-Hey, it's Harry Medved, and welcome to Locationland, the show that puts movies in their places.

We today are at one of the most famous movie landmarks in the world, here with Diana Wright.

Diana, where are we right now?

-We are at the iconic Hollywood Sign, right here on the mountain top on Mount Lee, with the sign herself.

We consider it the international symbol of filmmaking, moviemaking, and dreams come true.

-I'm totally geeking out here because I'm looking right here at these little stumps here.

It makes me think that this sign was once a little bit longer in its earlier days.

-Yes, you are correct.

It was built in 1923, so we just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023.

When it was originally built in 1923, it was a billboard for a housing development called Hollywood Land.

-So then what happened?

Why did the "Land" part disappear?

I think probably Timothy Dalton and Rocketeer had something to do with it when he got thrown out of the blimp and obliterated the letters.

Maybe John Belushi in 1941, when he shot down the letters, is that how it happened?

-Yes, you're exactly right.

It happened a little bit differently.

In the '40s, it got donated to the city, and the city decided, "We're going to rebuild the sign."

They rebuilt the "H", and they removed the "Land" to commemorate Hollywood.

-Got it.

-The sign itself is owned by the city.

It's a city landmark.

It's number 111.

-Okay.

Then they actually still shoot movies here?

Is that right?

-They do shoot movies here.

They use it as a prop, but most of the time, they do build a fake sign because as you figured out, it's pretty difficult to film here.

We have to climb down a mountain.

We have to hand-carry everything down here.

The location is right on a hill, so it's pretty hard to get all the camera people and boom mics that you would need to shoot.

Most of the time, they're either using tricks of digital, or they're building a fake sign within Griffith Park.

-Okay, so where do they shoot the fake Hollywood Sign?

Where do they put it?

-A lot of times, they shoot it on Cahuenga Peak which is just a little bit that way, or depending on how accurate they need the sign, they might just pick a grassy hill.

-Okay, so it's like a little stand-in for the Hollywood Sign.

-Yes, exactly.

-Everybody needs a stand-in in Hollywood, I guess.

-Absolutely.

Even this grand old dame -Yes, she's 100 years old, so she does need a stunt double.

I mentioned that the "Land" was removed in the '40s.

Then the sign went into disrepair again.

The sign we see today was built in 1978.

They built it to last.

-Okay, but sometimes in the movies, it doesn't last That's a question I have for you, which is, we see Hollywood getting annihilated in so many disaster movies, sci-fi, and fantasy films.

Why is it that Hollywood loves to implode the Hollywood Sign?

-My mom always told me Hollywood would kill me.

-I think Hollywood loves to destroy the sign for a few reasons.

One, if it's a disaster movie, they want that symbol that says Los Angeles immediately and recognizable.

I also think there's a little bit of filmmaker angst in it.

As I said, it's an international symbol of filmmaking and dreams coming true.

In Hollywood, it's also the land of broken dreams.

I think these filmmakers probably have a real love-hate relationship with the sign.

Maybe there's a little catharsis there to destroy the sign just a little bit.

-I got another question on when Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are sitting in the “O” -That was interesting because Will Gluck, he loves Los Angeles and he loves the history of Los Angeles.

He wanted to show exactly what would happen if you do climb into the Hollywood Sign.

Yes, in that movie, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are hiking where they are legally allowed, which is up and above the sign.

Then they decide to cross over and trespass into the sign itself.

They are caught by LAPD in sitting in the "O" and they get on the news and they get- -A helicopter.

-a helicopter and they get arrested.

Yes, it's a little bit showing off exactly what would happen if you attempted that.

-Little cautionary tale for folks who-- don't do this at home, folks.

You're the one filmmaker who actually had like a love letter to L.A. with the Hollywood Sign.

We have an emotional moment.

-Yes.

-With Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis at the Hollywood Sign where they're opening up to each other.

-For me, Griffith Park is like the greatest place to hike and walk around.

The reason why I wanted to put that scene there is because I wanted them to have a moment of hiking.

He was showing her the behind-the-scenes of Los Angeles.

There's no better behind-the-scenes of Los Angeles and literally behind the Hollywood Sign.

They never see the front of the Hollywood Sign.

Right?

They only see the back of it, which I thought was cool, which is why I wanted to put it there.

Once they got up there, they couldn't come down.

we took forever for them to get harnessed in and everything.

What better view for the two actors in between takes of looking out at the Los Angeles?

It was a beautiful, clear day.

They had a great time, although they were quite cold.

I remember they kept yelling how cold it was.

-Mila and Justin are at the actual Hollywood Sign, not at a fake version of the Hollywood Sign?

-No, they're at the actual Hollywood Sign.

We did have to construct a smaller, tiny version for some of the closeups, which we actually shot right above the Hollywood Sign.

Right, there's like a flat area where we shot that.

Even that was shot right there, but for most of it, they're actually there.

The camera equipment and the crew were down below the "O", looking up at them.

Then we had a helicopter shooting them.

When she jumps off, it was the fake-- right above the Hollywood Sign, the fake" O" we built.

When the helicopter was filming Justin, because we had two helicopters.

We had the police helicopter in the movie, then we had the camera helicopter That was Justin sitting there by himself, the wide shots.

All the wide shots of them are them sitting there.

It was just that one moment when she just jumps because the height from the top of the "O" to the ground is very, very high.

-Even in this movie, do you have a little comment on, L.A. is often playing New York, et cetera, but can you talk about the importance of location in your movies and the work of location managers?

-How did you know I was at Grand Central Station?

-You're not, you're in Los Angeles where this movie was shot.

-Shh.

