Written by on Aug 1, 2014. Posted in On Location

Matthew McConaughey films Massachusetts as Japan for Sea of Trees

Matthew McConaughey and director Gus Van Sant have doubled Massachusetts for Japan in upcoming film Sea of Trees. The shoot is just the latest high-profile production to come to Massachusetts, following Robert Downey Jr’s The Judge and Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer.

Sea of Trees follows the plight of an American who heads into the Aokigahara forest, an infamous suicide spot at the foot of Mount Fuji near Tokyo. He’s interrupted by a mysterious Japanese man and the two ruminate on their lives as they look for a way out of the forest.

The production has been filming at various locations in central Massachusetts, including a state park known as Purgatory Chasm, reports the Worcester Telegram.

“We were pretty deep up there,” unit publicist Gregg Brilliant told the outlet: “The geographic features here (at Purgatory Chasm) are stunning. We scouted roughly half a dozen locations throughout the United States before settling on Massachusetts and this area specifically.

“While there is a very good filming incentive here (in Massachusetts), we did not come here because it was financially driven. We came here for the stunning scenery. It was the right place to make the movie and that's the priority, choosing the right place to make the movie.”

We scouted roughly half a dozen locations throughout the United States before settling on Massachusetts and this area specifically.

Gregg Brilliant, Publicist

Massachusetts offers a generous 25% filming tax credit, which has been a crucial factor in attracting high-profile features in recent years. Other films shooting locally have included American Hustle and Johnny Depp’s upcoming Black Mass, based on the true story of infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Stage facilities are available at New England Studios near Boston.

Sea of Trees will also film scenes in Japan, but this portion of the shoot is likely to be more limited in scale.