{"id":158413,"date":"2026-01-31T21:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158413\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:53:12","slug":"where-wonder-man-shot-across-los-angeles-from-taix-to-vidiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158413\/","title":{"rendered":"Where ‘Wonder Man’ Shot Across Los Angeles, From Taix to Vidiots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMarvel Television\u2019s new limited series \u201cWonder Man<\/a>\u201d is a meta look at superhero stardom, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen<\/a> II taking on the role of Simon Williams, the aspiring actor with supernatural powers. As a Hollywood hopeful, Simon makes the rounds of familiar L.A. studios, restaurants and movie theaters, hoping to be cast in the reboot of the superhero movie \u201cWonder Man.\u201d From the iconic movie palaces of Hollywood Boulevard to the streets of Pacoima, \u201cWonder Man\u201d is full of authentic L.A. flavor.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt helps that production designers Cindy Chao and Michele Yu are both Los Angeles natives with years of memories of seeing movies at local theaters and enjoying quirky sights like the giant Superior Tile man looming over Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Valley, which makes an appearance in the show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cProduction design, when it comes to location shooting, is very much the curation of the world around us,\u201d says Yu. \u201cSo we were very intentional in helping locations and our directors find establishing shots like this, because we wanted to show things that were less obvious and more evocative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe wanted to show a version of L.A. that digs beneath all of the layers. We came into the show thinking about peeling back the layers of the onion,\u201d she continues. \u201cThe reality of Hollywood as a physical experience doesn\u2019t necessarily hold up to that dream, right? But it was important for us to be able to show that, and shoot at all of these locations that ran the gamut of what you expect, what you dream about \u2014 what you really live if you\u2019re living in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYu and Chao took the crew on field trips to experience all facets of the city, including several that didn\u2019t make it into the show, such as Randyland, a folk art-esque display of colored bottles in Echo Park.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production designers detailed the thinking behind some of the show\u2019s locations and how important it was to them to be able to shoot in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Highland and Eagle Theaters\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSimon and Trevor meet for the first time at a screening of \u201cMidnight Cowboy\u201d at the Highland Theater in Northeast L.A.\u2019s Highland Park neighborhood. It\u2019s one of at least six classic L.A. theaters shown in the series.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was scripted that we were in and out of movie theaters every other episode, and we really felt strongly that it was important to show a variety,\u201d says Yu. \u201cWe wanted a locally known, visually interesting theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater on, Simon flashes back to going to the movies in the \u201990s with his father, so the Eagle Theater in Eagle Rock, now Vidiots, was dressed to be accurate to the period. The designers also made sure there was a fruit vendor outside to give the neighborhood authenticity.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Lloyd Wright-designed Sowden House served as a set for the movie-within-a-movie in \u201cWonder Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tThe film location at Lloyd Wright\u2019s Sowden House:\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDesigned by Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s son Lloyd Wright in 1926, the visually distinctive Sowden House in Los Feliz has appeared in films from \u201cL.A. Confidential\u201d to \u201cThe Aviator.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe house is where a crew is shooting the movie-within-a-movie in \u201cWonder Man.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s architecturally significant, designed by Lloyd Wright, uniquely L.A. to its roots. It\u2019s Neo-Mayan architecture, and it looks like a ziggurat, so it\u2019s instantly ominous. It\u2019s full of mystique,\u201d says Yu.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tSimon Williams\/Wonder Man (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II) in front of the Fox Village Theater.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMARVEL TELEVISION<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Fox Village Theater\t<\/p>\n

\n\tNow owned by a consortium of filmmakers led by Jason Reitman, the Fox Village Theater in Westwood Village is the location of the premiere of the \u201cWonder Man\u201d movie. The Bruin Theater can also be seen across the street.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really crazy how many places we shot have closed,\u201d Yu laments. \u201cWe want to show that this place was important to people when it existed. For our big Hollywood premiere and Simon\u2019s big moment, we wanted the scene to happen at a place where premieres really do happen. It\u2019s also such a beautiful space with really great flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe\u00a0Fox Theater is where I watched \u2018Titanic\u2019 with my best friend \u2014 watching \u2018Titanic\u2019 at that theater was epic,\u201d adds Chao.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tYahya Adbul-Mateen II, left and Ben Kingsley<\/a> visit Zlatko Buric at his character\u2019s Beverly Hills mansion in \u201cWonder Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSuzanne Tenner<\/p>\n

