Designers can fill a front yard with desert plants and cover a house in cascading pink Bougainvillea to make Peach State filming locations look like California, but the humid Southern sunshine and lush, leafy breezes are always a giveaway.



That's OK because Georgia has never looked more appealing than it does in The Idea of You, the new Anne Hathaway streamer directed by Michael Showalter, which debuted on Prime Video yesterday after an opening night presentation at the Atlanta Film Festival on April 26.

Atlanta stands in for LA, New York and France in the controversial romp, which sees a forty-something single mom, Solène Marchand (played by Hathaway), fall in love with her daughter's favorite boy-band singer, 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), in what Silver Screen Capture describes as "pure paperback poolside reading in filmed form."

The filming locations are garnering as much attention as the saucy storyline.

'The Idea of You' was filmed in multiple locations across Georgia, including Atlanta's Candler Park.

'The Idea of You' was filmed in multiple locations across Georgia in 2022, including Atlanta's Candler Park.

Credit: X / @NGBRSite

The Idea of You's production designer Amy Williams told House Beautiful magazine that while Solène lounges onscreen in her cozy bungalow in Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood, attends the Coachella music festival and vacations on the French Riviera, the vibe is all Georgia: Solène's house is an Airbnb in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland community, Coachella takes place at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and that vacation rental in France? It's an Atlanta pool house by designer Charlotte Lucas. 

Solène also jogs around the Atlanta Waterworks Park off Howell Mill Road and sells her LA gallery wares from a storefront in Candler Park. Downtown Atlanta subs for Manhattan's SoHo, too. And Savannah's beauty is on display during a key scene as the film's couple takes a romantic walk on the city's waterfront.

The Idea of You's stars told Atlanta's Fox 5 that the Coachella scenes left them "freezing" while pretending to be in the desert during the middle of a North Georgia winter, but that the set on the grounds of the speedway "was a magical thing," Hathaway said.

The actress also told the New York Times this month that she is celebrating five years of sobriety and has been spotted around Atlanta in recent weeks while enjoying filming the forthcoming sci-fi movie Flowervale Street.

The Idea of You is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

Tags: Atlanta  Georgia  Savannah  Georgia film industry