With bucolic downtowns featuring centerpiece fountains, garden beds filled with jonquils and a roadside Big Chicken, who wouldn't want to film in Cobb County?
During 2017, a total of 88 film permits were issued by the county, according to Cobb community development officials.
Georgia was named the No. 1 worldwide 2016 filming location by an industry study from FilmLA, Los Angeles' film office.
The state figured the TV and film industry spent 2.7 billion during Georgia's 2017 fiscal year, which ended in July.
And we have the list of 88 permits showing who filmed throughout the county. This is likely an incomplete list considering the chance of handshake deals and independent films, but it's a good overview of what happened.
Maybe now y’all can win some of those arguments over who actually saw Margot Robbie or The Rock.
READ | Will new tax credits, Hollywood changes boost Georgia film spending?
• "A Bad Moms Christmas" — The holiday comedy sequel to "Bad Moms" stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn. It also filmed in Buckhead.
• “An Endgame”
• “Ancient Practice for the Modern Senior” — The production company is listed as “Cobb County Senior Services.”
• "Atlanta Monster" — Nearly four decades ago, the metro area was shaken by the Atlanta child murders. Now, Atlanta documentary filmmaker Payne Lindsey in collaboration with Atlanta-based How Stuff Works, has released a new podcast, "Atlanta Monster."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has dug back into the case with a combination of resurfacing old stories and reporting new tales of the tragic time.
• "Bastards" — The movie was re-named to "Father Figures" for some reason. Brothers in the film Owen Wilson and Ed Helms embark on a roadtrip to find their long-lost dad after learning their mother had been lying about his death.
In addition to the two comedy superstars, the cast includes Glenn Close, J.K. Simmons, Katt Williams, Terry Bradshaw, Ving Rhames and Christopher Walken.
Still, it had a 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
• "Bottle Girl" — Hollywood Reporter described the film thusly: "Think 'Risky Business' meets 'Coyote Ugly.' "
READ | Watchdog: New tax bill bad for Georgia's film workers
• “Cobra Kai” — STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY SIR! That’s right.
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, stars of the classic 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” are reprising their roles. The fence-painting karate kid (oh, we said it!) Daniel LaRusso and bully Johnny Lawrence (boooooo!) will live again in the 10-episode comedy series on YouTube Red, the paid subscription service.
The movie applied for five film permits in 2017.
The premise? The AJC's TV and radio reporter Rodney Ho explains:
“Down-and-out Johnny who, seeking redemption, reopens the infamous Cobra Kai dojo. This reignites his rivalry with a now-successful Daniel, who is struggling now that his mentor, Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita), is gone. The half-hour comedy follows the duo addressing demons from their past and present frustrations — through karate.”
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• “Countdown”
• “Crisis in America”
• A Crown Plaza TV commercial
• "Cute as Fluff" — Looks like crew of a British animal show came to Cobb and recorded for an episode of maybe the best-named show ever.
• “Den of Thieves” — If you saw Gerard Butler running around Cobb with Pablo Schreiber and 50 Cent, no, you weren’t hallucinating.
The film applied for three permits in Cobb in 2017.
You can read more about the crime thriller here.
• “Dumplin’ ” — No chicken here. Directed by Anne Fletcher, the film is based off a Julie Murphy novel.
IMDB explains the plot: "A girl with the nickname Dumplin' enters a beauty pageant in order to win over the boy she likes and stick it to the other girls at school."
The character Rosie Dickson, a beauty queen turned pageant director, is played by Jennifer Aniston.
• "Edge of The Blade" — The film appears to be now going by "Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer," according to a Deadline story, which also notes that its set to premiere on Lifetime.
The movie is about the paralympian gold medalist from South Africa, his rise to fame and the death of model Reeva Steenkamp.
• “Expert Online Training Modules” — It’s unclear if we’ll hear about this one come award season.
• "Farm Bureau" — This appears to be commercials for the Farm Bureau of Tennessee.
• “For My Mom” — This could be a typo. The Maryland production listed for this filming also has a crime series titled “For My Man” that airs on TV One.
That show is in its fourth season, so it seems this is just a Freudian slip.
• "Game Night" — IMDB describes the plot as "a group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery."
The movie stars Jesse Plemons, Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman.
It got six filming permits from the county.
For the latest on Georgia TV and film, click here.
• “Genius Junior” — This is a one-hour competition series that puts smarty pants kids to the test. It’s is hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.
The show's website said it is set to premiere March 18 on NBC.
• "Heaven" — According to reporting at the time, this was the working title of Fox's "The Gifted," a show based on Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise.
It was renewed for a second season, Deadline reported.
• “Home Depot Store Managers Meeting” — That must have been lit.
• "I, Tonya" — The movie, which details the unbelievable-but-true story of world-class figure skater Tonya Harding, was nominated for a Golden Globe in best motion picture and its lead Margot Robbie was also nominated individually.
Allison Janney won a Golden Globe for best supporting actress; during her acceptance speech, Janney gave a shoutout to "Little Man in Smyrna, Georgia," a reference to the bird that she shared the screen with during several scenes."
The film got six filming permits in Cobb.
Credit: Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Marie Claire
Credit: Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Marie Claire
• “Insatiable” — This Netflix show is a dark comedy based on Bill Alverson, who in real life is a lawyer and top beauty pageant coach.
As Rodney Ho explained it: "The show focuses on Bob (Dallas Roberts), a disgraced, dissatisfied civil lawyer-turned-beauty pageant coach who takes on Patty (Debby Ryan), a vengeful, bullied teenager as his client, and has no idea what he's about to unleash upon the world."
