I didn't see a topic on Movies already created in this Connections section, though there is a Literature and Authors counterpart. I'm trying to add US World Heritage Sites into the "Locations for a Classic Movie" section, and have a couple of additions as well as a couple of questions for non-American forum members.

First, for new submissions, I'd propose the following:
Glacier parks ... The Shining (1980)
Grand Canyon ... Into the Wild (2007)
Statue of Liberty ... On the Town (1949)

(I'd love to use Planet of the Apes for the Statue of Liberty, but that was just a model built in California!)

I also found US sites that have possibly more tenuous connections:
Independence Hall ... Rocky II (1979)
Great Smoky Mountains ... Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
Yosemite ... Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Rocky II may not be as much of a classic as the original Rocky, but it does have an extended scene of Rocky running through Philadelphia (with Independence Hall in the background), and it was a box-office success when it came out. Davy Crockett was extremely popular in the US, and a film was made out of the three episodes originally filmed for TV; the film led to a pop-culture phenomenon of coonskin caps, but I'm not sure how well known the film is outside the US. Scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were filmed in Yosemite National Park, but the movie was not as well received as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Do any of these films pass muster as meeting the "Locations for a Classic Movie" criteria for those outside the US?

Also, there is a connection for James Bond in Books. Was there a decision made not to do a James Bond in Movies counterpart? I couldn't find anything addressing this when I searched through the forums.

Yeah I think expanding this will be great. I always thought about returning to Used in a film as another WHS assuming there will be loads more out there. (I think Greenwich will be a rich seam, it gets used extensively in UK films).

I think the films you listed would all pass muster for me as "Classics", even if they are necessarily great films. Temple of Doom certainly would qualify even if it is the weakest of the triology (yep that's right I am ignoring the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, though I imagine that may have some potential WHS connections).

I think a lot of people try to forget the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! At least there's an Indiana Jones connection already created that covers WHS connections for that film.

Nothing comes immediately to mind for me on the "Used in a film as another WHS connection", so I'll have to think about it or do some research. I'm not surprised to see that most of the connections already made are with palaces and ancient cities. I might start compiling "James Bond in Movies" sites first, though.

LOCATION FOR A CLASSIC MOVIE

If you are talking about Bond, many would say Skyfall is already a classic.

Historic Istanbul (Turkey) - Opening Scene
Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining (Japan) - Battleship Island

BOND FILM CONNECTION or OPENING SCENE OF A BOND FILM

Skyfall
- Istanbul (Opening Scene)
- Meiji Sites
- London

Spectre
- Mexico City (Opening Scene)

These are just from memory, I can't remember too much about the locations in old Bond films.

I saw Hashima Island (Battleship Island) mentioned in the making of Skyfall, but I didn't originally include it on the James Bond list because the Wikipedia article and imdb seemed to conflict about how much of the island was used in the movie. That said, from the articles I've seen -- link, link, link -- it looks like even though there was CG augmentation to the island, the main overview of the island was used in the movie, so the Meiji Sites should probably get a mention. At the very least, Hashima Island was the inspiration for Raoul Silva's deserted island in the movie.

The recently posted Star Wars connection reminded me that there were a few other movies released in 2015 that included World Heritage Sites as filming locations, and may be of interest for anyone who watches movies. These include:

+ The Martian -- filmed in Wadi Rum

+ Everest -- partially filmed on the mountain itself within Sagarmatha National Park

+ Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation -- filming locations included the State Opera House in the Historic Center of Vienna, the Kasbah of the Udayas in Rabat, and Blenheim Palace for interior scenes

+ Spectre -- filming locations included the aforementioned opening scene in the Historic Center of Mexico City; as well as action scenes through the Historic Centre of Rome and past Vatican City; and, like Mission: Impossible, Blenheim Palace for interior scenes

+ Bridge of Spies -- the climatic scene was shot on the actual Bridge of Spies, Glienicke Bridge, which is within the inscribed area of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

+ The Good Dinosaur -- the spectacular realistic background animation was based on scouted locations in Yellowstone and surrounding regions in Wyoming

I was really hoping the movie Brooklyn would include a shot of the Statue of Liberty as part of the immigrant experience, but instead the movie used a re-created Ellis Island set. The movie was still quite well done.

Of those that I have visited:

From Russia With Love was filmed partially in Historic Istanbul.
Bond pushes Emile Locque's car off the Old Town of Corfu's old fortress in For Your Eyes Only.
The Passion of the Christ was extensively filmed in Matera.
In Bruges is a cult classic, obviously filmed in the Historic Centre of Brugge.

