With its rich history, New Orleans would seem to be a logical place to shoot movies -- but until recent years, not many ventured outside Hollywood to do so. The 1958 Elvis Presley film "King Creole," based on a Harold Robbins novel, did come to the city, and Elvis sightings sometimes made it difficult to film. It's considered one of the best Elvis movies.
Paramount Pictures
Steve McQueen plays a poker player in 1965's "The Cincinnati Kid," which featured a number of New Orleans settings. The Norman Jewison-directed film also starred Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld and Edward G. Robinson as McQueen's rival.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
John Grisham is from Mississippi, and a number of his novels have been turned into movies with a New Orleans presence. The first was 1993's "The Pelican Brief," with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. The latter plays a Tulane law student who becomes mixed up in a plot involving two assassinated Supreme Court justices.
Ken Regan/Warner Bros./Getty Images
"Ray," from 2004, may look like it was shot all over the world, but many scenes were filmed in New Orleans and its environs. Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his portrayal of musician Ray Charles.
The post-apocalyptic 2009 movie "The Road" found post-Katrina New Orleans all too appropriate for its purposes: Director John Hillcoat used locations such as an abandoned movie theater for the tale of a father and son in a wrecked world.
Dimension Films
On the other hand, "The Expendables" (2010) may have shot in and around the city, including a local warehouse and a highway overpass, but its scenes were set all over the world. Movie magic!
Millennium Films
"Treme," David Simon's HBO series, was not only set in New Orleans, it was specifically about the city. One character, played by Steve Zahn, was a DJ on WWOZ-FM, a real radio station; another, played by John Goodman, teaches at Tulane. Wendell Pierce, right, a real-life New Orleans native, played a trombonist and music teacher.
HBO Entertainment
The 2012 movie "Looper," about a time-traveling hitman, is set in Kansas but was filmed in New Orleans (for the city scenes) and Thibodaux (for the farmhouse scenes).
Alan Markfield/DMG Entertainment
"21 Jump Street," the TV series, was set in an unnamed city and filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. "21 Jump Street," the movie, was set in an unnamed city and filmed in New Orleans -- but made the city look generic. "It's an interesting problem, because New Orleans is obviously a really specific-looking place, so we actually went to seek out the parts of it that felt like they could be anywhere," writer-director Phil Lord told NOLA.com.
Columbia TriStar
The FX series "American Horror Story: Coven" was about witches and voodoo, and what better place to set and film it than the Crescent City? A number of the mansions are well-established tourist attractions, though the Chubbie's fried chicken shop probably isn't.
From FX
Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film "Django Unchained," about former slave Django (Jamie Foxx) and a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) going to a plantation to rescue Django's wife, was shot in the West -- hence the snow and mountains -- and at Evergreen Plantation on the River Road north of New Orleans. Some interiors were shot at a soundstage in the Crescent City.
The Weinstein Company
"12 Years a Slave," which won an Academy Award for 2013's best picture, was largely filmed at plantations north of New Orleans. Some early scenes were filmed in the city, including at the Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue and at locations in the French Quarter. The real-life Solomon Northup spent most of his slave years at the Epps plantation near Bunkie, Louisiana, in the central part of the state.
Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures
"Now You See Me" (2013), about a gang of magicians led by Jesse Eisenberg, second from left, shot a great deal in New Orleans, including a scene on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. The sequel, however -- due for release next year -- is taking a more international slant.
Summit Entertainment
The setting for "NCIS: New Orleans" is right there in the title. Scott Bakula stars in the CBS series as Dwayne "King" Pride, who oversees a team of agents combating crime along the Gulf Coast.
Wings Productions
"Jurassic World," the No. 1 box office hit of 2015, shot some of its scenes in Hawaii -- where "Jurassic Park" shot more than 20 years ago -- but also made use of the abandoned Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East. "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" have also shot at the park.
