When Iron Man is back for it's third installment, Chattanooga will join him in the movie, even though the movie was never here.
"The different reports from Wilmington and other cities I've counted at least four cities maybe five that all say parts of them have been converted to look like Chattanooga or depict places in Chattanooga," says Chris Holley, Production Liaison for the Chattanooga Film Committee.
With movies like "42" recently shot in Chattanooga, why not just shoot in the Scenic City?
"North Carolina has for a very long time has had a very strong incentive program for film. They've also built an infrastructure of sound stages, which are being used by Marvel and other facilities that are being used in the North Carolina area," Holley says.
"A lot of times it has to do with logistics kind of if you are already on set in a certain area, and you are only shooting a couple of scenes, it is a lot easier to make that area look like the area you are supposed to be in in the movie," says Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman, who was a graphic designer on the movie, "The Invasion" starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
Marvel did contact the City of Chattanooga in April for permission to use the likeness of Chattanooga police uniforms and their cars in the movie...that's where a little creativity comes in.
"You have to create something that looks familiar enough to not feel like jolting but further enough away from it so you don't get in trouble legally," Dr. Jensen-Inman says.
"It says Channel 7 which we don't have one so they are careful to do that and then literally parked just out of camera sight is another one that says Los Angeles Channel 9 so that same hospital is going to be a Los Angeles Hospital as well as a Chattanooga Hosptial," added Holley.
So why even depict Chattanooga at all? It turns out, Chattanooga's newest reputation may play a key part in the plot.
"There are a lot of different people who are thinking it's because we are the gigabyte city and part of this storyline that has been released shows him having gotten nanobots or something into his system and he's able to control large computers and large amounts of computers so there's people that are speculating maybe it has something to do with that," Holley says.
And if you were wondering about all the black helicopters in Downtown Chattanooga last weekend. That mystery has been solved. Universal was in town shooting a single scene on the Market Street bridge for an upcoming comedy called "Identity Theft" starring Jason Bateman. The majority of that film is being shot in Georgia.
