Where Was The Great Wall Filmed?

The 2016 movie The Great Wall features a sprawling, fantastical version of China as its setting, and the movie has some interesting on-site filming locations. Despite talented stars like Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, and Willem Dafoe leading The Great Wall cast, the action movie was an enormous critical and commercial flop. On a budget of $150 million, the film tanked at the box office with a worldwide total of $334.9 million. Critics also responded poorly to the movie, giving it an abysmal 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.9 on IMDb.

Despite the movie’s reception, The Great Wall has found a second life on streaming services, with the controversial Chinese war movie attaining mass viewership on Netflix. With such a fascinating historical setting, it’s no wonder that audiences would wonder about the film’s shooting locations. The monster movie uses a hefty amount of CGI to establish its fantasy elements, but real settings in China are used for the film.

The Great Wall Was Primarily Filmed In China’s City Of Qingdao

The Port City Qingdao Was The Primary Location, With Sets Manufactured To Resemble Ancient China

Despite having a Chinese filmmaker in Zhang Yimou and a primarily Chinese cast, The Great Wall was, in large part, a Hollywood production, and it set the record as the most expensive film ever shot in China. The Great Wall of China is a famous historical landmark, but the film was shot in the port city of Qingdao in the Shandong province, south of Beijing. It’s often the case with film productions that they’ll save money by shooting in cheaper locations, which was likely the case with The Great Wall.

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Did Matt Damon’s 2016 Movie Really Film At The Great Wall?

The Production Couldn’t Use The Great Wall Of China, So They Made Their Own

One of the primary difficulties of shooting The Great Wall was that they couldn’t actually shoot on The Great Wall of China. At a trailer reveal for the film with Zhang Yimou in New York City (via China.org), the director revealed some of the movie magic that went into making such a high-budget blockbuster. Yimou had made big movies like Hero before, but the immense budget provided by a Hollywood production allowed him the resources to build his ideal Ancient China.

For the film’s production, they had to build three entire walls to build on, which simulated the look of the world wonder. This process took more than three years and 1,000 crew members. One of Yimou’s primary goals for the movie was for “worldwide audiences to learn more about Chinese culture and invention while being entertained by the monster movie.” He incorporated this ideology into the production process with the Great Wall crew and set assembly involving an international team with 100 on-set translators.

Sources: China.org

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is a 2016 action-adventure film starring Matt Damon, who helps defend the Great Wall of China from a horde of monsters. The Great Wall received mixed to negative reviews upon release and was criticized for falling into the white savior narrative. Also starring in the movie are Tian Jing, Willem DaFoe, and Andy Lau.

Director

Yimou Zhang

Release Date

February 17, 2017

Runtime

103minutes