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6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
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6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country

We’re thankful that the producers of Crazy Rich Asians decided to shoot the movie here because they actually don’t have to. If Hollywood wants to tell a story involving Singapore, it doesn't always need to fly down manpower and equipment here — they can just reproduce us in a computer or a studio backlot. Just like these TV shows and movies that we know of....

6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
Constance Wu and Henry Golding in Crazy Rich Asians. The Singapore-set rom com was filmed in Singapore and Malaysia.
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
Director Gore Verbinski let his imagination run wild and recreated 18th century Singapore — a pirates’ port then ruled by Chow Yun-Fat’s Captain Sao Feng — at Universal Studios in LA. The massive set included the harbour, stilt houses and a bathhouse — all of which were built atop a 24m long, 40m wide, and 1m deep water tank.
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
The Season 3 ep, ‘Airborne’, isn’t set in Singapore but it does start off from there. Ish. House (Hugh Laurie) and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) are making their way back to the US after a medical convention in Singapore. But they board the plane in Serapong International Airport (filmed in LA). Are they referring to Serapong in Malacca? Or Fort Serapong on Sentosa? There’s no airport in either place. It gets better: a patient on the plane suffers from decompression sickness after diving with a company called Tekong (pronounced ‘Tee-kong’ by House) Scuba Rental. He’s probably referring to Pulau Tekong but it's a military installation. Does the writer know something we don't?
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
Singapore is involved in a fictional global catalycsm. On the Season 2 finale of the sci-fi series, we have a 12-sec cameo as one of the many cities infected by the aliens’ mind control spell. The scene is shot using stock footage and green-screen, where a random bunch of people pretend they are on the Sands Skypark.
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
When renowned landmark destroyer Roland Emmerich was in Singapore in 2013 to promote White House Down, he said he would love to ‘blow up’ the Sands Skypark — cinematically, that is. Three years later, he got his wish: In the belated sequel to the 1996 alien-invasion blockbuster, Emmerich has the hostile visitors demolish the Marina Bay skyline. The entire sequence was a digital concoction, with Google maps as reference. “But [Emmerich] took some liberties and changed the city and buildings slightly for better composition in the sequence,” SPFX supervisor Bryan Grill told Channel NewsAsia in 2016.
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
One key scene in this drone-warfare thriller takes places at a weapons convention held in Singapore where the British Foreign Minister (Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen) is the guest-of-honour. The movie was shot entirely in South Africa. But you can’t really tell ’cos the action is indoors — what gave it away is a shot through the minister’s hotel room where we clearly see mountains and green valleys.
6 TV Shows & Movies Where Singapore Is *Played* By Another Country
On the classic Season 2 ep, ‘Cinderella and the Dragon’, the FBI’s International Response Team (led by Gary Sinise) is in town to solve the murder of an American flight attendant. The episode was never filmed here; Singapore was recreated using stock footage and redressing locations around LA. The Changi International Airport scenes was shot at the Ontario International Airport. The ep was slammed for its countless inaccuracies about Singapore — like calling Geylang “an overcrowded slum with a thriving underworld”, scenes of outdoor food vendors, and festive red lanterns. And thanks to them, we also have a national proverb, “Where there is a sea, there are pirates.”
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By Douglas Tseng
Published August 30, 2018
Updated September 1, 2018
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We’re thankful that the producers of Crazy Rich Asians decided to shoot the movie here because they actually don’t have to. If Hollywood wants to tell a story involving Singapore, it doesn't always need to fly down manpower and equipment here — they can just reproduce us in a computer or a studio backlot. Just like these TV shows and movies that we know of....

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