• “Installer & Pillow”
• “Intervention: The Town” — The Emmy-winning A&E show, which has run a dozen years and created hundreds of episodes, honed in on how Marietta was dealing with the national opioid crisis.
You can read all about how the show came to be, who is involved and what they focus on here.
• "Leave it TV Stevie Season 2" — We're assuming this is another typo and the intended show was "Leave it To Stevie," which returned for its second season in January 2018.
The show follows music producer Stevie J, whom Ho said is the only man who has ever been given intro credit status on "Love and Hip Hop Atlanta," as he used to date former Love and Hip Hop cast member Joseline Hernandez.
VH1 said the second season will focus on Stevie J's children.
• “Long Lost Family” — The TLC series connects people to biological family members via DNA testing and other methods.
Read a story just like that that happened in Cobb | DNA ancestry test connects brothers, both KSU students, 20 years later
• “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” — Sound familiar? The juggernaut of a show applied for one film permit in Cobb.
You can find the latest on Love and Hip Hop here.
• "Manifesto" — This appears to be the Discovery Channel series telling the story of the FBI profiler who helped bring in the capture of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
The show was set to be hosted by Kevin Spacey, who in October was accused by Anthony Rapp of making unwanted sexual advances against him when the fellow actor was 14 years old. After the allegations came out, Netflix said it would end its wildly popular show "House of Cards" after the season it already filmed. Spacey said he was seeking treatment.
• "MacGyver" — Starring one of Marietta's own, this reboot of the original nearly a quarter century later has the same "Swiss Army Knife" solution vibe.
Lucas Till, who graduated from Kell High School in 2008, is the new star of the eponymous show, which got six filming permits in Cobb last year.
• "Misfits and Monsters" — This Bobcat Goldthwait comedy series hops from genre to genre each episode, according to TruTV.
The four-time Sundance Award-winning writer and director Goldthwait is a long way from his grunting gang leader character named “Zed” in the Police Academy franchise.
It applied for three permits in Cobb in 2017.
(This GIF was specifically selected to not ruin "Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment," which came out nearly 25 years ago.)
• “Mom Project”
• “Napa K1718” — No clue, but we hope it involved wine.
• " 'Together We Do Chrimas' for Home Depot" — First of all, they probably meant "Christmas." Secondly, it appears the company had an advertisement series with that theme for the holidays.
• "The Wall S2" — "From executive producer and NBA superstar LeBron James comes "The Wall," the fastest and simplest game with more than $12 million on the line every night" is how NBC describes its show.
It is hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick.
• “Ozark” — Jason Bateman is a financial advisor who dabbles in money laundering for a drug cartel, which is quite the departure from his well-known character of Michael Bluth in the show “Arrested Development.”
And we might even know where that single 2017 filming permit was for in Cobb.
A guide of where the popular show filmed throughout metro Atlanta mentions that a scene was filmed inside The Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, just down the street from The Big Chicken in Marietta. That appears in episode 4, the guide says.
Credit: Netflix
Credit: Netflix
• “Pitch Perfect 3” — This movie is a sequel to the 2012 and 2015 films about a female a cappella group.
Star Rebel Wilson and costars Anna Camp, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Chrissie Fit and Ester Dean were seen out at Painted Pin in Buckhead one night during filming.
Some of the cast was also seen monkeying around at Zoo Atlanta.
The movie got three permits in Cobb last year.
Read more about the film here.
• “TLC Spaces Promo” — Using a bit of rocket science, we’re taking a swing and saying this was a promotional commercial for TLC’s rebooted “Trading Spaces.”
TLC announced in 2017 that it was bringing back the iconic show after a decade off the air.
As previously reported, coming back to the series are Atlanta designer and former HGTV personality Vern Yip and Sprayberry High School grad/Grant Park dweller Ty Pennington.
• “Rampage” — This is a movie based off of the 1980s arcade game of the same name. It will star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Words struggle to explain the plot, so watch the trailer below.
• “Suabe Hair care= NCAA Football” — We’re assuming they meant “Suave” because the “b” and the “v” keys are right next to each other on most keywords. No biggie.
• “Sun Trust Commercial”
• "Survivor's Remorse" — This Starz show set in Atlanta was canceled in October 2017 after four seasons. It featured a basketball player who moves from a poor neighborhood in Boston and becomes a pro basketball star who deals with him and his family adjusting to new fame and living in a Buckhead mansion.
• "The Have and Have Nots" — The Tyler Perry production premiered on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. Perry wrote a play of the same name.
• "The Last Full Measure" — This is a military flick with "The Last Full Measure," with Samuel L. Jackson, William Hurt, Christopher Plummer, Ed Harris and Peter Fonda that also filmed in downtown Atlanta near the Georgia State Capitol.
• "Trial by Fire" — Deadline reported in August that Jack O'Connell and Laura Dern were set to star in the "fact-based drama" adapted from the 2009 article in The New Yorker that won David Grann the Polk Award.
The movie got two Cobb permits to film in 2017.
• "Umpire" — According to SAG-AFTRA, this was the codename for "Uncle Drew," which is a movie based off of a Pepsi Max commercial that starred NBA star Kyrie Irving. The situation itself is a posterchild for capitalism.
In addition to Irving, the basketball film will feature Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Kroll, LilRel Howery, Erica Ash and Crystal Lee Brown.
Irving was reportedly in Atlanta shooting the film when he found out he had been officially traded to the Boston Celtics.
• “Untitled Makeover Project” — Sorry, we got nothing for you on this one. It ought to be obvious when you see it, though.
• "VBS elementary videos" — It may be what you think if you think it stands for "Video Bible School." The production company, reThink Group, appears to be associated with VBS and is listed to a Cumming address of the business.
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