Seth Gordon directed a movie called Identity Thief back in 2013, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. A unique comedy on its own in which Bateman’s character travels to Florida to confront McCarthy’s character, a woman who stole his identity and has been living large with a fake ID.
Written by Emmy Award-winner Craig Mazin, the same man who brought us The Hangover Part II and HBO’s drama Chernobyl, and Scott Stuber, who also produced “Ted”, this movie is extremely fun.
Today, we’re going behind the scenes to find out the Identity Thief filming locations to learn a few details surrounding this picture, so let’s jump into a road trip across the United States to learn where they filmed this movie.
Identity Thief Filming Locations
Identity Thief was filmed across the United States in several locations, including Tennessee, Georgia, and Colorado. The bulk of the movie was shot in Georgia, in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
Furthermore, the main photography for this picture kicked off in May 2012 and continued up until late June that year. Fun fact: Melissa McCarthy’s character was initially written by Craig Mazin as a male, but Jason Bateman wanted that changed because he saw her act in Bridesmaids, and the production crew made his wish come true.
Colorado
The story in Identity Thief kicks off in Colorado, in the Denver area, where Jason Bateman’s character finds out that his identity has been stolen, and he must embark on a trip to confront the person who’s impersonating him and living off of his name.
There are some exterior shots of Denver’s metro area, but that was only a small portion of the movie because we’re then taken elsewhere. Furthermore, Denver is the largest city in Colorado state. It is the home of the National Western Stock Show, a century-old event in which cattle is traded and became a Western trademark of folk culture.
Tennesee
After Jason Bateman’s character finds out that the identity was stolen, he embarks on chasing Melissa McCarthy’s character all over the place, and for production purposes, the cast and crew went to Tennessee in the Southern United States to film several outdoor scenes like the Market Street Bridge scene where Bateman chases McCarthy down the street.
That scene was shot in Chattanooga; this city is home to the world’s largest freshwater aquarium. It is called the “Scenic City” because of its mountain views, rivers, and surrounding nature, making it a very attractive tourist spot; in which you can also find the Walnut Street Bridge, the longest pedestrian bridge, which is also shown briefly in some scenes.
Georgia
In the movie, we’re led to believe that Jason Bateman’s character travels to Florida to chase down Melissa McCarthy’s character, and thanks to the magic of movies, the filming locations, and editing, we’re led to believe that we’re in Florida, when in fact, that movie’s most important scenes were filmed in Atlanta, Georgia’s metropolitan area.
The bulk of this movie was shot all over the Atlanta Metropolitan area. Atlanta is one major movie and series film location, with many blockbuster movies like Marvel’s The Avengers being shot there, for example.
In this movie, several indoor and outdoor scenes were shot all over Atlanta’s metro area. Like the Colonnade Restaurant scenes that were filmed at the actual Colonnade, located at Cheshire Bridge Rd., the street scenes, which were filmed in Rome, Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta.
The bar scenes were also filmed in several locations like the Cheshire Motor Inn, and the motor vehicle accident was filmed in Hampton, another location in the Metro area of Atlanta where Bateman and McCarthy’s character meet for the first time.
Atlanta is home to several major TV networks like CNN, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim; the city boasts a very bustling life. It has several sports franchises, and it has one of the most busiest airports in the world, the Atlanta International Airport, a facility that’s been working for almost a century.
