Alaska's capital city may not be an obvious feature in the romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama," but Doug Eboch, who wrote the film, says growing up in Juneau was a major influence.
"Sweet Home Alabama," starring Reese Witherspoon, collected $35.6 million at the box office to debut as the weekend's No. 1 movie.
Eboch, 34, lived in Juneau in the 1980s and graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School in 1986. He moved to Los Angeles to study film production and screenwriting at the University of Southern California.
"I originally set it in a small Oregon town," Eboch said. "I felt if I set it in Juneau it would seem like an Alaska movie. Alaska is such a unique world to people in the Lower 48. I felt Oregon would make it seem more universal."
Oregon was switched to Alabama at the request of one of the producers, an Alabama native who was a major backer of the movie.
"One interesting thing is it didn't have to change that much. Small towns are still small towns." "We just changed what they ate and some phrases and such."
An Auke Bay bar, Squire's Rest, makes an appearance in the film in a roundabout way, he said.
"There's a bar scene in 'Sweet Home Alabama' and I got the idea for that roadhouse, good-old-boy bar from Squire's Rest, although officially I was too young to drink then," Eboch said.