National Treasure
Last Update: 28 November 2004
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 Photo by Robert Zuckerman

A secret from America's past will lead to the greatest adventure in history.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Rock, and Armageddon) and director Jon Turteltaub (Phenomenon, While You Were Sleeping) team up to bring you National Treasure.

Academy Award®-winner Nicolas Cage stars as the brilliant Benjamin Franklin Gates, third generation treasure hunter. All his life, Gates has been searching for a treasure no one believed existed: amassed through the ages, moved across continents, to become the greatest treasure the world has ever known. Hidden by America's Founding Fathers, they left clues to the Treasure's location right before everyones' eyes - from the nation's birthplace, to its capitol, to clues buried within the symbols on the dollar bill.

Gates' life-long journey leads him to the last place anyone thought to look: a map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

But what he thought was the final clue is only the beginning.

 

 

Gates realizes in order to protect the world's greatest treasure, he must now do the unthinkable: steal the most revered, best guarded document in American history before it falls into the wrong hands.

In a race against time, Gates must elude the authorities, stay one step ahead of his ruthless adversary (Sean Bean), decipher the remaining clues and unlock the 2000 year-old mystery behind America's greatest national treasure.

National Treasure opened across North America on November 19th.

National Treasure filmed in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, and Utah from 21 September 2003 until February 2004.

Washington filming took place Sept 21 - Oct 2, 2003.

Philadelphia filming took place October 3 - 17, 2003.

The production moved to Los Angeles on October 18, 2003 and broke briefly for Christmas roundabout December 20. Filming picked up again in early January 2004.

The cast and crew moved to Utah during the last week of January 2004. Filming officially wrapped in mid-February 2004.

Washington locations included:

  • the National Archives
  • Pennsylvania Avenue NW (between Third and 12th streets)
  • Pennsylvania Avenue NW (between 10th and 11th streets)
  • 17th Street NW (between Constitution Avenue and E Street)
  • the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
  • Library of Congress.

Philadelphia locations included:

  • rooftop chase scenes in the Head House Square area
  • night scenes shot in Carpenters Hall, Independence Hall, and Delancey Street in Society Hill
  • a foot chase through Washington Square
  • a rooftop chase in Blackwell Court
  • east side of City Hall in Center City
  • 13th & Locust in Center City
  • city cemetery on Pine Street
  • Reading Terminal Market.

California locations included:

  • Disney Studios (LA)
  • Universal Studios (LA)
  • Knott's Berry Park (Buena Park)

Utah locations included:

  • the Chicken Creek West area at Strawberry Reservoir.

Sean returned to New York for two days of reshoots in June 2004 (June 3/4 - exterior shots at the Intrepid, and June 5 - exteriors at Trinity Church on Wall St.) Sean also filmed one extra scene the weekend of September 11th in Berkshire, England.

To see lots of pix of Sean from National Treasure, click here.
Read Film Jerk's script review here.
Visit the National Treasure Press Archive here.
Visit the official National Treasure site here.
To view the National Treasure trailers, click here.
For National Treasure reviews, click here.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS:

Nicolas Cage
Sean Bean
Diane Kruger
Justin Bartha
Christopher Plummer
Harvey Keitel
David Dayan Fisher
Oleg Taktarov
Stewart Finlay-McLennan
Mark Pellegrino
Annie Parisse
Armando Riesco
Don McManus
Jon Voight

 Ben Franklin Gates
Ian Howe
Dr. Abigail Chase
Riley Poole
John Adams Gates
Sadusky
Shaw
Shippen
Powell
Johnson
Dawes
Hendricks

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Genre

Produced by

 Action/Comedy

Disney/Touchstone
Junction Entertainment
Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Distributor

 Buena Vista Pictures

Producers
Executive Producers

 Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Turteltaub
Oren Aviv, Chad Oman, Charles Segars, Mike Stenson, Christina Steinberg, Barry Waldman

Directed by
Written by

 Jon Turteltaub
Jim Kouf, Marianne Wibberly, Cormac Wibberly, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandell, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio

Casting Director
Director of Photography
Production Design
Costume Design
Film Editor
Art Director
Set Decoration
Music by
Running time
Release Dates


Premiere Screenings (US)

 Avy Kaufman
Caleb Deschanel
Norris Spencer
Judianna Makovsky
Billy Goldenberg
Geoff Hubbard
Anne D. McCulley


19 November 2004 (US)
26 December 2004 (UK)

08 November 2004 (Pasadena Civic Center)
05 December 2004 (Leicester Square, London)

 

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