Cocoon Locations

Locations Manager(s): Robert Maharis

Cocoon Filming Locations:

Westminster Shores Retirement Community at 125 56th Ave. South; St. Petersburg, FL 33705. It was the same address as shown in the movie--no effort to disguise it. Looked much the same as it did in the movie until it was torn down. No mansion next door. That must have been another location edited in to look like a neighboring home. [Thanks to Dallas Keffer]

The Westminster Shores Retirement Community is the correct place where the movie was filmed (listed as Sunny Acres in the movie). I took down the address from the movie and my wife and I went there to check it out as we have a condo not too far from the place and met the couple whose unit was used to film their cottage. They were very nice and we took some pictures by the building then went to the club house where the other scenes were filmed. While there, we were invited to dinner by a sales rep (trying to get us to buy into it), so we went back the next evening with another couple and had dinner there and talked about the changes to the place, had a great time and loved the movie. [Thanks to Tom Schmall]

The world famous "Johns Pass" was used as the location where the aliens first rented the boat from Steve Guttenberg. The current owners grandfather owned the dock area when the movie was filmed, you can see the words "Worlds Famous Johns Pass" on the building in the back ground as they are renting the boat. [Thanks to Tom Schmall]

During the making of the movie Cocoon, Ron Howard and his crew would often stop in for lunch at a little original restaurant from 1952 named Munch's in the south East side of St Petersburg, FL. A few miles south of downtown. There are pictures on the wall of Ron Howard and the cast. The restaurant is exactly the same as it was when the movie was shot. [Thanks to Phil Boyle]

Cast and crew stayed at the former Hilton Inn on what was then called St. Petersburg Beach.

Ahh, yes, the legendary Pool House Mystery!

We've been told that the marina house pool at 868 bayway clearwater beach florida was used in the movie. But nothing at the Bayway address in Clearwater Beach currently looks like it could have been in "Cocoon". Of course, a lot of years have passed and Florida has done a lot of growing since then. I am still trying to find the mansion "next door" location. I heard in the DVD commentary by Ron Howard that the home owners loved the poolhouse--it was constructed by the studio especially for the movie. They did not want it torn down after production ended, but it was only movie set construction and would not last. Looks like it was built around an existing pool. There was nothing like that at all next door to the retirement community that I could see. [Thanks to Dallas Keffer]

We've even been told several times that the pool in the movie was really the pool at a mansion in West Orange(?) NJ.

For example, Chris kindly wrote in to say "I do know for a fact that AlliedSignal owned the mansion for a while. I believe it was left to the company by someone who founded it? The masion was a summer house for the Nichols family. Or maybe it was Solvay. (Allied had a Nichols/Solvay building at it's morristown NJ site). As an employee of the company I had been to the mansion a few times. Having seen the pool at the mansion I could almost swear that yeah, that's what was used in the movie. It was stunning. Indoors, big columns." However, David kindly wrote in to say that the spot in west orange, NJ is called the Plesantdale Chateau and looks close but he doesn't think it's a total match to the movie.

However, Director Ron Howard clearly says on the commentary on the DVD that the pool was constructed especially for the movie... and only of temporary "set" materials... Maybe the NJ mansion has a very similar pool and is trying to cash in on possible tourist trade, as I've heard that they claim on their website that the pool is the one used in the movie...

Another visitor wrote in to say: I grew up in St. Pete and was there during the filming. i'm pretty sure that the pool house was a house in the Snell Island section of town. it might have been a house owned by Cubby Broccoli (leader of the James Bond film dynasty) or somebody he knew. I had never heard of the pool house being a temporary set, but just the opposite, that it was an in-tact home. I can't swear to any of this, but it's what I remember from talk and scuttlebut around at the time....

We do know, however that the filmmakers built the poolhouse as a structure over an existing outside pool for the movie.

ShelP kindly wrote in to add: If I am not mistaken, I recall a tour guide telling the passangers on a small boat tour around an exclusive island just off the Port of Miami that the house exterior was the shot used in the movie. Not sure if the pool was inside. This home sits very close to other celebrities i.e. Rosie O'Donnell, Al Copone etc...To me it looked very similar. Steven Frank adds ...the pool house is an actual location. The home where the pool is on the waterfront that connects the waterway along John's Pass.

UPDATE: Both Linda & Denise Smith as well as Stan L; Jason Estep, Tony Dupeire and Mark A Smith have all kindly written in with the address of the poolhouse mansion and we're holding back on this until our new locations feature goes live but Summer Schuette kindly wrote in to say that the mansion next door with the pool is right next to and north of JUNGLE PRADA DE NAVAEZ PARK :) Joseph Christensen also wrote in to say that "the pool house is on park st in St. Petersburg, Fl. It is best seen by the water. I pass it almost everyday in my boat."

Tiffany Higgins wrote in to add: I am a St Pete, FL native. The pool house is on Park st in jungle Prada in St Pete. My grandparents lived a few houses down and I remember as a kid the big movie trucks set up along park st I front of the house. It's a big pink house my mom used to say when I was little she wanted to live in. Yen & Mark A Smith also kindly wrote in to confirm that this is absolutely the right place. Mark adds: "I worked at John's Pass marina and a friend was an extra in the movie. Drove by the location during filming several when heading home from work. And, I have eaten at munch's for over 50 years."

The fishing scene: Can anyone please help with the EXACT location of Wilford Brimley's touching fishing scene with Barret Oliver?

Jon Fike kindly wrote in to say that the "Wilford Brimley fishing scene looks like Fort Desoto right down the road. When I lived in St Pete I would fish there all the time. Its an exact match."

But Fort DeSoto is quite a big area and we're having difficultly locating the exact spot. In the movie, we can see a large tree and the road behind them clearly but not a lot else and there seems to be too much vegetation behind in StreetView in most likely spots. At one point in the movie, as the camera changes to a side angle, it looks like we can see the base of a structure like a water tower behind them. There is a water tower at De Soto but nothing on the ground seems to line up for me that would have a clear view of it like we see in the movie. Yen kindly wrote in to say that it it not too far from the fort, but if anyone could send us an exact google maps link, we'd be grateful.

UPDATE: James Young kindly wrote in to add that the "Cocoon" Wilford Brimley fishing scene was on Pinellas Bayway between Isla Del Sol and the bridge to Tierra Verde. The vegetation has grown significantly since filming. But [link: here's the spot].

I think the nightclub/bar that Don Ameche danced at was in Tampa on Cyprus. Several name changes. Cyprus Club, Confetti's come to mind. [Thanks to Ed]

A new mystery: Barrett Oliver's house... We don't see much context in the movie to place this location. Can anyone please help with it? At first glance it would seem that the style fits houses close to the former old folks home, but after a LOT of searching, we've come up empty...

Can you help? Please Update This