Movies, TV shows you may not know were made in Louisiana

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Louisiana has served as the backdrop in many successful films in the nearly hundred or so years since Tarzan of the Apes was shot in Morgan City in 1932, and many of those locations have benefited from moviegoer curiosity through tourism and serves as an economic infusion.

The flat, marshy swamp lands of the south and the hills and rural countryside of the north serve as the perfect landscape for films, whether the story is a period piece or a post-apocalyptic action epic. New Orleans may be the most utilized location, having 257 films, documentaries, TV shows, and commercial projects in 2022, accounting for $313 million in payroll to local workers and businesses, according to Film Louisiana.

Explore Louisiana said more than 2,500 films have been shot in Louisiana, from blockbuster comedies like Girls Trip to independent juggernauts like Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Movie producers don't stop in the Crescent City, though. Here's a breakdown of the films you may or may not know were filmed in Louisiana by parish.

Ascension Parish

Between 2018 and 2022, Ascension Parish served as a location for four films, including Academy Award Best Picture winner Green Book, which was shot across south Louisiana. One site in particular was the famed Houma's House in Donaldsonville. Houma's House was featured in the award-winning 1964 Bette Davis classic Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, The Bachelor Season 21 (2017), and several other film and television projects.

• The Highwaymen (2019)
• Green Book (2020)
• Blackstock Boneyard (2021)
• We Have a Ghost (2022)

Caddo, Bossier Parishes

As much as they may not like it, Shreveport and Bossier City are two halves of a whole in most people's eyes and are grouped because proximity matters. In the same four-year period, nine films have been made in the area, including the M. Night Shyamalan-produced thriller Vanishings at Caddo Lake, currently available on HBO Max. Shreveport was also featured in the hit television series True Blood and Salem.

• The Tale (2018)
• Avengers of Justice: Farce Wars (2018)
• The Highwaymen (2019)
• Squatter (2020)
• The Man in the White Van (2021)
• Root Letter (2022)
• Room 203 (2022)

These projects had an estimated budget total of $73,188,950. High-profile projects are expected to continue when productions at Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's G-Unit Studios start rolling content of the former Millenium Studios space.

East Baton Rouge Parish

East Baton Rouge Parish is "booked and busy" with filmmaking and revenue generation. So busy they are creating an app that will map the parish's film trail, and there's a considerable amount of bragging that the capital city can do about its contribution to the entertainment industry.

Fans of wrestling and Zac Efron may or may not know that The Iron Claw, the tragic story of the Von Erich dynasty, was filmed in Louisiana rather than East Texas, where the family ruled the ring. Will Smith's critically acclaimed but mostly ignored Emancipation and Tom Hank's WWII epic Greyhound were filmed aboard the USS Kidd Naval Destroyer, a floating museum and tourist destination in Baton Rouge.

Jefferson Parish

Jefferson and Orleans used to be fighting siblings, much like Caddo and Bossier, but with the expansion of film to New Orleans' westward best friend, they are making movie magic of their own.

Short films, features, cult classics, and series are among the projects touted as 'made in Jefferson Parish.' Twenty projects were made in the parish between 2018 and 2022, including the cult thriller Five Nights at Freddy's.

Lafayette Parish

For a state with an annual flutter of snow, at best, producers love to highlight that southern charm in holiday films.

Hometown Christmas was filmed in Lafayette Parish and is available for free on Tubi. But the big story in Cajun country is about 57 seconds, starring Morgan Freeman. According to Film Louisiana, millions have been spent in Acadiana since 2015, including hotel rooms, catering, and buying and renting local goods and services. Those millions do not include the 15 other smaller productions between 2018 and 2022 that also boosted the local economy and provided opportunities for businesses in Acadiana.

Lafourche Parish

Laurel Valley Plantation in Thibodaux was featured in The Butler, Ray, and the production of Nickel Boys following Hurricane Ida's devastation, which provided the town with a much-needed rebound. Burning Cane, an independent film made by a Louisiana student and starring New Orleans native Wendell Pierce, won several film festival awards, including the Tribeca Film Festival Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature.

