Kaua‘i has a very special place at this year’s Academy Awards scheduled tonight at the historic Kodak Theater in Hollywood. “The Descendants” starring George Clooney is nominated for five Oscars. The movie was filmed on Kaua‘i and O’ahu in 2010.
Kaua‘i has a very special place at this year’s Academy Awards scheduled tonight at the historic Kodak Theater in Hollywood. “The Descendants” starring George Clooney is nominated for five Oscars. The movie was filmed on Kaua‘i and O’ahu in 2010. The 84th annual award ceremony will air on ABC (check the local listing on KITV Channel 4).
Written by Hawai‘i-born Kaui Hart Hemmings and directed by Alexander Payne of “Sideways” fame, the Fox Searchlight film is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
“The Descendants” won Best Picture in the drama category and Best Actor in a dramatic role for Clooney at the Golden Globe Awards in January.
Formed in 1998, Fox Searchlight, a division of 20th Century Fox that specializes in independent films, won eight Oscar Awards for “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2009. Twentieth Century Fox also filmed two other movies here on Kaua‘i: “Between Heaven and Hell” starring Robert Wagner in 1956, and the renowned “South Pacific” in 1958.
Many Kaua‘i locations were featured in “The Descendants,” including the beach at Hanalei Bay and the stately St. Regis Hotel at Princeville and its secluded beach fronting the property. Other Kaua‘i locations featured were Kealia and Spaulding Monument, arrivals at Lihu‘e Airport and Kipu Kai, which was mentioned in the movie as the ‘last piece of paradise’ in Hawai‘i.’ The St. Regis’ general manager, Milton Sgarbi, and his staff cleared and dedicated the entire top floor of the hotel for the filming of scenes in the movie.
A significant scene in the film was shot at Tahiti Nui Bar & Restaurant in the heart of Hanalei town, where a Hawaiian paniolo (cowboy) ‘yodeling’ song was performed by Hanalei native Keola Yokotake with an ‘ukulele and backed up by Koko Kanealii and Darryl Gonzalez.
The scene captured the laid back “island-style” atmosphere of a real-life bar in the tropics where Tahiti Nui owner Christian Marston and patrons were seen in the background. Musicians Keola, Koko and Darryl actually perform as a trio at the Tahiti Nui from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Other local people cast in the movie included well-known surfers Titus Kinimaka and Laird Hamilton, and actress Sonya Balmores Chung (who was also in the movies “Beyond The Break” and “Soul Surfer.”)
“The Descendants” is a present-day film about Hawai‘i’s missionaries, sugar plantation owners and their families who have acquired vast land holdings over the years. Interestingly enough, the Wilcoxes, who are one of Kaua‘i’s famous missionary families, provided their beachfront home as one of the film’s locations. Their sprawling Hanalei estate was used as base camp for the movie production.
In late 2009 and early 2010, director Alex Payne and his production crew scouted Kaua‘i and returned in April 2010 to commence six weeks of filming. Kaua‘i’s location and production managers — “KK”, Karen Greenlee and Angela Tillson — assisted with location and production.
During this same period in 2010, three other Hollywood movies were filmed on Kaua‘i, including Sony Pictures’ “Soul Surfer”, a biopic of Kaua‘i surfer Bethany Hamilton. Sony Pictures filmed “Just Go With It” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and Disney’s “Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, was filmed in 2010.
Film expenditures on Kaua‘i for 2010 totaled $54 million.
It’s always great to have movies filmed on Kaua‘i as it brings another level of excitement to our island, especially when the picture is up for five Oscars and Kaua‘i is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawai‘i,” which was filmed here in 1961 and released in 1962.
We have a rich and successful history with Hollywood that spans 80 years.
Of the movies filmed on Kaua‘i, “South Pacific” won an Oscar for Best Sound in 1959, and “Jurassic Park” won three Oscars for Best Visual, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound.
If “The Descendants” wins an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing or Best Actor, it will be another first for a Kaua‘i-made movie.
Art Umezu is Kaua‘i Film Commissioner.