\t\tVon Kovak\u2019s mansion\t<\/p>\n

\n\tVan Kovak is the eccentric filmmaker who is directing the \u201cWonder Man\u201d remake and lives in a Beverly Hills mansion with a to-die-for view of the city. Trevor and Simon find themselves at the mansion after they go to Break Room 86, the Koreatown nightclub accessed through a nondescript storeroom.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe wanted a grand gate for where they enter. We looked at places like Greystone, but we wanted something not so recognizable,\u201d says Yu. \u201cThe location we did land at, it was such a grand scale and it was such a potential for absurdity just because of some of the architectural touches that were in there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt showcased some of the quirkiness of L.A. and Hollywood that you could get away with once you\u2019re successful,\u201d says Chao.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Talmadge apartment building\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production designers thought of Ben Kingsley\u2019s character as a faded star who was able to move into the historic Talmadge building on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown back when he had more cash. In the years since, he\u2019s added layer upon layer of memories to bring it into its current cluttered state.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe really liked the evolution of the place, that it is a lot more careworn now, but you can still see the beauty there and the original architecture and Renaissance Revival intricate detailing,\u201d Yu says. \u201cWhen we start the show, you still don\u2019t really know that much about that character and who he is as a person. You know what roles he\u2019s played in the MCU, you saw him in \u2018Shang-Chi.\u2019\u00a0We were thinking, he maybe had some early success in his career. He\u2019s\u00a0clearly been a world traveler, so now it\u2019s a collection of every important memento he\u2019s ever had throughout his life. It\u2019s stuff from all over the world, things that have a story behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWonder Man\u201d shot at the soon-to-close Taix French Restaurant in Echo Park.<\/p>\n

\t\tRestaurants: Mother Wolf and Taix \t<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the restaurants that Simon visits are Hollywood hotspot Mother Wolf and Echo Park classic Taix French Restaurant. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn choosing the trendy Italian restaurant Mother Wolf, Yu says, \u201cWe liked that it was a place that has had its moment as somewhere people paying attention to restaurant openings might clamor to get into \u2013 tapping into yet another subculture in L.A. But again, it also has some wildly different history to it \u2013 the building used to be a newspaper office.\u201d The designers called the glamorous space a \u201cclassic L.A. reinvention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe loved the soft, rich colors and textures of the interiors, and found a lot to play with in creating our set for a pivotal moment in these characters\u2019 careers where we see them asserting their belonging in a place, and with a group, they might previously have felt excluded from. This is their moment of reveling for the first time in their success, and the promised luxury of it,\u201d says Yu.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Taix French Restaurant, Yu and Chao chose it partly because of their own connections to the historic spot, which recently announced<\/a> it will close its doors on March 29. \u201cWe very much wanted to show as many sides of Los Angeles as we could, and Taix is the kind of local time capsule with big history that was important for us to show. It also felt good to record the place for posterity. The lively classic noisy bar in contrast to the quieter dining sections with comfortable booths all provided the perfect historic L.A. backdrop for intimate, and sometimes tense, moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe movie studio scenes were shot at a combination of Radford in Studio City and Paramount in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMARVEL TELEVISION<\/p>\n

\t\tRadford Studios\/Paramount studios\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie studio in \u201cWonder Man\u201d is a combination of the Radford Studios and its New York street and the Paramount lot. \u201cWhen I think of old Hollywood, I immediately think of Paramount for some reason,\u201d says Chao. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe wanted the characters to have a big magical Hollywood studio experience,\u201d adds Yu.<\/p>\n

\n\tShooting in Los Angeles was important to the designers not just for the proximity and personal connections, also for the health of the business.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s just no place like L.A.,\u201d says Yu, \u201cI think if there is a way for this industry to come back to Los Angeles, only good things can happen. In terms of crew, in terms of vendors, in terms of weather, in terms of shootability and just history \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a place that unfolds to you when you figure out who you are and you find your place in the city. And it\u2019s the city that rewards you for doing that work.\u201d<\/p>\n