Costa Rica is a wonderful country. Stuck between Nicaragua and Panama, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West, it has everything that can make it an attractive spot to visit for tourists all over the world. Its improving economy, its political stability, and its friendly policies, which are open even to international gambling destinations like https://www.redflushcasino.com/, to make it an attractive destination for businesses, too. And for studios, apparently, that often shoot movies with its picturesque scenery as the backdrop. Like the ones below.
A movie about how Christopher Columbus, a Genoan explorer sailing under a Spanish flag discovered the New World, bringing civilization, Catholic culture, disease, and slavery to the locals. This one is actually closer to home compared to any other movie on the list below – the explorer first discovers San Salvador, an island in the Bahamas, while most of the scenes in the movie were shot in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, less than 600 miles away.
Even though most of the action in the movie Jurassic Park happens on Isla Nublar, an island off the coast of Costa Rica, none of the scenes of the movie were actually shot there. The movie does use footage of Isla del Coco in its opening scenes, though. The sequel of the movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2, takes its viewers to a neighboring island, Isla Sorna, about 87 miles west from Isla Nublar. Both islands are fictional, though -you will not find them on any of the maps today.
A movie based on a novel with the same title by famous American author Michael Crichton, telling the story of an expedition sent to the Virunga volcano in Congo to discover an incredibly valuable blue diamond that could revolutionize technology as we know it.
Parts of the movie were shot on location in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United States -and other parts in Costa Rica’s San Carlos canton. No part of the movie was actually shot in Congo.
Robert Rodriguez, the “rebel without a crew”, as his book describes his unique style of filmmaking from the beginning of his career, is well-known for several of his “serious” works -like his zombie horror flick “Planet Terror”, his Mexican action drama “Desperado”, and many others. He is also the mastermind behind one of the best-known kid spy movie series of our times, the “Spy Kids” series. And its second part, “Spy Kids: Island of Lost Dreams”, was filmed on 2 locations in Costa Rica.
Parts of the movie were shot at Lake Arenal, the largest lake in the country due to the Arenal dam, constructed in 1979. Other scenes were shot at the Manuel Antonio National Park, a small national park on the Pacific coast of the country, south of the city of Quepos, Puntarenas, and at just 82 miles from the capital San José.
Night Shyamalan’s science fiction flick “After Earth” might not have been a big success -but its failure was surely not caused by its filming locations. Part of the movie was shot at the Arenal Volcano, about 55 miles north of San José. The volcano has been dormant since its last eruption in 1998, providing the perfect backdrop for the post-apocalyptic movie starring Will Smith and his son Jaden.
By: Fawad Malik – Online Awagat, Blogging, Contributor, Writer