Versatile Utah can play variety of roles in films

About 16 years ago, my wife and I were fortunate enough to take an Alaskan cruise, and one of the ports was Sitka, which we found to be a memorably charming little place.

So when we learned that much of the Sandra Bullock comedy "The Proposal" was set in Sitka, that vacation memory spurred our desire to see it.

But as we watched, it became apparent rather quickly that this wasn't the Sitka we remembered. And sure enough, turns out it wasn't Sitka at all. It was Rockport, Mass., doubling for the Alaskan city.

That was a little disappointing for us, but hey, that's Hollywood. Lots of locations are dressed up to look like other locations, usually because the real deal is too expensive. Or so they say.

How often have we seen movies set in New York but notice Canadian Rockies in the distant background?

It's the name of the game. Utah hasn't always played Utah in the movies.

There are even quite a few old Westerns that are set in the Beehive State and have "Utah" in the title — but not one of them was filmed here: "The Man From Utah" (1934), "Utah Trail" (1938), "The Utah Kid" (1944), "Utah" (1945), "Utah Wagon Train" (1951), "Hills of Utah" (1951), "Fort Utah" (1968).

Oh, and don't forget "Salt Lake Raiders" (1950), which, like those above, was filmed in California — but which doesn't contain a single reference to either Salt Lake City or Utah!

And Utah subs for other locations all the time. Although our state's visual look has such variety that it doesn't usually take much dressing up to impersonate other places.

Like a seasoned character actor, Utah has often pretended to be different states, different countries — different planets.

Park City played the part of Aspen, Colo., in "Dumb & Dumber" (1994); Salt Lake's Avenues filled in for fictional Haddonfield, Ill., in three "Halloween" sequels (1988-95); and for "Thelma & Louise" (1991), various southern Utah locales filled in for no less than four other states — Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.

Utah's southern regions, with their unique red-rock formations, have also played much more exotic climes, including the Gobi Desert in "The Conqueror" (1956), the Holy Land in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) and the Sahara during the Napoleonic wars in "Passion in the Desert" (1998).

And in "A Midnight Clear" (1992), Park City subbed for the Ardennes Forest near the French-German border during World War II.

But upcoming is a bit of geography that's really far out. Would you believe Utah as Mars?