airports in movies

Does that airport look familiar? Look again.

I like to think I can identify the airports featured in movies and on television. And while McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is easy to spot, I have  to admit, I’m often stumped.

Now I know why.

In a fun article in the New York Times titled “In Hollywood, Flights of Fancy,” Christine Negroni describes the faux airports and airplanes created by companies such as Air Hollywood.

“When Brad Pitt’s character Billy Beane went for his interview with the Boston Red Sox in the business-of-baseball film “Moneyball,” he was on an Air Hollywood flight — as was Tom Hanks playing a U.S. congressman in the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” she explains.

And it takes a lot to make those fake airports and airplanes look as real as they do.

Air Hollywood’s chief executive, Talaat Captan, told Negroni that in order to fill requests for movies, TV shows and commercials, he keeps about $ 3 million worth of props at the ready, including  “first- and coach-class seats; and a warehouse of check-in counters, meal trolleys and metal detectors.”

Curious about how they make airplane crashes in films and on TV look real? She found the folks who specialize in that as well.

Here’s another link to the story.