Lights, camera, travel! Touring Berlin's film-shoot sites

Gerdarmenmarkt, a central Berlin square, was one of the locations for the movie Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan.

There are times when entire streets in Berlin are blocked off for on-location film shoots.

That's when spotlights illuminate the night skies, and a tangle of cables covers the sidewalks.

Every year, more than 100 films - or at least some movie scenes - are shot on location in the German capital. Most prominent among such recent flicks was the major Hollywood production Inglorious Basterds with Brad Pitt.
And this has opened up a new attraction for tourists visiting Berlin - a tour of the film sites to follow movie stars' footsteps.

The first major international film in recent years to once again put the spotlight on Berlin as a movie setting was Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan. In the early scenes, the architectural landmark Gendarmenmarkt Square in the heart of eastern Berlin serves as the slightly altered setting for what in the film is supposed to be 19th-century London.

And it happens over and over again that Berlin becomes another city in the movies. For example, Matt Damon in his action-thrillers The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Ultimatum is supposed to be racing through the streets of Moscow - even though the chase scene was shot in a traffic tunnel beneath Berlin's Tiergarten Park.