The number of international films to have been made in Australia is fairly limited so it is quite surprising that two of those movies have used the same location in Sydney and I’m not talking about famous landmarks like the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge which have obviously popped up in almost every film made Down Under!

As I said in my ‘New York Filming Locations: Superman (1978)‘ post, I can only remember certain scenes from the Christopher Reeve films and it is actually the mid 90’s TV series ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman‘ which I remember more fondly and most of my Superman knowledge comes from that show.

Despite being interested in it at the time I just never got round to watching ‘Superman Returns‘ when it was released. A friend even gave me a copy of it on DVD over a decade ago but I just never bothered to view it until 

earlier this year in anticipation of my short trip to Sydney during my two week holiday to Melbourne. Having located the disc and it down, I watched the 154 minute epic and actually enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.

The Vanderworth Mansion inherited by Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) appears on 5 and 47 minutes and is the Rivendell Hospital in the Concord West area of Sydney, 16 kilometres west of the CBD.

The most famous location to feature is undoubtedly the fountain at Martin Place on Pitt Street (below) which appears on 59 minutes as Kitty Kowalski provides a distraction for Superman whilst Lex Luthor is busy stealing the shard of kryptonite from a museum. For your information, the exterior was the Art Gallery Of NSW and the interior was the Australian Museum. The brakes in her runaway car have been cut but luckily the caped crusader is on hand to save her rather than putting a stop to the robbery.

This was of course the same location (below) that featured in ‘The Matrix‘ (1999) where the combat training with the distracting woman in the red dress takes place.

Lois Lane’s waterfront house is at 2 James Cook Island which is an artificial crescent-shaped island that’s part of the Sylvania Waters development. It’s 2.7 kilometres north of Miranda Station on the T4 Line which I passed through on the way to Cronulla. Sadly I didn’t have time to stop off there for a 70 minute return trip from the station on foot!

The Raddison Blu Plaza Hotel (below) frontage on 27 O’Connell Street (at the junction of Pitt Street and Hunter Street) is seen on 102 minutes as Metropolis erupts due to Luthor’s increasing power.

Metropolis General Hospital is actually the entrance to Wynyard Station (below) which is on the T1, T2, T3, T8 and T9 lines. The station is within the Wynyard Building at 11 York Street and is seen on 135 minutes as a crowd of people gather outside the old building wondering about the fate of the injured super-hero.

Bonus: Brandon Routh’s Superman outfit (below) was once on show at the now-defunct London Film Museum which I visited in late December 2010. Please try and ignore the rather pathetic and feeble pose in front of the costume display!

Finally, just because I love it, I have included this YouTube clip because it features the beautiful instrumental version of ‘Heart & Soul‘ which was composed by Hoagy Carmichael in 1938.

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #1 -Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)’

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #2 – The Matrix (1999)’

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #3 – Melbourne Special’

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #4 – Muriel’s Wedding (1994)’

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #5 – Knowing (2009)’ 

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #6 – The Wolverine (2013)’ 

Click here to read ‘Australia Filming Locations #7 – Killer Elite (2011)’