The manufacturing of the 1999 movie October Sky, a biographical drama about Homer Hickam Jr., utilized a number of places to recreate the setting of Coalwood, West Virginia. Principal pictures occurred primarily in rural areas of Tennessee.
The choice to movie in Tennessee was largely pushed by the state’s visible similarities to West Virginia, coupled with logistical and financial benefits. Particular cities inside Tennessee, akin to Oliver Springs, Petros, and Wartburg, offered the required landscapes and architectural types to precisely depict the Appalachian mining group of the late Fifties. Coal mines, small-town principal streets, and mountainous terrain have been all out there throughout the state, providing a complete and cost-effective filming setting.