One Night in Miami, a film that fictionalized the night that Malcolm X, Cassius Clay (just a week before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali), musician Sam Cooke, and newly retired football player Jim Brown spent an evening together in Miami in February 1964. The same night, a 22-year-old underdog, Clay, solidified his legend by defeating Sonny Liston.

• A Violent Separation (2018)
• La Cage Aux Lions (2018)
• The Highwaymen (2019)
• Burning Cane (2019)
• Tuesday Mourning (2019)
• One Night in Miami (2020)
• Emancipation (2022)
• Nickel Boys (2022)

Orleans Parish

Unless you avoid turning on your TV, it is hard to ignore the presence of Orleans Parish on large and small screens. From the runaway success of the movies Girls' Trip to the wildly popular series American Horror Story: Coven, NCIS New Orleans, and Your Honor, the city serves a dual purpose as location and supporting character.

There is a laundry list of films made in New Orleans that have increased the city's exotic, if not folklorish, appeal and made it the fourth-largest production hub in the United States and the second-largest in the South. These films create jobs and revenue and infuse colleges and universities with the resources they need to educate and train the next generation of filmmakers.

In 2022, Renfield, Twisted Metal, and Where the Crawdads Sing accounted for nearly $50 million in local payroll.

St. Bernard Parish

The Ranch Film Studios in St. Bernard Parish has sound stages and amenities to help recreate just about any scene or location. The studio has been essential to help the parish regain its footing after Hurricane Katrina devastated it.

Claws, NCIS: New Orleans, and films Queen and Slim and The Photograph are among the projects completed in St. Bernard Parish.

St. Charles Parish

It's safe to say that the parish's most famous export is NFL Hall of Famer and former member of Super Bowl XLVII-winning Baltimore Ravens Safety Ed Reed. That is until the film industry started to bubble south of New Orleans and into the New Sarpy Swamp.

Film Louisiana's website credits over 100 projects utilizing the swamp, including The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, and Kathy Bates. The New Sarpy Swamp in St. Charles provides viewers with an up-close and personal swamp tour and gives gainful employment to locals, many of whom are retired first responders who service the film industry with various needs.

• Green Book (2018)
• Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
• Troop Zero (2019)
• The Highwaymen (2019)
• My Brother Jordan (2019)
• Coming Up From the Ashes (2021)
• Cherish the Day (2021)
• Master Gardener (2022)
• Emancipation (2022)

St. James Parish

The cane fields of St. James Parish took center stage during the production of Ava Duverney's Queen Sugar, which was filmed there throughout the show's seven-season run. Oracle, available on HBO Max, was shot entirely in Vacherie, La., and gave an economic boost to the small town's economy primarily through frequenting local restaurants and plantations such as Oak Alley—also known to Beyonce fans as the location of her Deja Vu video in 2006.

• The Highwaymen (2019)
• Troop Zero (2019)
• Oracle (2020)
• Birds of America (2021)
• Queen Sugar (2016-2022)

St. John The Baptist Parish

When the iconic story of Roots was retold in 2016 by its 1977 series star, LeVar Burton, producers decided to shoot it in South Louisiana using several locations, including Evergreen Plantation in Wallace, La.

In the four years of 2018-2022, more than a dozen films were produced in St. John The Baptist Parish, including the time-hopping shocker film Antebellum.

Film's unmatched impact

All told, the film industry in Louisiana has impacted visibility and interest in what Louisiana offers. But it has also become a lifeline to many local businesses that experience "off-seasons" that would otherwise cripple them.

Builders, crafters, caterers, wardrobe designers, hairstylists, horse trainers, swamp tours, restaurants, farms, real estate, and locals who have had the opportunity to land roles in the background or with speaking roles that they may not have gotten except for a bi-partisan effort of a very conservative member of Congress, Steve Scalise and liberal former member of the Biden administration, Cedric Richmond, coming together to put Louisiana on the map and help Hollywood actors get better mastering at our very unique way of speaking.

Information in this article was sourced from Film Louisiana.

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