Talaat Captan did not set out to build a film studio. In 1998 he was a working producer trying to finish a movie, and a run of trouble on that shoot gave him the idea that became Air Hollywood, the first studio built entirely around aviation. This is how a single difficult production turned into a business that has hosted hundreds of films, TV shows, commercials and music videos.
A producer with an airport problem
By the late 1990s Captan had spent years in the film business, first in domestic and international distribution and then in production. He went on to produce about a dozen feature films, among them Ground Control, Prototype and Living in Peril. You can find more about that side of his career in the film section of this site.
Ground Control, which starred Kiefer Sutherland, was scheduled to film scenes at Los Angeles International Airport. That plan ran into trouble. According to a 2012 profile in the Los Angeles Daily News, the airport withdrew the production’s filming permit the day before shooting was due to start, and the setback cost him a good deal of money. In the studio’s 2001 launch announcement, Captan said that red tape on the LAX shoot cost him both time and money, and that the experience made him think there has to be an easier way
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Other aviation mock-up shops already existed in Los Angeles at the time. But Captan, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, later said the mock-up sets available at the time were not up to the standard he wanted. Real airports and airplanes came with permits, restrictions and very little control over the set. He saw a gap: a place designed by a filmmaker, for filmmakers, where every kind of aviation scene could be shot in a controlled environment.
From idea to San Fernando soundstage
Captan founded Air Hollywood shortly after Ground Control wrapped. Finding the right building took research. In a 2003 interview with the San Fernando Business Journal, he explained that he needed high ceilings, plenty of parking and a quiet location away from trains, airplanes and freeways, which are all things that can ruin a sound take. He found that in the city of San Fernando, in the northern San Fernando Valley, and he credited the city with being helpful on film permits.
In May 2001 Air Hollywood formally announced its opening as the first studio entirely dedicated to aviation-themed production. The launch release described a 30,000-square-foot facility with production offices, a 200-foot airport terminal standing set, a commercial airplane mock-up and a glass cockpit. Captan’s stated goal was a one-stop shop for aviation production, covering sitcoms, music videos, commercials and feature films alike.
The early sets were practical by design. The 2003 profile described a wide-body cabin with first, business and two coach sections and a smaller narrow-body cabin, both built from parts of retired airliners, including real overhead bins and lavatories. Every section, including the walls, could be removed so crews could shoot from any angle. The terminal set included a security checkpoint, a newsstand, a gate area and a customs area, with screens behind the windows so any city could appear outside.
Why the timing mattered
Air Hollywood opened just before the aviation world changed. After September 11, 2001, filming inside working airports became far more difficult, and the same 2003 article noted that tighter security had increased the need for secure, realistic places to shoot airport scenes. A studio that had been a convenience became, for many productions, the most practical option available.
Growing into a Hollywood fixture
In January 2007 Air Hollywood moved its headquarters to Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, setting up its wide-body jet mock-up, with about 120 feet of continuous cabin, and a 777 glass cockpit on Stage Three. Captan described the move as a turning point. Until then the company had mostly served low- and medium-budget productions from San Fernando, and being on a major lot let it take on larger work.
By 2012 the studio had moved to a row of warehouse spaces in Pacoima. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that Air Hollywood’s cabins had removable ceilings and walls, interchangeable seating and airport sets that could be dressed as security, check-in or baggage claim. Captan told the paper the studio had hosted about 500 movies along with hundreds of commercials, TV shows and music videos, with clients as far away as China, Japan, Thailand and Europe. He also described how the team built a full 747 cabin mounted on hydraulics and air bags to create turbulence for a feature film, a service later used on other productions. That kind of problem-solving is a theme he returned to in interviews such as Aviation Week’s Questions for Talaat Captan and its Fast Five video.
What the Ground Control lesson built
The idea that started with one lost permit has kept expanding. Because Air Hollywood owns realistic cabins and an airport terminal, Captan has used them for audiences well beyond Hollywood:
- The Pan Am Experience, a recreation of 1970s Pan Am travel complete with an in-flight dinner service.
- Open Sky for Autism, which lets families of children with autism rehearse a trip through the airport and onto a plane before they fly for real.
- FearlessFlight, a course for people with a fear of flying. NPR’s report on it is summarized in this post.
- Air Hollywood Props, the studio’s aviation prop house.
Today Captan is also one of the executives working to bring Pan American World Airways back, as covered in our post on the Pan Am leadership team. That path, from a producer struggling to film at LAX to a part in reviving one of aviation’s best-known names, began on the set of Ground Control.
For a fuller overview of his work, see Talaat Captan’s ventures, the founder page on Air Hollywood’s website, and the rest of our press archive.
