If you saw the movie Rock of Ages this summer, you may have assumed it was shot on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, where it is set, but the movie’s director, Adam Shankman, and production designer, Jon Hutman, actually recreated Los Angeles in Miami for the film.
The pair recently discussed how they were able to transform southern Florida into L.A. in the 1980’s.
“Adam and I spoke the same language,” Hutman explained. “We lived the Sunset Strip in its heyday. He wanted the world of the movie to be real, which is exactly the opposite of what you might expect for a musical.”
Hutman focused on three distinct sets: The Bourbon Room, the Venus Gentleman’s Club and, of course, the Sunset Strip. “L.A. is a car city, and the way most of us experience the Sunset Strip is by driving from one end of it to the other, compressing the distance between the iconic elements,” Hutman said.
“We scouted the world for this movie,” producer Garrett Grant added. “The Strip was key, but we knew we couldn’t use the real thing, so we went all over the United States and even Sydney, Australia, trying to find the right layout and architecture. Then we came upon this strip in Miami which, thanks to Jon, worked perfectly.”
Hutman rebuilt the Sunset Strip in six weeks in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Thanks to Hutman’s crew and the visual effects team, the location eventually featured several Hollywood landmarks like Tower Records, Guitar Center, The Roxy, the Whiskey, Filthy McNasty’s (now The Viper Room), Centerfold Newsstand, The Comedy Store, Gazzarri’s (now the Key Club), The Body Shop, Ben Frank’s, Duke’s, The Sunset Grill, SunBee Liquors and Frederick’s of Hollywood.
Hutman also fashioned the exterior of The Bourbon Room, complete with a grand marquee on the “strip”, while the interior set was actually built in Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
To bring the club back to the 80s, the walls of The Bourbon Room, including Dennis Dupree’s office, were covered with memorabilia like coasters, photographs, ticket stubs, and posters. “We even hung 500 bras and 300 ties from the ceiling above the bar,” Hutman said, “which was a great touch. Our set decorator, K.C. Fox, had a lot of fun with this set. We wanted it to feel like the place where rock ‘n’ roll was born.”
As for the Venus Gentleman’s Club, Hutman says, “Isn’t your average strip club, but a high-end, classed-up version of one.” It was created in The Castle Resort in Miami, which is currently a condo/hotel high rise, but was one of the original Playboy clubs in the 1970s.
Hutman’s greatest challenge though was to recreate the Hollywood Sign. He ended up using a 250-foot landfill, the highest point in South Florida, to recreate the legendary hills where the sign sits.
Other key locations for the film included the Hard Rock Live arena in Broward County,the ancient Spanish monastery off the Dixie Highway in North Miami Beach, the Biltmore Hotel, the Imperial Penthouse, and Miami’s Ice Palace in Overtown.
“From creating the biggest rock star on the planet, to recreating the smallest detail of life on the Sunset Strip in the ’80s, I had a very specific vision of how ‘Rock of Ages’ was all going to come together to draw audiences in,” Shankman reflected.
