Sam’s Houseboat in “Sleepless in Seattle”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Welcome to Movie Monday, when I feature the houses from our favorite films. Since it’s Valentine’s month, I thought it would be fun to take a look at Tom Hanks’ famous houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle.

Okay, so the houses aren’t really boats because they never leave the dock, and they’re technically called floating homes, but that just doesn’t have the same ring as a houseboat, does it? The one his character Sam lived in is on Lake Union near the University of Washington and Pike Place Market.

Houseboats started cropping up in the area in the 1890s, when sailors, fishermen and dock workers in Elliott Bay built homes on rafts. According to an article in The Washington Post:

During the Depression, low-income laborers took advantage of the geography and built or moved into tax-free houseboats. The houseboat population peaked in the 1930s, at about 2,000, but has since dropped to around 500. Still, Seattle boasts one of the country’s largest houseboat communities.

The movie was written and directed by Nora Ephron, who has a knack for bringing beautiful houses to the big screen (I’ve written posts about some of them, like Bewitched and You’ve Got Mail.)

Ephron was inspired by An Affair to Remember, the classic tear-jerker starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr (I wrote a post about it here.)

Annie (Meg Ryan) steps up to his front door, hoping to introduce herself. Too bad he wasn’t home:

Sam (Tom Hanks) comes home from work:

The movie was so dark that it was difficult to get good photos from it. Most of it was filmed on rainy days or at night. I lightened these photos as much as I could, but that made them look a little blurry.

Sam is a widow who has just moved to Seattle with his 8-year old son Jonah. The name Jonah seemed so unusual in 1993, didn’t it? Now it’s much more common.

Sam’s bedroom:

His home office:

Sam is an architect, which is one of the most popular “movie careers” for men in romantic movies. I guess women like to fantasize about having a man who could design their dream home for them!

Sam in the kitchen with the woman he has started dating with the annoying laugh. Jonah doesn’t like her (or her laugh) and wants his dad to meet Annie instead:

Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks’ real-life wife, played his friend Suzy in the movie. Even though this scene where he and Suzy’s husband Greg (Victor Garber) pretend to cry over the plot in The Dirty Dozen was totally improvised, it proved to be one of the most memorable:

The 2,075-square foot houseboat used for the film was put on the market in 2008 for $2.5 million. It was built in 1978 with four bedrooms and two baths and is the largest floating home on Lake Union. It boasts views of not only the water, but downtown Seattle. Here are some photos from the listing:

It has the same kind of beams in the main living areas as in the movie, but otherwise bears little resemblance to the movie interiors.

You can see more photos and get more information about the house here.

Annie’s House in Baltimore:

I was wowed by Annie’s house in Baltimore with all the pink walls and vintage decor when I saw the movie for the first time.

Rosie O’Donnell played her wise-cracking best friend.

Love the vintage fridge:

The role of Annie Reed was originally offered to Julia Roberts, who turned it down. Second choice? Kim Basinger, who said the premise was “too ridiculous.” I also read that they tried to get Jodie Foster for it. Seriously? It’s hard to imagine anyone but Meg Ryan in the role.

In the end, Annie and Sam finally meet at the top of the Empire State Building in New York (just like Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr were supposed to do before tragedy struck in An Affair to Remember.) Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks actually spend less than 2 minutes onscreen together in the movie.

Ryan and Hanks teamed up again in 1998 for You’ve Got Mail. The post I wrote about Meg Ryan’s brownstone in that movie continues to be one of my most popular (you can see it here).

Do you have a favorite Nora Ephron movie?

Go to my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured, from Bewitched to Down With Love.

You might also like:

Meg Ryan’s Spanish-Style House in “Hanging Up”

The Top 10 Movie Houses of 2010

Meg Ryan’s Brownstone in “You’ve Got Mail”

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Meg Ryan’s New York City Apartment in “Kate & Leopold”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JULY 26, 2010

Welcome to Movie Monday, when I feature the sets from some of our favorite films. The 2001 romantic comedy Kate & Leopold starred Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman in a time-travel love story that I thought was a lot of fun, even if it wasn’t very believable.

Kate’s cozy New York City apartment was a set built on a soundstage. They built exteriors of other buildings outside the windows so it would look “real” when they were outside on the fire escape.

Breckin Meyer played her brother Charlie. Liev Schrieber was Stuart, Kate’s ex and Leopold’s great-great grandson who went back in time and found him.

I love these bookshelves in Kate’s apartment–and those tall windows!

They cast Australian Hugh Jackman because they wanted “someone fresh” for the role. In 2001, he was a fairly new face to American audiences, although he had appeared in X-Men as Wolverine the year before. Jackman was nominated for a Golden Globe for this movie.

Leopold takes Charlie’s advice and waits to turn the dishwasher on until Kate is there to see him do it. Smart man!

