Lost Virtual Tour

As you may have have noticed from the enhanced captions of the catchup broadcasts, the helicopter scenes were filmed at Kualoa Ranch. However it was not in the main Ka'a'awa Valley that most locals associate with the ranch and call "Kualoa Valley", and most Lost viewers associate with Hurley's golf course. Instead it was in the adjacent Hakipu'u Valley.

Our friend Ed Kos of Kos Hummer Tours just sent us a batch of photos from the valley that are exact matches with the helicopter scenes from Season 4. He earlier sent us photos that match Season 3 scenes such as the sonic security fence, and the campsite of the Others by the ruins where Locke's father was tied up. See all his photos, including his newest ones, on our Hakipu'u Valley page.

Contact Ed Kos at his website above to inquire about a personal tour into this valley; it's just about the only way you'll get to see it in person, since it is private property of Kualoa Ranch.

Also, we reported earlier that Ed Kos' Lost tours were featured by The Denver Channel, a news crew from Colorado. He was featured in a FIVE-part segment on Lost filming location, and all have now aired so we now have the links for you:

Kos Tour The Denver Channel Part 1
Kos Tour The Denver Channel Part 2
Kos Tour The Denver Channel Part 3
Kos Tour The Denver Channel Part 4
Kos Tour The Denver Channel Part 5

Lost filming locations have started to pop up in the captions of ABC's "Enhanced" versions of the week before's Lost episodes that are aired as a rehash along with the current episode. I don't know if they are running out of things to comment on, or if it really helps the general viewer, but it sure is fun from our point of view to see Hawai'i's filming locations highlighted.


Some of the captions from 4x03 The Economist include:
1) "This scene was shot in Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu. Kualoa has been a location for many films including Jurassic Park and Pearl Harbor. "
2) "The 375 yard, par 4, 17th hole on the Fazio Course at Oahu's Turtle Bay Resort is doubling as a Seychelles golf paradise."
3) "Crushed ice and special FX turn Honolulu into snowy Berlin."

Also there were two captions related to locations in the enhanced version of 4x02 Confirmed Dead, including a fun fact:
4) "This scene was shot at a rock quarry in Hawaii."
5) "This looks like LA, but it's not all but 15 scenes in 77 episodes of LOST have been shot on the island of Oahu, Hawaii."

Quick note:
We've been running behind this week, so we'll post the locations for Episode 4 for sure, but it'll be a little bit later than usual.

In the mean time we have some new photos from Hakipu'u Valley from Kualoa Ranch from Kos Tours, and will post them very soon!

According to what we believe to be a reliable source, much of the former Lost film crew have been informed that they will be reunited for the continuation of filming Season 4. Now that the writer's strike was formally ended today, the networks are free to put into motion plans to restart various productions that had been halted by the WGA strike since last November.

And according to our source, the start date for Lost production that has been issued is a "tentative March 10".

This date seems reasonable as it is just a hair under a month from today, which should provide enough time to recall the cast (many of whom are off-island and who have reportedly been put on active "standby" as the strike wound down)-- and will also provide time for the massive prospect of reuniting the film crew. Furthermore it's a Monday, which adds credence to the tip, because it's the beginning of a work week.

Our friend Ed Kos of Kos Hummer Tours was recently interviewed by a visiting reporter from a Denver news station who came to see some Lost filming locations. Two parts of the interview video have been posted, see them here:

1) The Denver Channel Part 1
2) The Denver Channel Part 2
(These videos might be Windows-only)

Also several months ago, reporter Valeri Rukobratski from Russia's Pravda visited, and his photos from his trip with LostVirtualTour.com have been posted. We posted part 1 earlier, but parts 2 and 3 are now up. Use Google Language Tools to translate the text from Russian into English.

1) Pravda Part 1
2) Pravda Part 2
The pics at the bottom of the Pravda articles are links to full galleries, so check those out too!

The long running WGA (writer's) strike looks like it is all but over. National meetings for the West and East WGA branches for their membership yesterday (Saturday) proceeded positively, and at 12 noon today (Sunday) there was an announcement of the steps that will be taken to end the strike.

