11 Famous Movies Filmed in Connecticut

The fourth movie in the Indiana Jones saga saw stars Harrison Ford and Shia La Beouf filming in several Connecticut locations.  New Haven’s Yale University stood in for Indiana Jones’ Marshall College and Indy arrived by train in a scene filmed at the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat 

You can still grab “a slice of heaven” at Mystic Pizza, the place made famous in the Julia Roberts movie, although most restaurant scenes were actually filmed in nearby Stonington Borough as well as locations in Mystic, Groton, Noank, Pawcatuck and New Haven. 

Steven Spielberg loves to shoot films in Connecticut.  The Academy Award-nominated historical drama about a slave ship mutiny was filmed in both Groton and Mystic, including a ready-built location at the already historic Mystic Seaport Museum

This “mockumentary” film about a 1960s folk trio reunited the members of This is Spinal Tap and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. Some scenes were filmed at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville.

Nominated for achievements in sound and visual effects, Steven Spielberg’s 2005 Tom Cruise-starring movie, War of the Worlds, filmed a pivotal, horrifying scene along the Farmington River in Connecticut. 

Fairfield’s Sasco Beach was one of the many locations for this Academy-Award-nominated film that reunited Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Other Connecticut towns in this production include Trumbull, Beacon Falls, Bethel, Darien, Stamford, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Redding, Shelton and Southport. 

Academy Award winners Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton spent a little time at Bristol’s Lake Compounce Theme Park while filming this romantic comedy directed by Rob Reiner. Other locations in Connecticut include Southport, Greenwich and Bridgeport. 

Winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director for Elia Kazan, this drama starring Gregory Peck was hailed as groundbreaking for its commentary on anti-Semitism and bigotry in America. Scenes were filmed in Darien.

Even some of Connecticut’s more industrial towns have had their time in the spotlight. Though not a commercial success, this romantic drama with Jane Fonda and Robert DeNiro was filmed in Waterbury using some of the city’s most iconic factories as its backdrop. And during filming, there were widely-covered protests against Fonda by local Vietnam Veterans groups, which led to a meeting in a Waterbury church that both sides found to be healing. 

Norwalk’s grand Lockwood-Mathews Mansion stood in for the Stepford Men’s Association in both the 1975 film, The Stepford Wives, and its 2004 remake. The films take place in Connecticut and scenes for both were shot in Darien, New Canaan and other towns.

A stellar depiction of life after the war, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit starring Gregory Peck was filmed almost entirely in and around Westport.  The train station features heavily and looks very similar today to how it appears in the film.