Pretty as a (Moving) Picture

If you see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opens 2 days from now on June 24, you may recognize some of the locations. The film, which is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers, includes scenes filmed on campus last summer.

Transformers is certainly not the only film to take advantage of the campus’ architecture. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) lists 51 titles which were filmed in Princeton, New Jersey and 13 titles filmed on Princeton University.

Films you may have seen with shots from Princeton include A Beautiful Mind (2001), Across the Universe (2007), Annapolis (2006), Hoop Dreams (1994), One True Thing (1998), People Will Talk (1951) and Scent of a Woman (1992).

The University chooses whether or not to allow filming on campus based on the subject of the film.

"We try to look for synergies with the project," said university spokeswoman Emily Aronson in an interview with the AP. "For instance, our interest in having more young women apply to the university and movies such as `A Cinderella Story,' and `Spanglish,' which featured female characters who apply to Princeton."

While the school may choose to allow filming, crews may change their mind at the last minute, as was the case for a scene in The Interpreter (2005) or in other cases the University chooses to prevent filming and the films move elsewhere. For this reason, you may have seen the 2002 film Stealing Harvard, but not the film originally proposed, that of Stealing Princeton.