For Sale: Bill Murray’s Hollywood Mansion in “Zombieland”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on APRIL 11, 2011

Bill Murray’s Hollywood mansion in the horror-comedy movie Zombieland is on the market for $19.9 million. It’s not really Bill Murray’s house, of course, and it’s not really in Hollywood–it sits on over 2 acres in Atlanta, Georgia.

A little birdie who lives in that area tells me it belongs to “Big Poppa,” the former (married) boyfriend of Kim Zolciak from “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” His identity was kept secret on the show (hence his nickname), but he’s real estate developer Lee Najjar.

Did you see the movie? Zombies have taken over and a guy named Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg, now playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network) is trying to get home to Ohio. He joins forces with a group of quirky characters played by Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin, as they fight for survival.

When they reach Hollywood, they dodge zombies and use a map of stars’ homes to find Bill Murray’s residence. They decide to crash it and hide out there for awhile (they think everyone in the world has been zombified or killed but them).

They actually filmed this part of the movie on location, in the mansion in Atlanta.

The staircase as it looks in the listing:

I’ve gotten a lot of requests to see photos of the kitchen from this movie:

Luckily for those of you who wanted a closer look, there are several photos of it in the listing from different angles:

A few other rooms from the listing:

There are some pretty amazing ceilings throughout the house:

A scene or two takes place in this dining room:

The house has 9 bedrooms and a whopping 13 baths.

This was Bill Murray’s Bedroom in the movie where, unbeknownst to them, he’s sleeping (and not dead):

Turns out Murray has survived by disguising himself as a zombie–he’s counting on them not to attack their own kind. And so far, it’s worked.

Wichita (Emma Stone) tells Murray he looks like Eddie Van Halen in the wig.

“I just saw Eddie Van Halen at the Hollywood Bowl,” Bill says.

“How is he?” Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) asks.

Bill shrugs. “He’s a zombie.”

When Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) admits she has never heard of Bill Murray, Columbus (Eisenberg) takes her to the home theater to watch Ghostbusters:

Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray reenact a scene from the movie:

The movie definitely had some laugh-out-loud moments. Like when Murray decides to scare Columbus by making him think he’s a zombie, but Columbus takes it so seriously he shoots him in the chest.

As he takes his final, gasping breaths, they ask, “Do you have any regrets?” Murray shrugs and says, “Maybe Garfield.”

The outside spaces like the terraces and the pool are my favorite things about the house. It would be hard not to feel like royalty lounging here, wouldn’t it?

You can read more about this property’s history and its owner at AJC.

If zombies took over the world, which celebrity’s house would you hide out in?I wouldn’t mind living on Reese’s ranch in Ojai. And maybe I’d make Tony Shalhoub’sMartha’s Vineyard cottage my vacation home…

You can see more photos and information on Trulia. (Thanks to Kelley and Morgan for helping with this one!)

Click Here to See More Movie Houses, from Bewitched to The Bounty Hunter!

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Stokesay Court: the Private English Estate Used in the Keira Knightley Film “Atonement”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on FEBRUARY 24, 2008

Ilove the Oscars. All day I tried to think of a way to justify writing about them on a website dedicated to houses. Then it occurred to me–write about my favorite house from a movie in the past year! That’ll work. I have a habit of watching certain movies over and over again just because I like the set design (as I admitted in Houses on the Big Screen), so I couldn’t resist taking this opportunity to post a photo of the movie set I’m rooting for.

It’s the English manor Stokesay Court, which was used in “Atonement,” and it’s my pick for this year’s Academy Award.

Actors Saoirse Ronan, Keira Knightley, and Patrick Kennedy, in a scene from the movie (above).

Regarding the stunning Stokesay Court, Architectural Digest reports:

Production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer found Stokesay Court, a private home in Shropshire, England, which they felt embodied the English manor depicted in Ian McEwan’s 2002 best-selling novel Atonement.

Director Joe Wright and his cast and crew spent five weeks at Stokesay, filming both interiors and exteriors at the house, which was built in 1889. The production design team spent seven weeks prior to filming creating a 1930s look for the home.

Here’s the drawing room, which is simply lovely:

The grand hall (emphasis on “grand”):

An amazing built-in sideboard in the dining room.

This polystyrene sculpture was created for the movie and has remained in the home in the central hall.

