HBO’sSharp Objectsis set in the perfectly American small-town of Wind Gap, Missouri, but as a fictional location, the miniseries had to be filmed elsewhere.Based on the novelSharp Objectsby 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 toher quintessentially middle-American hometown of Wind Gap, Missourito solve a new case.
There is no lack ofcharming fictional small towns on televisionand these stand-ins for whole parts of the country are easily identifiable and relatable, but also, as in the case withSharp Objects, mildly unnerving. Wind Gap, Missouri is an approximation of the mid-western towns that dot Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, and its loneliness and isolation are key to setting the tone of the show. There’s a side to Wind Gap that is picturesque and lovely, and another side that’s unknowable and menacing, so the film crew needed to find a real place to match that description.
Barnesville, Georgia Stood In For Wind Gap, Missouri In Sharp Objects
Location Manager Gregory Alpert Scoured The State For The Right Town
As Wind Gap, Missouri is a fictional town,Sharp Objectshad to be filmed at a different location, and location manager Gregory Alpert managed to find an ideal place (viaVulture). The crew did not have much to go off in the first place, considering Flynn largely invented the town, saying (viaTheWichitaEagle),
“It [Wind Gap] was largely imaginary. It’s not based on any particular town. But I knew I wanted [Wind Gap] to be a town of violence that Camille grew up in.”
That vague descriptor also gave Alpert and his team lots of leeway in filming andSharp Objectsended up being shot for two days in St. Louis, 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 the 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 previously scouted Barnesville and determined the site too “cutesy”, but after they drove through it,Alpert recalled that everyone immediately agreed it was the right location,
“John and I looked at each other and we said, ‘So be it. This is the town.’ Jean-Marc really liked that town.”
Alpert met with Barnesville officials, who graciously opened their town to the film crew. In return, the crew compensated any businesses that were shut down. It proved to be an amicable pairing, with the people who lived there happy to work on the shooting schedule that often required the town to appear empty. The woods surrounding Barnesville were also used for filming.
Sharp Objects' Crellin Estate Is Located In Redwood, California
Gregory Alpert Made Alterations To The Home To Mimic One In Missouri
Another key location inSharp Objectsis the Crellin Estate, the home of Adora (Patricia Clarkson), Amma (Eliza Scanlen), and Alan Crellin (Henry Czerny). Vallée had a specific vision for the house, telling Alpert,
“I want a house that if someone was screaming, 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, which had recently been sold. On his drive up to the house, Alpert immediately knew it was perfect,
“As I was driving up and the house exposed itself to me, I had one of those epiphany moments that, unfortunately, are few and far between. Oh my God! That’s the Crellin estate! I just fell in love with it. I did this quick 30-second video where I stood in front of it and did a 360-panorama and when I finally showed it to Jean-Marc, he went, ‘Boom! That’s it!'”
Alpert had to make some alterations to ensure it looked more like a traditional Missouri home. The home was turned from yellow to blue, a gate and fence were added to the property, andsome light landscaping was done to give it a real Ozark-mid-western feel. For the interiors, an entire set was built in Los Angeles. It took quite a bit of time and work to find the locations forSharp Objects, but Alpert’s efforts proved crucial to making Wind Gap, Missouri feel like a real place with a history and maybe some secrets too.
Sharp Objects
Cast
Sharp Objects is an HBO thriller mini-series that centers on reporter Camille Preaker, a woman with a dark past returning to her hometown. Returning to Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate two murders, she takes up at her childhood home, where she must now contend with her mother, who will force her to reckon with her past.
