These 6 Movies Filmed in Idaho Are Loaded With Stars But You Never Saw Them

Many have tried to capture the beauty of Idaho on film. Some have come close and others have failed, miserably.

Today we focus on the films with star-studded casts that were filmed in Idaho but you’ve never seen them or probably never heard of them.

You’ve Probably Never Heard of These 6 Movies Filmed in Idaho

There have been many great movies, or at least watchable ones, that were filmed in Idaho. You can’t deny that Napoleon Dynamite ended up being a dynamite film and whether you like Breakfast of Champions or not, it has a following and famous cast members.

So how did movies with stars like Clint Eastwood, Ron Perlman, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and Martin Landau plus one starring Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Rachel Bilson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Andy Samberg, and Donald Glover get made without anyone knowing about it?

READ ALSO: The Best Movies Made in and About Idaho

Well, they did.

6 Star-Studded Idaho Movies You’ve Never Seen or Heard of

Starting with the most star-studded of them all, The To Do List is filled with veteran SNL cast members and led by the hilarious Aubrey Plaza. It came out in 2013 and was filmed in Boise.

The Being came out in 1981, was filmed in Meridian, and it’s horrible. Check out the trailer and you’ll be convinced that it’s not worth your time.

To be fair, most of these movies are from the 70s and 80s, so you have that excuse if you never saw or heard of them. But Moving, even with Richard Pryor and Randy Quaid at the top of their game wouldn’t have made this one any better. It came out in 1988 after being filmed in Boise.

There was a time when you couldn’t get away from movies starring Clint Eastwood, yet in 1980 Bronco Billy came out with Meridian as a backdrop, and that was about the end of it.

Here’s one that you probably DID see, but locked away in the forgotten memories compartment of your brain. Bill Cosby could do no wrong in the 80s and 90s (well, at least nobody talked about it) and Ghost Dad might have been the beginning of the end for him. It came out in 1990 and was shot in Boise.

Magic Valley takes place, uncreatively, in the Magic Valley. It came out in 2011 and won a few awards, but awards (as we all know) don’t mean it was good. However, fans of Scott Glenn, Kyle Gallner, and Matthew Gray Gubler of Criminal Minds fame might like it.

Kid Cannabis is supposedly based on the true story of a drug-dealing kid from Idaho. Someone convinced Ron Perlman and John C. McGinley in 2014 that he should be in it and the result is a movie about drugs and boobs.

As an added bonus, here are 2 other movies filmed in Idaho that don’t have anyone famous in them and even fewer reasons to watch them.

Opportunity was filmed in Boise and came out in 2024. It might be funny…but I don’t hate myself enough to watch it and find out.

Roses and Algorithms is a 2024 German film that lists Twin Falls, ID as a filming location.

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