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Nicholas
van Orton's mansion: Filoli Estate, Woodside
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THE
GAME filming locations
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CREDITS
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A sinister survival game spirals out of control to turn
the life of rich businessman Nicholas van Orton (Michael
Douglas) upside down in David
Fincherís disappointingly contrived follow up to
the magnificent Se7en.
The set-up is promising, but we're expected to swallow
a few too many improbabilities for the premise to be
satisfying.
Set in San
Francisco, where Van Orton is given the very
special gift by his brother Conrad (Sean
Penn) in the Main Dining Room of the City
Club of San Francisco, 155 Sansome Street.
Van Orton's mansion is about 25 miles south of the city.
Itís the Filoli
Mansion, Canada Road, Woodside ‚ familiar
from the opening credits of Dynasty
and also seen in Heaven Can
Wait. The name 'Filoli' was concocted from
the initial two letters of : “Fight for a just
cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life”,
the motto of first owner William Bourn.
Inevitably, there was filming in LA. The offices of
CRS, the 'Consumer Recreations Servies' company, is
the old Unocal Building, 1202
West Fifth Street at Beaudry Street –
a veteran location, seen in The
X-Files movie, among others. now fittingly converted
into the LA Center Studios.
Among key San
Francisco sites, the Merchant
Exchange Club, 465 California Street, was
transformed into the men's athletic club, where van
Orton overhears the CRS game being discussed, and its
Julia Morgan Ballroom
became the office of van Orton's law firm (Julia Morgan
was not only the architect of William Randolph Hearst's
castle at San Simeon – the inspiratioon for Citizen
Kane's 'Xanadu', but also designed downtown
LA's Herald Examiner Building, where much of The
Usual Suspects was shot..
Pier 24 on the Embarcadero
waterfront, was the site of a stunt that sent a taxi
flying off the Embarcadero, up the pier and into the
water. The scene required an elaborate water housing
for the three-camera shot. Back in Los
Angeles, the close-ups would be shot on the
Sony stages in two different water tanks.
Van Orton finds himself dumped by the gamesters in Mexico,
in Mexicali, Baja
California.
Making his way back to the US, he begs for a lift back
to San Francisco
in Johnie's Broiler, a classic diner which stood at
7447 Firestone Boulevard in Downey,
LA. Seen also in Reality Bites,
Robert Altman's
Short Cuts and
Tina Turner biopic What’s
Love Got To Do With It?, this 1958 gem is
closed and has been turned into a car dealership, and
under threat of demolition for some time.
Van Orton tracks actor Feingold (James
Rebhorn) to San
Francisco Zoo, Sloat Boulevard at 47th
Highway. Feingold leads van orton to the cafeteria of
the CRS organisation, which was created in the Letterman
Hospital on the grounds of The
Presidio, a former military base stretching
out over some of the city's most scenic property at
the entrance top the Golden Gate Bridge. The site is
currently under development by George
Lucas.
The cathartic, if unlikely climax, is set in the extravagant, glass-roofed
Garden Court of
the Palace
Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street in San Franciscoís
Financial District. Itís the oldest grand luxury hotel
in the city and, of course, extremely pricey.
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FILMING
LOCATIONS FOR THE GAME
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CHECK
OUT
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ASSOCIATED
FILMS |
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