The Marvel Studio’s production of Iron Man has become one of the biggest grossing films of 2008. Much of the location work, landscapes representing Afghanistan, was shot east of Lone Pine. The terrorist Raza’s cave where Tony Stark creates the first model of his Iron Man suit will be the goal of a brand new tour at the 2008 Lone Pine Film Festival.

The tour is called “Iron Man and Beyond: the Films Made East of Lone Pine” is being led by Lone Pine film enthusiasts Burt and Donna Yost. Because of the nature of the location of the Iron Man set on Cerro Gordo road, the tour will be limited in size and be a car caravan.

The first two stops of the three-hour tour will be at the Dolomite marble works site on highway 136 and the town of Keeler. Both sites have seen several movies working over the years there. The film genres are varied.

Several films have worked on Dolomite. The area is the site of the historic marble works and the tour will stop at a historic monument that tells the story of marble mining that is on-going today. The real gem of the Dolomite site is the still standing building that was used several times by movies that include Nevada Smith, An Eye For an Eye, Waterhole No. 3 and the rare science fiction film Digital Man. The building is clearly seen in several of the shots and James Coburn and Patrick Wayne, among others are seen on the porch that is still visible.

Going back in history, the marble works were used for the filming of the Pat O’Brien film Oil For the Lamps of China. The site was used to stand in for China of the 1930’s. The harshness of that landscape is perfectly captured in the other old buildings glimpsed in that film that still stand today. There are some interesting phoro opportunities for the movie location enthusiast.

The tour moves on to the town of Keeler, where several different films worked. Three areas that are seen on screen are still visible today. The opening scene of I Died a Thousand Times, the remake of High Sierra starring Jack Palance and Shelly Winters is still clearly identified. The characters stop at the gas station there. The cinemascope camera captures the vista of the Sierra Nevada and the Lone Pine landscape clearly in the background.

The old Keeler railroad station is also in existence today and being slowly rehabbed by local owners. It was used by Director Erich Von Stroheim for his masterpiece Greed when the Carson and Colorado narrow gauge Slim Princess pulls into the station. That railroad system was used in the Hopalong Cassidy film Sinister Journey and two Gene Autry films The Blazing Sun and Pack Train. The talc mill also located in Keeler appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Saboteur, starring Robert Cummings.

The tour ends on the site of the Iron Man cave. The Yosts will share in pictures the building of the set. Participants will be able to stand exactly where Iron Man stood as he made good his escape. The set dressings from the production representing the exterior of the cave were given to the Museum and make up a major part of the Iron Man exhibit found in the museum.

This new tour is sure to be very popular with Festival attendees because it spans the gamut of films made east of Lone Pine, from the very earliest to the most recent. Because of limited participation, it is important to sign up as soon as possible to guarantee a place.