This doesn't exactly fit into this topic as a connection, but ten years ago this week the movie The Fall premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This movie received mixed reviews, though it was one of my favorite films of the year when it came out in wide release two years later. It also has perhaps the greatest concentration of World Heritage Sites used as filming locations that I have seen in a single film that isn't a documentary. These World Heritage Sites include:

Agra Fort -- filmed inside the fort
Angkor -- filmed at Bayon temple at Angkor Thom
Fatehpur Sikri -- filmed at Buland Darwaza
Great Wall -- used as location shot
Hill Forts of Rajasthan -- filmed at Jaisalmer Fort
Istanbul -- filmed inside Hagia Sophia
Jantar Mantar -- used as a maze in the film
Namib Sand Sea -- filmed at Deadvlei in Sossusvlei
Paris, Banks of the Seine -- filmed at Eiffel Tower
Prague -- filmed at Charles Bridge
Pyramids (Memphis) -- used as location shot
Rome -- filmed at Colosseum and Capitoline Hill
Taj Mahal -- filmed at mausoleum
Villa Adriana -- filmed at villa

There might be a couple other WHS in the movie (possibly an inscribed section of the South China Karst), though it has been over three years since I last saw it. If you do get the chance to see the movie, the cinematography is spectacular, and I appreciated the storyline.

Oh that is a good challenge, most WHS in a single movie. I think that is going to be a hard one to beat.

I just read some reviews of the Fall, it seems interesting will add it to my watch list.

That would be a challenge to find a movie with more WHS filming locations than The Fall. I just watched the trailer again, and Beethoven's Seventh still gets me.

I just finished watching Avengers Infinity War (for the second time) which got me intrigued on the pretty Scotland location in the movie. It turned out to be at Edinburgh Old Town. This is aside from the ending scene which "possibly" can be one of the inscribed Rice Terraces in Philippine Cordilleras (news articles only indicate it as Banaue Rice Terraces - the most popular name of rice terraces area). Footage of the Lençois Maranhenses National Park (on Brazil's T-list) were all used for Planet Vormir.

Classic Movies is too broad of a term. Maybe we can have a connection for "Location of Blockbuster Movies" to include popular movies that are not yet considered "classic". We can define Blockbuster as grossing over $1B WW Gross both adjusted for inflation or not. Not adjusted for inflation, there are currently 34 films hitting over a billion based on Box Office Mojo. For sure there can be more films if we consider adjusting for inflation. [Edit] If adjusted for inflation, we can limit to films released after Jaws since, technically, the "blockbuster" phenomena only started from it.

As a film buff and WHS traveller, I started researching this connection since I saw Skelig Michel in the new Star War films.

1. Avatar (2009, $2.787 B)
* Wulingyan (Zhangjiajie) as the Hallelujah Mountain (floating mountains) of Pandora

2. Star Wars: The Force Awaken (2015, $2.068), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017, $1.326B)
* Skelig Michael as the planet Ahch-To, the "spiritual home of the Force" and Luke Skywalker exiled himself after Kylo Ren turned to the "dark side of the Force"

3. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014, $1.104B)
* South China Karst: Wulong Karst as a location of climactic battle scene where it stands as a crater created by a crashed starship.

4. Skyfall (2012, $1.105B)
* Istanbul: Several sites in Istanbul were used as filming locations including Grand Bazaar and other sites.

Our James Bond connection also shows Skyfall being shot in Maritime Greenwich and Hashima Island.

5. Avengers Infinity War
* Edinburgh - Vision and Wanda stroll at Edinburgh Old Town before the children of Thanos attacked them

* Rice Terraces of Philippine Cordilleras - Plate shots of terraces were used for the end scene where Thanos "retire" after annihilating half of the universal population. I can't find any source explicitly connecting on of the inscribed areas aside from mentioning it as Banaue Rice Terraces.

[Edit]. Our Star Wars connection also list other Star Wars films with WHS connection. Rouge One and Return of the Jedi also fits as blockbuster.

Avatar didn't film there. Common misconception. Cameron sent some people to mountain regions to take pictures and it inspired the movie. It's actually a blend between Huangshan, Zhangjiajie and Guilin.

Zoe
Yup, Avatar did not film in Zhangjiajie. Rather they use footage and digitally blend/composite it with others to make Hallelujah Mountains. With this, we can actually further qualify the Blockbuster connection as actual on-site film locations with actors and crew. This will rule out Rice Terraces in connection since only drone footage was used in the movie.

Baraka (1992) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)


Reims Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral
Vatican City
Auschwitz
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Pyramids at Giza
Cairo
Luxor
Persepolis
Meidan Emam, Esfahan
Varanasi
Angkor
Ayutthaya
Kyoto
Nara
Borobudur
Prambanan
Bali
Iguazu Falls (Argentina)
Iguazu Falls (Brazil)
Galapagos
Forbidden City
Volcanoes National Park
Mesa Verde
Kakadu National Park

I might be missing a few