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!)

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Then & Now: The Lake House From “What About Bob?”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JANUARY 30, 2011

The 1991 comedy What About Bob–starring Richard Dreyfuss as a psychiatrist whose vacation is interrupted by a patient named Bob (Bill Murray)–was pretty funny. But what most of us probably remember is his vacation house on Lake Winnipesaukee, right?

They used a real lake house at Smith Mountain Lake in Wirtz, Virginia, for filming–both the exterior and interior. It was on the market last year, so I thought it would be fun to compare how it looked in the movie 20 years ago to how it looks today.

In the movie, the house had lots of cheery green paint on the exterior trim and shutters.

Julie Hagerty played Dr. Leo Marvin’s wife Fay and mom to Anna and Siggy–even though in real life she was only 10 years older than the actress playing her daughter (Kathryn Erbe).

Dr. Leo’s family falls in love with Bob–they think he’s a lot of fun, even if he does leave a trail of chaos in his wake. Leo, however, resists his charms.

Dreyfuss and Murray reportedly didn’t get along well on set, which may have made it easier to act out a few of the scenes…

The puppets on the mantel are mini versions of each family member. When they’re having problems, Dr. Leo likes to use them to act out their issues, which the kids don’t really appreciate.

The kitchen may look outdated now, but I like it anyway–it looks like a cozy spot to hang out in with the fam:

The screened porch run across the entire back of the house and is where the family eats all of their meals overlooking the lake. In this scene, Bill Murray is wearing Bob’s famous “Don’t Hassle Me-I’m Local” t-shirt, which you can still buy online:

The Master Bedroom:

Spoiler Alert! If you don’t want to know how the movie ends, turn away now…

At the end of the movie, Bob accidentally blows the house up. Producers used a 3/4-sized model that they detonated on a nearby lot. No lake houses were actually harmed during the filming of this movie…

A reader tracked down the listing photos last year for me when I couldn’t find them. (Thanks, Shelley!) It had already sold, but I was excited to see what the house looks like today.

As you can see, the bushes in front of the house have grown a lot since the movie was made and are in serious need of a trim:

The house was on the market for $1.675 million, but I’m not sure what it actually sold for. The house now has black shutters and trim instead of green:

The living room is pretty cheery, with yellow walls and red accents:

The kitchen hasn’t changed much–same cabinets, same tile–but they have a table instead of an island:

One of my favorite features of the house is the screened porch overlooking the lake:

There’s a finished lower-level that we never see in the film:

The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 2 half baths, with a total of 2,880 square feet (which surprises me because it doesn’t look that big). This is the bedroom where their son Siggy slept:

And the Master Bedroom:

A view of the back of the house:

The listing even had the floorplans for the house:

The dock as it looks in the movie:

Someday I’d love to have a vacation house on a lake like this. Wish I had one to retreat to right now, as a matter of fact…minus the unwanted visitor, of course!

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