Where did they film the ‘Fountain of Youth’ movie? Explore the locations where the Natalie Portman movie was shot

If you’re a fan of action-adventure movies like Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and The Office, then you’ll likely enjoy Fountain of Youth. This new film, starring John Krasinski, is now available for streaming on Apple TV+. The plot involves the pursuit of stolen artifacts and a quest for hidden treasure, promising an exciting ride akin to Jim’s escapades.

Directed by Guy Ritchie and penned by James Vanderbilt, Fountain of Youth follows Krasinski as Luke Purdue, a man on a mission to honor his father’s adventurous legacy. His sister, Charlotte (played by Natalie Portman), has opted for a more conventional life as an art curator. However, she gets roped back into the world of adventure when a wealthy client (Domhnall Gleeson) recruits Luke for a new challenge: locating the legendary fountain of youth.

With an ensemble cast that includes Eiza González, Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso, Carmen Ejogo, and Stanley Tucci, Fountain of Youth embodies the essence of excitement and exploration. To complement its thrilling narrative, the film required captivating and adventurous filming locations. Let’s delve into the details of where Fountain of Youth was filmed.

Fountain of Youth was filmed on location in various cities around the globe, including Bangkok, Thailand; London, England; Vienna, Austria; and Cairo, Egypt. According to an interview from the Fountain of Youth press notes, Ritchie insisted on locations shoots, rather than green screens.

“You get that texture by being in that authentic environment. The more you can be there, the more unconsciously, explicitly and implicitly, the audience feels that,” Ritchie said, adding the film as much an adventure to make as the story itself. “When you’re making it, you find yourself immersed within the action-adventure itself. You get to spend 10 days in the pyramids. Not only that, but go to the places that no one else gets to go to in the pyramids! The same is true of all the locations.”

The chase sequence that opens the movie, featuring Krasinski fleeing with a stolen painting on a moped, was filmed in Thailand in the Bangkok area. The script initially called for that sequence to be shot in Mumbai, but producer Jake Myers reportedly suggested Bangkok as an alternative.

“I could picture the streets we were going to shoot on,” Myers said in an interview for the Fountain of Youth press notes. “What the movie was calling for, from my point of view, was something that was going to contrast with what we were going to see later in the movie. This kind of movie really calls for an opening at this kind of scale.”

When our heroes hear about something called the Wicked Bible, they go looking for it in the Austrian National Library in the Imperial Palace. That brought the production to Vienna, Austria. In addition to the actual Austrian National Library, other filming locations in Vienna included the Hofburg Palace, Josefsplatz, the public square out in front of it, and the Hotel Imperial. Fun fact: For the scene where the protagonist escape by blowing a hole in the floor of the library, there’s a sewer in the shot that was the same sewer originally featured in Carol Reed’s 1949 film The Third Man starring Orson Welles and Harry Lime.

“We just happened upon that,” Myers said in that same press notes interview. “It’s the sewer he gets shot in, that wonderful moment. Shooting down there gave us such a fun, graphic image, and it played to the film fan in all of us. Down there, someone has also scribbled ‘Harry Lime was here’ on the wall. These are the things you discover when you make movies like this.”

For the flying drone shot in the Austrian National Library, the team had to carefully plan out the route to avoid damaging books or artifacts. In an interview for the press notes, Skynamic’s Brandon Carrara, on the drone team, explained, “During the rehearsals and the first flight we felt all this pressure about the sculptures, the books, all that they have.

We obviously had some limitations regarding being too close to the books and the sculptures. But as soon as we were flying, with Ed, Max and Guy giving instructions, all the fear disappeared. It’s one of the most beautiful indoor places we have ever shot in.”

And of course, the biggest location shoot of the production: They really did film the climax at the pyramids in Egypt. Well, the exterior shots, anyhow.

“At first, we talked about it in the abstract because none of us had been to them before,” producer Jake Myers said in the same press notes interview. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to land a helicopter in the pyramids, and have our heroes walk out of it?’ It just so happens that no one is allowed to fly a helicopter around the pyramids, but thanks to the ambassador’s office and the Egyptian Film Commission, we found a way. What ended up happening was unprecedented access.”

It wasn’t an easy shoot. There are no bathrooms at the pyramids. “We had 200 crew and no bathroom,” Myers said. “And we had to drag all our gear through the sand, in all that heat. But people also knew just what a sacred location this is and that they would never get an opportunity like it again. We knew this was a golden ticket, what a privilege it was. And we were very respectful of that.”

The production spent 10 days at the pyramids, a first for many of the cast and crew. Said Portman in an interview for the press notes, “The scale of this is something I’ve never experienced on any film. Shooting at the pyramids in Egypt was by far the most insane location I’ve ever gotten to shoot at.”

The scene where a helicopter lands in front of the Giza Plateau was real, and filmed in the air by a customized Gazelle helicopter, with a camera bolted to one side, flying in tandem alongside the helicopter on film.

But according to the director, the spectacular setting didn’t distract his crew from doing their jobs. “We were allowed in parts of the pyramids that people hadn’t been in for a couple of thousand years,” Ritchie said. “And within 30 seconds, our first AD was treating it like a set. The shock and awe of seeing them lasted about 30 seconds. Then it was back to work.”

Finally, many interior scenes in Fountain of Youth, and the underwater sequence, were filmed in studio at London’s Leavesden Studios in England. The sequence that takes place at the bottom of the Irish Sea was filmed in a controlled water tank. The shipwreck in the sea was a custom-built set-piece, which was placed in wave pool, so that it would move like it was in the ocean.

“It was incredible to be on an elaborately built practical set,” Portman said. “We do so much on big movies with CG now that it’s very rare to have a set like that, a shipwreck that actually moves, in the waves made by big wave-makers. I had sea legs when I got off that set.”

In other words, even when they were on a movie set, no one can accuse Fountain of Youth of not going the extra mile. Pitbull better watch out, because Guy Ritchie might just be the new Mr. Worldwide.