No, Wind Gap, Missouri is not a real place – the filming locations of Sharp Objects explained

HBO’s sharp objects is set in the perfect American small-town of Wind Gap, Missouri, but as a fictional location, the miniseries had to be filmed elsewhere. Based on the novel sharp objects By author Gillian Flynn, the 2018 HBO miniseries follows Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), a crime reporter who has recently been discharged from a psychiatric hospital after struggling with alcoholism. To get back on her feet, Camille returns Her quintessentially Middle-American hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri To solve a new case.

There is no shortage of charming fictional small towns on television and the stand-ins for entire parts of the country are easily identifiable and relatable, but also, as in the case of sharp objectsMild respectable. Wind Gap, Missouri is an approximation of the Midwestern towns that make up Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, and its loneliness and isolation are key to setting the tone of the show. There is a side to Wind Gap that is picturesque and lovely, and another side that is unknown and menacing, so the film crew needed to find a real place to match that description.

Barnesville, Georgia stood for Wind Gap, Missouri in sharp objects

Location Manager Gregory Alpert Sourcing the State for the Right City

Like Wind Gap, Missouri is a fictional town, sharp objects had to be filmed in a different location, and location manager Gregory Alpert managed to find an ideal location (via Vulture). The crew didn’t have much to go off of in the first place, considering Flynn largely invented the city, said (via The Wichita Eagle),

“It [Wind Gap] was mostly imaginary. It is not based on any particular city. But I knew I wanted to [Wind Gap] To be a city of violence that Camille grew up in.”

The vague descriptor also gave Alpert and his team a lot of space in filming and sharp objects Ended up shooting for two days in St. Levy, MO; 15 days in GA; 10 days in Northern CA; and 66 days in Southern CA. For downtown Wind Gap, Missouri, Alpert, EP and director Jean-Marc Vallée, production designer John Paino, and EP Gregg Fienberg road-tripped around Georgia trying to find the right location. On their way to a pig farm, they drove through the town of Barnesville, which is 60 miles south of Atlanta.

They had previously scouted Barnesville and determined the site to be “cutie,” but after they drove through it, Alpert recalled that everyone immediately agreed that this was the right place,

“John and I looked at each other and said, ‘So be it. This is the city.’ Jean-Marc really likes the town.

Alpert met with Barnesville officials, who graciously opened their town to the film crew. In return, the crew compensated all businesses that were shut down. It proved to be a friendly association, with the people who lived there happy to work on the shooting, which often required the The town appears empty. The woods surrounding Barnesville were also used for filming.

Sharp Objects’ Crellin Estate is located in Redwood, California

Gregory Alpert made changes to the home to mimic one in Missouri

Another key place in sharp objects is the Crelin Estate, the home of Adora (Patricia Clarkson), Amma (Eliza Scalen) and Alan Crelin (Henry Cherney). Vallée had a specific vision for the house, tells Alpert,

“I want a house that if someone screamed, you would never hear them.”

First, Alpert scoured Los Angeles, but he found nothing. Then he received a photo from the Mendocino County Film Commission of a $6.2 million home in Redwood Valley, California, that had recently been sold. On his drive to the house, Alpert immediately knew it was perfect,

“When I drove up and the house stood out in front of me, I had one of those epiphanic moments, which unfortunately are few and far between. Oh my God! This is the Crelin Estate! I just fell in love with it.” . I did this quick 30-second video where I did a 360-panorama and when I finally showed it to Jean-Marc, he went, ‘Boom!’

Alpert had to make some alterations to ensure that it looked more like a traditional Missouri home. The house was changed from yellow to blue, a gate and windows were added to the property. Some light landscaping has been done to give it a real Ozark-Midwest feel. For the interior, a complete set was built in Los Angeles. It took some time and work to find the locations for sharp objectsBut Alpert’s efforts proved crucial to making Wind Gap, Missouri feel like a real place with a history and maybe some secrets too.