First, all show-runners are going back to work tomorrow (Monday). Second, a two-day full membership vote from Monday to Tuesday will be held by the WGA to vote to end the strike formally. Third, a ten day vote will then be held by the entire membership to vote to ratify the new contract. (See Daily Variety)

This all means that Lost's show-runner, who is Carlton Cuse (usually over in LA), is returning to work tomorrow. Look to see unofficial word from Carlton, or official word from ABC that the Lost team will soon be assembled with great haste for creating more episodes of Lost Season 4. If we hear or see anything on the ground regarding the film crew in Hawai'i, we'll let you know.

We've just added two more sets of photos. One is for the Liliha St. area just oceanside of Kuakini St. This is the location of the Season 3 finale's iconic "Hoffs Drawlar" (anagram: Flashforward) Mortuary, and a distinctive blue barber shop. We also took photos of electronics bargain shop The Discount Store on N. King St., the final stopping point of Hurley's car chase in 4x01, where it was called "Circuit House". Both new pages are complete with Google maps links.

New photos:
1) Liliha St.
2) The Discount Store

The reports from last week's two Honolulu Lost viewing parties are in, and Tropical Smoothies is the unofficial winner.

From the comments posted at the Hawaii Lost Fanclub mailing list, fans reported having a great time at the S4 premiere at Tropical Smoothies. It was hosted by Teddy Wells, owner and one of the "Others" on Lost, and featured free pupus along with Honolulu Advertiser Lost blogger Caryn Kunz playing MC with trivia quizzes and prizes.

In contrast, the comments from the Planet Hollywood Waikiki premiere party included, "my tab tonight was... 4 times my average Jackies tab", and "There was some other function going on, people standing in front of the TV getting pictures taken and... TV wasn't loud enough, so couldn't really hear...And it was a nice $50 tab." These writers both said they would try Tropical Smoothie the following week.

Teddy has confirmed that Tropical Smoothie is indeed hosting Lost viewing parties every Thursday. No word on whether Caryn Kunz will be returning every week.

Our friend Lost blogger "DocArzt" informed us that there were some rumors floating around today around some blogs (DarkUFO, DocArzt, DocArzt), some linking to the galleries of the former Lost podcast "The Transmission" by Ryan Ozawa (link), that Lost has resumed filming.

These photos are almost undoubtedly from a low budget film that has just arrived in town last week and will be filming for nearly the whole month of February, "Special Delivery", and it is listed as being with Mar Vista Entertainment (link, link), which is a name clearly visible in these photos.

Lost resuming filming in any capacity (even pickups) would make no sense logistically, politically, or financially. We're about 99.9% sure on this, so hold your horses, and wait for the WGA strike to be confirmed over before we look for the resumption of filming.

As for the presence of any recognizable crew from the Lost crew, remember that it's just a job-- all the members of the Lost crew were laid off after Thanksgiving last year, and they are all very free to take any new job that comes their way, such as this film. As for the people and hardware, should the WGA strike be fully resolved so that Lost resumes filming, we speculate that these will be occupied by "Special Delivery" jobs and not be available through the end of February, meaning either mainland hires or waiting until the beginning of March.

We've posted our first batch of locations for the Season 4 opener here.

The end of the Camaro's run was one fun location we found. It sure looked like N. King St., but two details pegged it for sure. One was a sign on a background business for "Excellent Motor Group" (located at 1010 N. King), and the other was a street sign where the word "Peterson" was visible. There we have it, the oceanside of N. King and Peterson. A fun detail: you can see the Honolulu Police Department in traffic vests closing off the street for the scene where Hurley weaves through traffic (all with CA plates)-- they look like traffic cops (because they are), so it fits perfectly.

But we're unsure of a few things:

The beginning of the chase scene in the loading yard is still a mystery. Our first guess was near Pier 38, but the visible roofs are not green. One extra clue is the brick detail.

And the surveillance video (interior and exterior) of Hurley at the convenience store as he is spooked prior to the car chase? Our best guess is the Aloha Gas mini mart herejust a block away from the one where Hurley won the lottery-- but we're not sure. (UPDATE: That Aloha Gas is NOT the location, we just drove over and checked). Finally, we're presuming Jack's apartment and Hurley's interrogation with Big Mike are simply in the soundstage at Hawaii Film Studio.

As always, we'd love to hear from you if you have a tip to help nail down the locations for this episode.