The Italian Job | 2003
- Locations |
- Los Angeles, California;
- Italy
- DIRECTOR |
- F Gary Gray
There’s only a tenuous link between this film and the 1969 original – the Minis, and the fact that the opening robbery is, indeed, Italian.
This time around, the heist takes place in Venice – Italy – and, yes, that’s the familiar Campo San Barnaba again (previously seen in David Lean’s Summer Madness and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). The rest of the movie is filmed in Los Angeles.
The rooftop, where Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) and the crew plan their revenge, is the Sunset Tower Hotel, 8358 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood.
This striking art deco tower has been a frequent film location. You can see it in the 1944 Philip Marlowe thriller Farewell My Lovely (aka Murder My Sweet), with crooner Dick Powell as Raymond Chandler's private eye; Robert Altman's The Player; Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty; Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner A.W.O.L.; and Kathryn Bigelow's futuristic Strange Days.
To the east of Los Angeles, the mansion of villainous Steve (Ed Norton) is tucked away in leafy privacy at 295 North San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena.
For the final revenge, Lyle – “the real Napster” – (Seth Green) directs Steve’s bullion truck in Hollywood, west from Highland onto Hollywood Boulevard. The minis get driven down into Hollywood Highland Metro Station – and if you’re going to blow up a section of Hollywood Boulevard, well, you’re going to doing directly outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, aren’t you?
The scary helicopter stunt, with Steve’s chopper hovering over Charlie’s car, was filmed for real beneath Lower Grand Street, downtown Los Angeles.
