The locations of The Little Things reveal a California quite different from the glossy, glamorous version we’re used to seeing on screen. Or rather, they try to depict on screen the stark contrast between the lively cities teeming with tourists and locals that most people recognize, and a darker, more mysterious reality shaped by tensions that can be difficult to interpret.
The 2021 film directed by John Lee Hancock and featuring an exceptional cast that includes, among others, Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto, arrives on Tuesday August 11 2026, in prime time on Channel 5.
What it’s about
Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon is sent to Los Angeles to assist the ambitious Jim Baxter, his former colleague and now chief detective, in investigating a mysterious homicide that occurred in the city. As he becomes familiar with the crime scene, Deacon notices numerous similarities in the modus operandi with a series of cases he had personally worked on when he was a detective, never managing to solve them. While suspicions focus on a single name, that of Albert Sparma, the trust between Deacon and Baxter becomes increasingly strained, but the former is forced to confront the ghosts of a tormented past.
Where the film was shot
In selecting the locations for The Little Things, the production seems to have followed a single criterion: to ensure that Los Angeles, the main setting, remained always clearly recognizable on screen, while at the same time revealing its most unsettling, often sinister face, in keeping with a film steeped in noir atmosphere.
Downtown LA
In downtown Los Angeles, the city’s core—home to some of California’s tallest skyscrapers and modern buildings housing offices, shops, fashion studios, and every other type of business—was the staging ground for the majority of the film’s urban scenes, including those of The Little Things, with the neon lights, crowds, and traffic at all hours that are so characteristic of L.A.
The outskirts of Los Angeles
Around the Los Angeles area, filming took place in Lancaster, where the movie opens with a scene featuring a woman fleeing from her pursuer.
Another iconic scene, the VIP cabaret, was shot in North Hollywood, a district known for its independent theaters and venues that host live shows nearly every night and are often used as sets by film productions.
The suburb of Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, was chosen to represent typical American residential neighborhoods on screen.
Other California locations
The scene featuring Denzel Washington involved in a tense chase was filmed in Ventura, along a road (Shell Road) that runs through an industrial area, effectively introducing a break from the other landscapes that dominate the film.
An effect similar to that is achieved by scenes shot in Kern County: here, the vast desert expanses (those of the Mojave Desert), the large green areas (the county contains some of the country’s most important forests, such as Los Padres and Sequoia), and the numerous agricultural zones stand in contrast to the urban chaos that characterizes the film, becoming a symbol of the loneliness and sense of defeat the protagonists experience at times during their pursuit of the serial killer.