-Whenever we're filming some place, I want to quick set the movie in that place If we have to shoot in a place, then I'll move the movie for that place.

Location managers are so important to me all over the world because they can show me things that aren't in the script and I'll adjust the script to that.

I really take my cue from location managers.

If they said no, I would have said to them, what's another iconic place we can go?

They would have showed me two or three places and I would have adjusted the script for that, as opposed to the other way around.

I'm very fluid when I make my movies.

I love location scouts because they've been everywhere.

Looking at it right now, it's quite stunning, actually.

I think you might be able to see it.

Oh, you can't, it's all hazed over.

Anyway, it's right over there.

To me, always, when I first came to L.A., you had to know where North was.

For me, it's, oh, you saw the mountains and then you see, oh, there's a Hollywood Sign.

It literally was my North Star.

-Now we're here under the Hollywood Sign with legendary director, Joe Dante, who knows a little thing or two about the sign.

He's the director, of course, of Gremlins, The 'Burbs, The Howling, Matinee.

Tell us about the history of the sign getting destroyed in the movies.

We believe that you might have been the first one to destroy it.

-I think I do share that distinction with no one else.

[laughter] When I was working for Roger Corman, along with Jon Davison we decided that we could make a picture for Roger that was at least as good as the trailers that we'd been doing.

He said, "Okay, but it's got to go be the cheapest movie we've ever made."

We said, "Look, we'll do actresses, and we'll do a picture about three girls who are making a movie for a cheap movie company."

-Welcome to Miracle Pictures, where they make a picture a week, and if it's a good picture, it's a miracle.

-Miracle Pictures, if it's a good picture, it's a miracle, which we stole from an old '30s comedy.

One of the climaxes of the story is that the evil star, who doesn't like the starlet, confronts her on the Hollywood Sign.

We, of course, had to go up to the Hollywood Sign to shoot it.

This was a no-budget picture.

I assume we had a permit, but I wouldn't guarantee it, because one of the ways that the guerrilla filmmaking works is you go to a place, you start shooting, somebody comes and complains, you have somebody whose job it is to go and deal with them.

While you're dealing with them, you finish this thing and you get out.

You never pay her.

I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the case.

This was a completely different Hollywood Sign than what you're seeing here.

This was the old Hollywood Sign.

It was made of metal, it was covered with graffiti, and it was attached to the ground with stakes.

It was a little rickety and had holes in it.

It was probably a little dangerous, but the thing is that we had to go up on ropes, because there was no particular way of getting up there other than climbing.

-Did you have just one rope to get everybody down from the top of the tree?

-As I recall, yes, we could only afford one rope.

[laughter] There were many people on the rope.

At the end of the movie, of course, I hate to spoil it, but the Hollywood Sign, the "Y" falls over and kills Mary Woronov, the villain in the movie.

[screams] -Our effects guy, Jack Rabin, who goes back to forever, created a cardboard sign for us and knocked over the letters, blew some cigarette smoke, and it looked pretty damn good, I would say, for such a cheap movie.

-How much did that cost to get Jake Rabin to do that for you?

-$1.98.

Like everything else on the picture, it was $1.98.

It was a fairly spectacular climax for a movie that had nothing spectacular in it at all.

Anyway, it was my first movie, it was Allan's first movie, it was Jon's first movie as a producer.

Jon went on to produce Airplane and Robocop, and Allan went on to do Rock and Roll High School and Moonlighting and all sorts of stuff, and I went on to do other things.

That was us getting our feet wet.

We had two directors, no waiting, that was our slogan.

If he was shooting a picture, shooting something on the side of a hill, he'd say, "Action," and while he was doing that, I'd prepare my thing, he'd say, "Cut," I'd say, "Action," and that way we got like 42, 50 setups a day.

Which I think Ron Howard managed to beat us on Grand Theft Auto, but he had a second unit.

-A lot of people commonly think that Earthquake was the first film to destroy the Hollywood Sign, but you don't actually see the Hollywood Sign tumbling.

In Earthquake you see Charlton Heston running in front of the Hollywood Sign, the poster has lettering that looks like, I don't know, the Hollywood Sign.

-Destroying national monuments is always good.

-You did that with WB Tower.

-People have made lots and lots of money destroying national monuments.

Look at Independence Day, come on, it's a trope.

This was, I think, even though we didn't really destroy the Hollywood Sign it was probably the first time the Hollywood Sign had actually been destroyed on film.

-A lot of people got the same idea.

You see in Day After Tomorrow, in San Andreas.

-There it is.

It's just waiting to be destroyed.

-Why do people like to destroy the Hollywood Sign so much?

-Listen, look at the executives around.

They love to destroy Hollywood in general.

The Hollywood Sign is always a great-- it's a great symbol.

The question had to come up, why did we choose the "Y" to fall down?

It was because it was the easiest one to fall down.

If it was the "W", it would have been bigger.

-[laughs] It would have cost more.

-Exactly.

This was the cheapest way of doing it.

It's an anti-authoritarian thing.

It's just what people do.

They want to fight back against the system.

-Apparently, Alice Cooper bought the "O" to honor his late friend, Groucho Marx.

I think what's interesting, there's some Groucho Marx graffiti.

-That's right, in my movie.

I remember seeing it when I went up there.

-Was any of that graffiti contributed by your crew?

-None.

-No, it was all there.

-They couldn't afford art direction.

[laughter] -Your actual title, when it says directed by Joe Dante and Allan Arkush, is on the Hollywood Sign.

Right in the beginning.

It obviously had a-- -I can't help but be sentimental about the Hollywood Sign because it was my first movie.

I had just come to Hollywood.

I'd only been here for a year.

I can see it from everywhere.

It's a landmark.

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