Metro/Handout Goon (2011).

Winnipeg is a great place to make a movie, thanks to our classic architecture. Hollywood has noticed too, filming several big films over the years.

Metro Winnipeg presents our list of five Hollywood movies that show off Winnipeg (while pretending to be somewhere else).

1 Goon (2011)

This ridiculous hockey flick about a man hired to be an on-ice hockey enforcer was filmed in Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie. While there are several shots of city buildings, our favourite part is when Doug’s (played by Seann William Scott) love interest drops him off at home — near what is clearly near Higgins Avenue. Tough place to live, Doug.

2 Capote (2005)

It’s a biographical film  about Truman Capote that gave its lead actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, an Academy Award for Best Actor. The flick splendidly displayed places many Winnipeggers are proud of, most notably the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, and perhaps lesser known Windmill Lunch on Selkirk Avenue in the north end.

3 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

‘Did you say Brad Pitt is in Winnipeg?’ was asked by thousands of women in 2005 as the Exchange District was transformed into an old west town. The movie tells the story of Robert Ford’s obsession with Jesse James.

4 Shall We Dance (2004)

Your neighbour, the guy on your hockey team, the girl at the coffee shop … any one of these Winnipeggers may have made the cut for Shall We Dance, starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon. Plenty of extras were recruited, giving the faces — not just the landscapes — of Winnipeg global exposure.

5 New in Town (2009)

This movie was a critical bomb, but this rom-com vehicle starring Rene Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. did show off part of Winnipeg. The old Winnipeg Airport terminal passes for one in Minnesota. Apparently, while the crew was in town, there was a particularly bad cold snap with temperatures of -46 C with the windchill.

More from High Five Winnipeg:

blog comments powered by Disqus