Georgetown and D.C. on the Big Screen
By • January 25, 2019 0 4152
While most films centered on Washington, D.C., or Georgetown involve the government, politics, Capitol Hill and the White House — not to mention the military, the CIA or the NSA — one film in Georgetown featured none of these: “The Exorcist.” The 1973 horror classic used a Prospect Street house and many locales at Georgetown University.
The following is a selection of Georgetown houses that have appeared on the big screen. There will be no mention of the Tombs and the Third Edition being used in “St. Elmo’s Fire,” Tom Cruise driving on Wisconsin Avenue in “Minority Report” or George Clooney running up 35th Street hill in “Burn After Reading.”
- 3600 Prospect St. NW. “The Exorcist,” 1973. Possibly the most famous Georgetown home in a movie, this house got a temporary addition to its east that extended to the steps at the Car Barn so the priest could hurl himself out the window and tumble to his death on M Street.
- 1503 35th St. NW. “Pelican Brief,” 1993. A Supreme Court justice is assassinated in this house.
- 3343 P St. NW. “American President,” 1995. This is the sister’s place, where Annette Bening, love interest for POTUS Michael Douglas, lived for a while. It is also the former home of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), U.S. ambassador to China until 2017.
- 3410 P St. NW. “Chances Are,” 1989. Home of Cybill Shepherd, who gets to meet her resurrected husband, Robert Downey.
- 3331 O St. NW. “The Man with One Red Shoe,” 1985. Nice place where Tom Hanks lived.
- 1503 30th St. NW. “No Way Out,” 1987. Mistress to the secretary of defense and girlfriend to Kevin Costner, Sean Young’s character was killed in an apartment here. The film is locally noteworthy for showing Costner running from the Whitehurst Freeway into the Georgetown Metrorail Station [sic].
3331 O St. NW. Georgetowner photo.
A FEW MORE LOCATIONS …
- 3000 block of Dent Place NW. “A Few Good Men,” 1992.
- Potomac and O Street near St. John’s and Hyde School. “Enemy of the State,” 1998.
- While renovating a townhouse in “Heartburn,” 1986, Meryl Streep was seen at the old Neam’s Market, whose owners appeared in the film.
- A movie, in post-production, is “Wonder Woman 1984,” which took over parts of Georgetown, downtown and Watergate during film shooting. “WW84” is scheduled for release in June 2020.
Nearby, along Prospect Street, are two grand houses visited by film crews: Halcyon House for the 2007 “Transformers” and Prospect House for 1998’s “Deep Impact,” whose production people received copies of The Georgetowner newspaper for use in the living room shots. (Neither scene made the final cut.)
