveral equals space travel. Apollo 13 (1995), Armageddon (1998), From the Earth to the Moon (1998) and 2000’s Space Cowboys are just a few of the celestial celluloids shot in the Central Eastern part of the state.
Say hello to your little friends in Miami with a drive along Ocean Drive. Here Scarface (1983) was shot (puns intended) along with Goldfinger (1964) and Jerry Lewis’ The Bellboy (1960). Check out the grand Fontainebleau Hotel.
Miami has also been the backdrop for television shows like Miami Vice and CSI: Miami.
Fort Lauderdale explained the annual ritual of spring break through Where the Boys Are (1960) and gave golfers worldwide their perennial comedic favorite Caddyshack (1980). Just a note – the gopher “blow up” actually occurred at the members only Grande Oaks Golf Club in nearby Davie.
The Florida Keys and Key West have been featured in movies like 1989’s License to Kill. 007 aside – it was another spy – this time Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jamie Curtis, in True Lies (1994) that gave movie lovers one of the best all time chase scenes ever on the Old Seven Mile Bridge across the channel from the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait.
If you cannot afford a Florida vacation, rent a DVD and enjoy the semi tropical film fest anyway.
