For more than a century, Hawaii has been the chosen location for countless Hollywood movies and TV shows. It’s where dinosaurs roamed in “Jurassic Park,” wealthy guests checked in to “The White Lotus,” and Indiana Jones ran through the jungle in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
While filming takes place across the Islands, there’s one resort that’s racking up a considerable number of productions on IMDb.
On the north shore of Oahu, Turtle Bay Resort has appeared in more than 150 movies and TV shows — sometimes in a mutated way that only Hollywood knows how to do. The hotel, which opened in 1972, was first featured in 1981 in the second season of the original “Magnum PI.” The episode was called “From Moscow to Maui” and it was shot by the sunset pool bar.
Since then, it has appeared in many blockbuster films and TV series, including “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Lost,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
“It’s crazy how many people come here just for ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’” Joey Woofter, Turtle Bay Resort’s general manager, told SFGATE.
While some films take place inside the hotel, others take advantage of the resort’s 1,300 acres and 5 miles of untouched coastline, where some of its beaches are often found empty all day.
“Kawela Bay is by far the most popular place that we’ve probably shot the most movies and shows,” said Woofter.
Woofter said they don’t actively seek out movies and TV shows to film on property, but word-of-mouth (and a tight-knit Hawaii film community) has made the resort a top spot.
In fact, just last week, scouts for two different Disney movies stopped by the resort, he said.