Hummingbird Nest Ranch from “Book Club”

One of my favorite stalking stories involves the Grim Cheaper and Sex and the City: The Movie, which I saw right when it came out in late May 2008.  I was gifted Amy Sohn’s book about the film for my birthday just a few days later and while it did a fabulous job of breaking down the locales, one that I desperately wanted to find was only mentioned in passing.  Of the Mexican restaurant where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined with the girls during her non-honeymoon, all that was said was that filming took place in Simi Valley.  As soon as I read those words, though, I knew what I had to do – call up every Mexican eatery in the area and ask if the flick was shot there, obvs!  Now I should mention here that I hate telephone calls.  The GC likes to say that I am scared of the phone and he’s not far off.  So I enlisted his help with this endeavor.  It was a rather humorous undertaking being that none of the people who answered his calls had any earthly idea what he was talking about.  Needless to say, after spending hours on the task, we came up empty – but the whole thing sure was good for a few laughs.  It was not until Mike, from MovieShotsLA, saw the film that the mystery was finally solved.  He recognized the Mexican restaurant, which – spoiler! – isn’t really a restaurant at all, as none other than Hummingbird Nest Ranch, an oft-filmed compound nestled north of the 118 freeway in Santa Susana.  The property is, unfortunately, closed to the public, but is available to lease for special events.  So, since I was newly engaged at the time, it went to the top of my list of spots to tour as a possible wedding venue.  I headed out there soon thereafter, but was struck with bad luck thanks to the reality series Tool Academy which had taken over the property for a weeks-long shoot, thereby severely limiting what I could photograph.  Regardless, when I saw the site pop up as the idyllic “Sedona” ranch belonging to Mitchell (Andy Garcia) in Book Club (one of my favorite movies of 2018 – available on DVD here and via streaming here), I knew I had to finally blog about it.

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Hummingbird Nest Ranch was the brainchild of Metro Networks founder David Saperstein who, in 2000, purchased a 123-acre plot of picturesque land in the hills of Simi Valley for his second wife, Suzanne.  Though a gorgeous 1920s home known as Sitting Bull sat on the property, David envisioned something grander for Suzanne and commissioned architect Richard Robertson to build a massive 17,000-square-foot Spanish-style estate on the grounds for the couple to live in.

Several other structures were also added including 3 riding arenas, 16 guest and staff houses, and a 20,000-square-foot barn.  That’s the barn below.  Yeah, I know – it’s grander than most homes!

There is also parking for 400 vehicles, numerous swimming pools, a spa, a large pond, a helipad, and a solar-panel farm on the premises.

Saperstein filed for divorce from Suzanne in 2005 and subsequently put the ranch on the market in 2007 for $75 million.  When there were no takers, he switched gears and decided to turn the property into a massive 5-star resort complete with 105 rooms, 98 casitas, numerous restaurants and swimming pools, conference facilities, and a convention center.

The city of Simi Valley greenlighted the plan, but once the permits were in place in 2014, Saperstein changed gears yet again and re-listed the site, this time for $49.5 million.  It finally sold in December 2015 for $33 million.

Though the purchaser was said to be transforming the place into a wellness hotel, so far those plans have not yet come to fruition.

 

Because the place sat largely vacant for close to a decade, it became the perfect venue for filming (not to mention a few celebrity weddings including that of Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting, Nazanin Mandi and Miguel Pimentel, and Morgan Stewart and Brendan Fitzpatrick).

For Book Club, producers chose to use Sitting Bull, Hummingbird Nest Ranch’s original 1920s house, instead of the massive main residence as Mitchell’s charming Arizona pad.  Per a 2018 Architectural Digest feature, the property was love at first sight for production designer Rachel O’Toole.  Of the home, she says, “It was just so perfect with the archways and the way that the light dapples through the yard and the pool.  Standing at the front door you can see all the way through the kitchen into a bathroom, through an arched brick passageway and then outside through leaded glass to a fountain.  I said to Bill [director Bill Holderman], ‘We shouldn’t waste our time looking elsewhere because this is it.’”

Diane Keaton, who plays Mitchell’s love interest in the film, also became smitten with the dwelling.  When AD asked about her favorite Book Club locale, she responded, “I liked Andy Garcia’s house best.  Andy’s house is an old Spanish.  I wanted to buy it.  That place is gorgeous.”

Of dressing the location for the shoot, O’Toole told AD, “For the color palette, we had burgundies and browns and tans with lots of textures like Persian rugs.  We wanted Andy’s character to be grounded and approachable with things he collected from all his travels.”

Not much of the home was altered for the flick.  Along with digitally adding the Arizona desert into the background of a scene . . .

. . . production also updated the pad’s 1970s kitchen, though it was only seen in a brief shot from outside the front door towards the end of the movie.

Sitting Bull also portrayed Gregory Sumner’s (William Devane) ranch on the popular nighttime soap Knots Landing, which aired from 1979 to 1993.

Though most of the Mexican resort scenes in Sex and the City: The Movie were shot at this house in Malibu, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masked as the hotel restaurant where a waiter guts Carrie by referring to her as “Mrs. Preston.”

Shortly after Sex and the City: The Movie debuted, the ranch popped up as Destinies, the rehabilitation center where Joan McCallister (Judy Davis) worked during the second season of The Starter Wife.

That same year, the ranch portrayed yet another rehab, this time on the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “There’s No Place Like Homecoming” as the spot Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) was sent after almost overdosing.

As I mentioned earlier, Hummingbird Nest Ranch was used extensively as the home of the competing couples on Tool Academy, which began airing in 2009.

Also in 2009, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masqueraded as Calistoga Canyon Resort and Spa where the CBI team investigated a murder in the Season 1 episode of The Mentalist titled “Crimson Casanova.”

In the Season 7 episode of NCIS titled “Rule Fifty-One,” which aired in 2010, the Nest portrays the Mexican estate of Paloma Reynosa (Jacqueline Obradors).

The massive main house plays Steve Jobs’ (Ashton Kutcher) tony Silicon Valley mansion in the 2013 biopic Jobs.

On July 27th, 2014, Scheana Marie (one of the most miserable brides ever!) married Michael Shay at Hummingbird Nest Ranch.  The event was chronicled in the Season 3 episodes of Vanderpump Rules titled “For Better or Worse” and “Ring on a String” which aired the following year.

In the 2015 Entourage movie, the ranch masks as the Texas home of Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton) and his son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment).

That same year, Hummingbird Nest showed up in the Season 1 episode of Stitchers titled “The Root of All Evil” as the mansion belonging to Joe Parks (Cameron Daddo) and his wife, Suzanne (Courtney Henggeler).

Also in 2015, the ranch popped up as the home of Dr. Irving Pitlor (Rick Springfield) in the Season 2 episode of True Detective titled “Night Finds You.”

Hummingbird Nest masked as the Palm Springs Hotel where Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner) trysted with Jeanne Crandall (Mira Sorvino) in the Season 1 episode of Hollywood titled “(Screen) Tests,” which hit Netflix in 2020.

The couple stayed in Sitting Bull in the episode.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Hummingbird Nest Ranch, aka Mitchell’s house from Book Club, is located at 2940 Kuehner Drive in Santa Susana.  You can visit the venue’s official website here.  Please be advised that the ranch is private property and not open to the public.