Hollywood in La Jolla: From murder mysteries to sci-fi and more

Besides its beautiful beaches, and many historic buildings, La Jolla has been home to backdrops and locations for various movies, TV shows, and more. From science fiction films like “Gattaca” to murder-themed TV shows including “Silk Stalkings,” “Veronica Mars,” and “Terriers,” La Jolla has many attributes such as its ocean and, coastline views, mountains, and desert scenery.

According to Professor Eric Pierson, who teaches communications at UC San Diego, La Jolla makes for a great place to film for all sorts of reasons. “I think La Jolla’s ability to transition into a place that you don’t necessarily know right away is one of its many advantages.”

For example, he cited the 1997 film “Gattaca” about a genetically inferior man who assumes the identity of a superior one to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel … it also tells the story of two competitive brothers and how far they can swim.

“It is an interesting way to focus on the power of the sea vs. being overshaded by where you are,” Pierson said.

“The film shows the geography of the state like its rocks, and waves … that’s where the La Jolla shores come in and what makes the film appealing,” he said. “… It’s not Malibu, which is a very specific kind of location that viewers typically can make out immediately. I think in this case La Jolla is more adaptable to the need of this film.”

Pierson added if a filmmaker wants to reflect on a high-end coastal community, La Jolla also allows and provides for that need.

LIKE A CHAMELEON

Another reason La Jolla has been an inspiration and option for many a filmmaker, as well as TV producers, is the feeling of the sense of California overall vs. just Los Angeles.

“When people think of California, they automatically think of LA,” he said. “But when you use La Jolla, you get a different feel and view of the state. I think not just La Jolla but San Diego, in general, is a wonderful place to shoot a film or TV show. I am surprised that there isn’t much more filming done here as La Jolla offers the amenities of LA but not the difficulties of LA since it is so condensed.”

Pierson said “Veronica Mars” was indeed filmed in the area starring Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, and Percy Daggs III. Mars, 17, is an amateur private investigator who attempts to solve mysteries in an affluent, fictional town named Neptune.

Also, the TV crime drama series “Silk Stalkings” was “almost exclusively shot in La Jolla,” Pierson said.

Some of the other films and TV shows that have used La Jolla as a location include “The Cell,” about an “F.B.I. agent that persuades a social worker, who is adept with new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.”

Also, in “Thor,” some scenes were filmed in La Jolla, according to various sites including IMDb and here.

And one blog states the home of one of the characters in “Bring It On” was also filmed in La Jolla.

EARLY DAYS

The La Jolla Cinema League were early pioneers who did much filming in and around La Jolla, according to the San Diego History Center’s website.

“The La Jolla Cinema League, founded in 1926, attempted to promote motion picture productions by groups not associated with large commercial studios.

“It produced five to 10 melodramas and newsreels ranging in length between five and 74 minutes. These were photographed by P.H. Adams, directed by R.G.S. Berger (who owned the house where many productions were filmed), and starred as a troupe of actors related to Adams or Berger.

“… The sets were realistic and of historic importance, because they showed early 20th-century architecture in La Jolla including the Casa de Manana, a historic hotel.”

The movies included “Consuelo di Capri,” “the first production of the League, about thugs trying to wrestle the deed to valuable property away from an old man by kidnapping his daughter.”

In “Avarice” an “unsympathetic miser acts miserly and ends up locking himself in his safe.”

“Virtue’s Reward” or “Blood for Bond” is about a weekend party that is disturbed when bad people try to steal bonds from good people.

Let’s not forget about “The Stunt Man” from 1980, however, 60 years before actor Peter O’Toole acted in “The Stunt Man”, Hollywood’s original stuntman, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., was scaling the cliffs of La Jolla in films.

Also, San Diego County History Center says: “In search of a location more tropical than Chicago in winter, the Selig Polyscope Cos.’ Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons … “stumbled off a train in Los Angeles in 1907 intent on completing the first movie version of “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

“After some shooting behind a laundry in downtown Los Angeles, the troupe traveled down to La Jolla. According to the historian Terry Ramsaye’s rather whimsical view, “Persons fitted the hypnotist with a white wig and then a great La Jolla wave tossed him in the ocean. Boggs and Pearson jumped in the water to save the wig and later the hypnotist. From all appearances, the La Jolla segment of the first feature film made in California was filmed near the La Jolla Cave’s ‘White Lady’ rock sculpture.”

MORE FUN

Also, some aviation films with romantic triangles were filmed at the Naval Air Station at North Island such as “Devil Dogs of the Air” with James Cagney and Pat O’Brien. The men get tangled up with each other, a waitress at a diner, and a mock invasion of Black’s Beach in La Jolla.

REALITY, TOO

More recent productions include reality shows such as The Real World: San Diego,   where “MTV’s The Real World” goes city to city, every year picking a new cast of young people who live together and are filmed for a reality show. The seasons were filmed in houses in Point Loma (2004), and Bird Rock in La Jolla (2011).

One obscure reality show, La Jolla Cove Suites, located at 1155 Coast Blvd, was featured in “Hotel Impossible” (2012–2017); in the episode “La Jolla Cove Suites: La Jolla, Ca” (2012).

These are only some of the productions that have taken advantage of the beautiful city of La Jolla in films, and TV shows, so stay tuned for more history in the future.

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