I wish I could’ve found photos that were larger than this. I’m dying to see the detail in rooms like the one below:

This just in: I found some more photos! And they’re not as teeny tiny! Take a gawk at these, which includes Keira Knightley in the room shown above:

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Photos via Architectural Digest, the New York Times, and the Stokesay Court website. You can read all about the house in an interesting article and see more of these photos at the NYT. If you want to take a tour in person, go to the official Stokesay Court website to find out how.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured, from“You’ve Got Mail” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”

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Jason Lee’s Cottage in “Alvin and the Chipmunks”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on DECEMBER 6, 2009

When a reader asked me to do a post about Alvin and the Chipmunks, I thought she was joking. I hadn’t seen the movie, but it didn’t seem like one that I’d have any interest in. Then I got another request for it (and another, and another). Finally, I broke down and rented it to see what they were talking about. I’m glad I did!

Songwriter Dave Seville (Jason Lee) lives in a cottage that is so charming that it’s hard to believe a (straight) bachelor lives in it. But who cares? It provides some much-appreciated eye candy for the moms who are watching the movie with their kids.

One of the first shots of the film has the camera panning over Dave’s neighborhood:

This is a real apartment complex in Hollywood known as St. Andrews Bungalow Court. They were built in 1919. What’s really amazing is how the bungalows looked before they were rehabbed:

According to Hollywood Community Housing:

St. Andrews Bungalow Court is an historic renovation of a rare Hollywood bungalow courtyard that had fallen into severe disrepair, become a magnet for illegal activity and was slated for demolition.

This project now provides 16 homes to formerly homeless individuals and households living with disabilities. St. Andrews Bungalow Court is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has received numerous renovation awards, including a 1996 Preservation Design Award from the California Preservation Foundation.

Here’s a glimpse inside one of the real bungalows after the renovation work was finished:

“The entire interior and walkway in front of the house was built on a soundstage at Sunset-Gower Studios in Hollywood,” writes Brian, who worked as the assistant to the animation director. “The director, Tim Hill, did a great job of mixing the exteriors shot at the apartment complex with the footage shot on stage.”

Inside Dave’s bungalow:

The kitchen:

Actors Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney were the voices of Alvin, Simon and Theordore. Didn’t sound anything like them, did it? Brian explains:

“The voices of the Chipmunks are recorded by speaking very slowly into a tape recorder, then speeding up the tape. The trick is to be able to have emotion in your voice while you’re talking so slowly.”

In this corner of the kitchen, next to the trashcan that the chipmunks were hiding in, you get a glimpse of the built-in booth and painted floors:

In this shot, shown from the chipmunks’ point of view, you can see the vaulted ceilings:

Those pesky chipmunks make a mess of the kitchen:

Looking from the kitchen into the dining room (love the retro fridge):

Looking from the kitchen into the living room:

When Simon, Alvin, and Theodore make their own breakfast, they set off the smoke alarm:

They wreak havoc in the living room, too:

The hallway, looking into Dave’s bedroom:

French doors leading to Dave’s study, where he writes his songs:

The Chipmunk Song (sometimes called “Christmas Don’t Be Late”) was written by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (a.k.a. David Seville) in 1958. It was also performed by Bagdasarian. It hit #1 on the Billboard Pop Hit Singles chart and sold more than 4.5 million copies.

See the piano in the lower right-hand corner? That’s the actual one that Bagdasarian used years ago to write the Chipmunk Song on:

According to its Wikipedia page:

With the release and popularity of the film Alvin and the Chipmunks in December 2007, “The Chipmunk Song” re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #70. At the same time, a remixed version of the song that appears on the Chipmunks’ 2007 album (and soundtrack to the film)Alvin and the Chipmunks: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, peaked at #66 and was credited as “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) (2007 Version)”.

See the address over Dave’s front door? It’s 1958–the year “The Chipmunk Song” was written.

A sequel–sorry, Squeakquel–is coming to theaters at the end of December. If it means getting another look at Dave’s house, then my daughter won’t have to twist my arm too hard to take her to see it! (Thanks to Nita and Anthony for helping me with the research for this one!)

Check my TV/Movie Houses page for the others I’ve featured, including The Holiday. Did you take the Christmas-Movie Quiz yet?

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