"Something Wicked This Way Comes" is one of my favorite films and I was wondering if anyone knew where I may find out exactly in what town the movie was filmed. Please reply if you can help me, thanks..

A good deal of the film down in movie back lots in Los Angeles.

Was any of the town real? I'd really like to know what town it was replicating, if so..

According to the commentaries on the Laserdisc version of the film, the whole town was constructed on a movie lot. Bradbury says he became very attached to it, and was sad when it all had to be taken down.

Unusually for a film, many of the indoor scenes were filmed inside the actual buildings made for the film. In other words, those were not just facades.

- Phil

[This message has been edited by philnic (edited 05-11-2004).]

I thought it was mostly done at Main Street, USA, at Disneyland, based on Walt Disney's hometown. I understood the big thing was that the town was ALREADY built and they'd save on sets.

Why, oh why is that commentary not on the DVD? GRRRR!!!

Following dandelion's message (above), I went back to listen to the commentary again. Here is what Ray says:

"The town square in the film was built from the bottom up. It was on the backlot. It existed for ten years, was finally torn down. But you can imagine the feeling I had the first day I came out to the studio and walked into the middle of my own home town where I had been as a child... It was a beautiful piece of work, and I regretted it terribly when it finally disappeared."

On first listen, I had assumed Ray was saying it was built from the bottom up SPECIFICALLY for Something Wicked. However, I can see that what he actually says is consistent with what dandelion says. It would be interesting to know if anyone has spotted the same town square being used in any other movies, either from before or after Something Wicked.

I have double-checked the other things from my earlier post, and can confirm that many of the interior shots were filmed inside the actual buildings. The interior of the library was built on a sound stage, as was the interior of the school. And both the interiors AND exteriors of the boys' houses were alo built on a sound stage. They effectively built two complete houses, complete with bedrooms, parlours, etc inside a soundstage!

- Phil

philnic:
The set was used in other film projects....think I knew which one years ago...but have since forgotten. But it was used in other projects, that's for sure....

Ooopps! There's that Harry Potter again...

And that line, "Something Wicked This Way Comes"... is not only used in the trailer of the new Harry Potter movie... but blazes across the top of a full page ad for the movie in today's Chicago Tribune.

Hello fellow fans,
I really need some helpful information. I am also captivated by the town used in the SWTWC film. I am going to vermont in october to see the filming locations for this film, Alfred Hitchcock ' s TheTroubleWithHarry and Beetlejuice. I've read on Wikipedia and imdb that something wicked this way comes was filmed in waterville and morrisville vermont. Does anybody know what scenes were filmed there? So disappointed to know that the town is not a town I can visit. The trouble with Harry was filmed in Craftsbury and Barre, Vermont not far from the Wicked locations, and both films feature Royal Dano. Any information would be appreciated. Also the only town I've ever been to that looks like Greentown is Pella, Iowa. I spoke with Ray on a conference call in grad school. He said NASA will take his ashes to Mars in a Campbell's soup can and scatter them in Bradbury ' s Abyss, fyi. Peace and good tidings.

Hi Joshua,

All of the principal photography of the film was completed in California, at the Disney studios. The only material shot in Vermont was some "second unit" work of landscapes: fields, hills and trees. From what I remember of viewing the film, there are some shots at the beginning when the voice-over begins, and where we first get a glimpse of the Lightning-Rod salesman, which MAY have been shot in Vermont (but might have been somewhere else).

And at the end, there is a shot (or two, or three) of Mr Halloway and the two boys running across the landscape. This shot (or shots) was, I believe, in Vermont. The actors were doubles, not the real stars of the film.

From what I have read (and I have studied production documents and correspondence from the making of the film), originally there was no particular desire for these shots by the director Jack Clayton, but in post-production Bradbury argued forcefully to bring the film much closer to his novel. It was his suggestion to add some shots of Vermont specifically to get the autumnal look which was otherwise lacking in the film.

Precisely WHERE in Vermont they filmed these shots is a mystery to me. But if you are able to pin down exact locations, I'd love to hear about it.

The old cemetery seen in two parts of the movie (once with the boys running from the green fog and once with Charles Halloway running towards the carnival near the end) may or may not have been fimed at the old cemetery at 296 Lapland Rd. just outside Waterville, VT. This appears to be the only cemetery in Waterville. Satellite and street view on Google Maps only offers certain vantage points. Using the headstones in the two shots as landmarks proved difficult, as the camera angle only shows around 20 tombstones; all of which are very ordinary looking with no features that stand out except the broken one in the foreground. All the headstones seen on Google Maps street view of the cemetery are also ordinary looking. Of course, it could have been a set as well so I'm perfectly aware that my theory may be completely inaccurate. Due to the film's relative obscurity, info on the few filming locations outside the Hollywood sound stage is virtually nil. Take it as you will.

Don't suppose anyone feels like going to Vermont to check? Or there could be some locations list for films, particularly well-known ones. Our own Phil knows every detail worth knowing about every filmed Bradbury work!

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Don't suppose anyone feels like going to Vermont to check?

If one looks at the Google Maps link for the graveyard, one would notice that the current image capture was from June 2012. Interesting date, is it not?

Update: Google Maps has revealed another possible film location for the aforementioned cemetery seen twice in the movie. The Pleasant View Cemetery in Morrisville, VT could also be a possible shot location. As was the case with the other possible location, Google Maps Street View offered very limited vantage points. I did discover that freezing the frame where Charles Holloway is running through the cemetery during the lightning flash makes more of the surrounding area visible and possibly a curved dirt/gravel road in the background. With this new-found info, I can confidently say that I still have no ****ing clue where the exact location of these shots is located.