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Besides all the stage sets, there were a few locations, too. I chose some locations that were synonymous with the old studio days. The western shootout was staged at Vasquez Rocks where many, many Westerns were shot, stretching back to silent-film days. Big Sky Ranch was used for the Appian Way, a marching scene where soldiers pass through a triumphal arch and the road is lined with mausoleums. After adding a few Italian cypress and canopy trees, we were on the road to Rome. The old Bat Cave at Bronson Canyon became the site for the well of Jehoshaphat, and the Hollywood Palladium stood in for the Brown Derby in a supper club scene. A couple of carefully chosen intersections in Hollywood, that still had some resemblance to the 1950s, were pushed back in time with help from the Art Department. Jess Gonchor, Production Designer Dawn Swiderski, Supervising Art Director Cara Brower, Art Director Samantha Englender, Bradley Rubin, Assistant Art Directors Scott Lukowski, Concept Artist & Assistant Art Director Gregory Hill, Illustrator Ellen Lampl, Lead Graphic Designer Barbara Mesney, Greg Papalia, Easton Smith, Set Designers Adam Gelbart, Model Maker J. Todd Anderson, Storyboard Artist Nancy Haigh, Set Decorator All and all, this was an exciting project. Filmmakers nowadays very rarely get to use a city or town for what it really is, so re-creating old Hollywood in Hollywood itself (with a phenomenal Art Department) was a real treat for me. ADG Below, left and right: The dockside bar under construction on Stage 3 at The Lot. A production still of the dockside bar tap-dancing-on-tables scene. The men are about to be shipped out to sea for six months and they celebrate in the Swinging Dinghy bar by dancing on the tables, led by actor Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum). The tables were fabricated of metal to withstand all the action and still maintain a normal appearance. Bottom, left and right: The interior of Burt Gurney's Malibu beach house, built on Stage 4 at The Lot, a Frank Lloyd Wright type of dwelling with lots of hardwood and stained finishes, and real stone work columns and accent walls. A photograph taken from the Stage 4 perms shows the set's hard ceilings and center light well. Elevations of Gurney's Malibu house, drawn in pencil by Easton Smith.