I've been waiting for nearly 40 years for Seattle to become Hollywood's favorite shooting location, due to the city's low-key photogenic qualities combined with its constant overcast, which lends a brooding quality to anything shot outdoors here. In 1974 the city starred with John Wayne in "McQ," a boilerplate crime drama about an aging Seattle detective who drives around in a Pontiac Trans-Am "Green Hornet" model looking for gratuitous car chases to get involved in. It was his role as McQ that prompted film critic Pauline Kael to observe that Wayne looked like one of those stone heads from Easter Island when filmed sitting behind the wheel of his trendy ride.But "McQ" didn't set off a large-scale migration of directors and cinematographers to Seattle. "Frazier" helped in the '80's, but the TV show was shot almost entirely indoors, and at most viewers caught a glimpse of the Space Needle through a window once in a while.
In the '90's it was another televised offering with an entirely different kind of director that brought attention to the area in David Lynch's strange and at times surreal murder-mystery "Twin Peaks." It was shot about 50 miles from here, mostly in the town of North Bend and its nearby scenic location, Snoqualmie Falls. The show's opening credits ran against a backdrop of fog-enshrouded Mt. Si -- a sight that can't help leave an impression on anyone who's ever seen it close up -- and the stunning beauty of the Cascade Range was as much a part of the series as its convoluted plot.
And now comes "The Killing," a 13-part series debuting April 3 on AMC, which unabashedly and openly appropriates "Twin Peaks" gloomy Northwestern cloud cover to underscore the melancholy events of the narrative. Actually, the makers of "The Killing" cite a Danish TV series as their inspiration, the Danish work having derived from "Twin Peaks."
As we enter the era of political and economic doom and gloom, one bright spot for those of us here is that our home town might at last achieve the cachet it deserves.
Gato Triste
--30--
3 comments:
Kyle XY and a few other tv series were also shot in Seattle.
Yeah, there have been a few, including the one where Perry Como sang the theme.
"The bluest skies you'll ever see are in Seattle"...NOT.
hi Dave,
Interesting how you just mentioned "The bluest skies you'll ever see are in Seattle." I just recently thought of that song refrain, too. I think the sentiment involves how we appreciate things more when we miss them.
I used to hear the song on my AM radio when I was a kid.
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