In the Director’s Cut, Stuart turns out to be Leopold’s great-great grandson. However, the studio had concerns about the fact that this made Meg Ryan both Stuart’s ex-girlfriend and his great-great grandmother. The ick-factor led them to edit out all mentions of Stuart’s family connection to Leopold.

Bathroom:

Kate’s Bedroom:

Kitchen:

Sting was nominated for an Oscar for the song “Until” that plays over the credits, and he won a Golden Globe for it.

Kate & Leopold was written by James Mangold, who went on to write and directWalk the Line in 2005.

He says that the 1800s version of New York City in the movie was very much romanticized and not intended to be historically accurate: “It was a fantasy world. What I was focused on was the sense of optimism and joy. A place where there was time to think and time to dream. There was a kind of grandeur. It’s a Merchant-Ivory kind of fantasy.”

Leopold invites Kate to a romantic dinner on the roof:

This is a fun little movie if you don’t think about the time-travel details too much. And if you can get past Meg Ryan’s unflattering hairstyle (wonder who thought that was a good idea?).

P.S. Check out Meg Ryan’s real house in Bel Air.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to the others I’ve featured, including more Meg Ryan movies like You’ve Got Mail and The Women.

You might also like:

Meg Ryan’s Spanish-Style House in “Hanging Up”

Meg Ryan’s Brownstone in “You’ve Got Mail”

For Sale: The Colonial Revival House Used in “The Women”

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Meg Ryan’s Spanish-Style House in “Hanging Up”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on APRIL 18, 2010

The Delia Ephron movie Hanging Up, starring Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, and Lisa Kudrow, premiered in 2000 to poor reviews, and it didn’t make much money at the box office. The sets, however, made a big impression. Ten years later, people are still talking about the house Meg Ryan’s character Eve lived in. One look at the front of the house and you can see why.

The story revolves around Eve, who is stuck with the job of taking care of their ailing, alcoholic, “uproar-man” of a father (Walter Matthau in his final role). Her sisters Georgia (Keaton) and Maddy (Kudrow) are too preoccupied with their own lives to help–or to even take Eve’s calls most of the time.

The Entry:

The movie was based on Delia Ephron’s novel Hanging Up. She wrote the screenplay and Diane Keaton directed it.

Ryan spent most of the movie in a long coat that came down to her ankles and looked like a bathrobe. Not sure what that was about.

Family Room:

This hallway leads into the master bedroom, which doesn’t have a door. You can see the lamp on the nightstand on the right-hand side of the photo below:

Bedroom:

The openness makes me wonder if this room is actually used for something else (not a bedroom) in the actual house, and they just staged it that way for the movie. Check out the huge fireplace beside the bed:

Eve’s Closet:

Her Son’s Room:

Note that she’s even sleeping in that robe-like coat in her son’s room. In this next photo that has Lou walking out of Eve’s house, the entry hall looks strangely empty and cold. Almost institutional:

A lot of the movie seemed to have been filmed through light fog, which you can see in some of these photos. It was especially noticeable when they were in Eve’s house.

The Kitchen:

I think Eve is on the phone in almost every scene.

The cookie cutters on the wall are fun:

The open shelves in her kitchen create a lot of display space for her colorful dishes.

There’s a fabulous windowseat in the kitchen:

In this shot, you can see that the window seat runs along both walls in the corner:

Looking through the kitchen at the three sisters making Thanksgiving dinner together:

In the final scene, the sisters bond by having a ludicrous flour fight. I had to roll my eyes at that one. I don’t know any woman who would think it was fun to have flour dumped all over her kitchen in the middle of making Thanksgiving dinner.

The camera pulls back out of the kitchen and we see that Eve has gone all out in decorating for fall:

I have searched in vain for information about this house. It looks like they filmed the movie on site (not on a separate soundstage), but I couldn’t confirm it. The production notes do state that it was filmed entirely in California–mostly in Beverly Hills and Pasadena–so I guess that narrows it down.

If anyone knows anything about it, please fill us in. Sometimes I get the best information about movie houses by posting about them and having readers tell me what they know!

I’ve done so many Movie Monday posts that feature Meg Ryan movies that I might have to change the name to “Meg Mondays.” Let’s see…so far, I’ve featured:

• Sleepless in Seattle
• You’ve Got Mail
• The Women

I’ll also be showing you photos of Ryan’s New York City apartment from Kate & Leopold soon. Some of you have requested the house from When a Man Loves a Woman, as well. Do you have a favorite Meg Movie House?

P.S. You can see Meg Ryan’s real-life house here, which is actually kind of similar to this one.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured.

You might also like:

Sam’s Houseboat in “Sleepless in Seattle”

For Sale: The Colonial Revival House Used in “The Women”

Meg Ryan’s New York City Apartment in “Kate & Leopold”

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