20 Things You Didn't Know About Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
17. Most Of The Movie Was Shot In North Carolina (Not New York)
Despite New York City effectively being a character in the Turtles films, you might be surprised to learn that the 1990 TMNT was mostly shot in North Carolina, with only a few location shoots undertaken to film classic New York landmarks and imply the city's presence.
At North Carolina Film Studios, New York rooftop sets were built, and a painstaking amount of effort was taken to capture the look and feel of the city, with production designer Roy Forge Smith and art director Gary Wissner both even visiting an abandoned Brooklyn subway line to prepare the Turtles' sewer hideout.
As for the farmhouse which the Turtles, April, and Casey (Elias Koteas) hide out in? It was actually located in the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, where Turtles creators Kevin Laird and Peter Eastman first met.