Lights, Camera…Libertyville 

For a few days last April, it was Christmas in downtown Libertyville. CATZ Production LLC filmed parts of Exes of Christmas Past, a holiday romance, outside and inside several stores along Milwaukee Avenue. Local shopkeepers and residents made cameos and served as extras. And for another Libertyville connection – husband and wife writing team Jake Jarvi and Eliza Toser of Gurnee wrote some of the script at the Cook Park library [1]. Perhaps they used one of the library study rooms!  

Exes of Christmas Past follows hotel manager Josie as she returns home to help at her parents’ bed & breakfast. She’s surprised to find three old high school exes staying there and a relationship is rekindled. The bed & breakfast scenes were filmed in Woodstock at the same inn featured in Groundhog Day, but the downtown scenes take place in Libertyville, renamed Mill Creek for the movie. 

Want to see Libertyville’s star turn? Exes of Christmas Past was recently released on DVD. Reserve your copy today!

Can’t wait? The movie is also available through the library’s Hoopla subscription as well as on the Roku, Tubi, Vizio, and Pluto streaming platforms. Or drop in for a showing at the Aspen Drive library on Friday, December 12 at 1:30pm.

Not the first time Libertyville has been the setting for a movie 

While Libertyville has recently caught the eye of holiday romance movie creators, this isn’t the first time Libertyville has served as a movie location. In November 1999, local newspapers announced that a Hollywood movie would be filmed at the vacant Libertyville High School Brainerd Building. The school district had stopped using the original Libertyville Township High School building at the end of the 1998-1999 school year ahead of the opening of the new Vernon Hills High School later that year. The empty structure had been used as the freshman campus for years [2].  

New Port South, written by James Hughes, son of 1980s teen movie director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles), started production in mid-January 2000 [3]. The film follows high school students Maddox, Chris, and Chip as they start a movement to increase the artistic offerings at a high school with rigorous academic standards. Rumors swirled about who would play the leads, but ultimately, little-known actors were cast. However, film buffs can catch Todd Field, director of Tar (2020), and actor Michael Shannon (currently starring in Netflix’s Death by Lightening) in supporting roles. In addition to the professional actors, hundreds of area students served as extras running out of the building in a phony fire alarm scene [4]. Filming wrapped at the end of March 2000 and the movie premiered in the fall of 2001. 

While New Port South was the biggest production to film here, the Brainerd Building also made cameo appearances in the feature films Public Enemies (2009) and The Unborn (2009) before it was torn down in 2014 [5]. 

Want more Libertyville on the screen? CATZ Production LLC  will be back in Libertyville to film Christmas at the Zoo in mid-December 2025 [6]. 

Libertyville’s not the only town in the Cook Memorial Public Library District to welcome film crews

These movies contain scenes filmed in Vernon Hills and Mundelein: 

My Best Friend’s Wedding (2001) – Cuneo Museum and Gardens in Vernon Hills
Christmas on the Ranch (2004) – Country Ridge Stables in Mundelein and Bende in Vernon Hills
Killing Poe (2015) – St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein
 

Want to watch one of these movies, but don’t have the correct streaming platform? Reserve a Roku stick.

Happy watching!

Sources 

1. Zawislak, Mick. “’Everybody’s Excited’: Local Businesses, extras featured in rom-com being filmed in Libertyville.” Daily Herald, April 16, 2025, p1. Cook Memorial Public Library Local History File – Motion Pictures.
2. Waller, C. L. “Disney movie about students to be filmed at Brainerd.” Daily Herald, November 13, 1999, p1; O’Matz, Megan. “District 128 Building Cast as School in Hughes Film.” Chicago Tribune, November 18, 1999, p.4. Cook Memorial Public Library Local History File – Motion Pictures.
3. Nenni, Pete. “Libertyville gets makeover for film.” Daily Herald, January 26, 2000. Cook Memorial Public Library Local History File – Motion Pictures.
4. “New Port South.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229003/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_1_in_0_q_new%2520port%2520south. Accessed November 11, 2025; “Todd Field.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276062/?ref_=fn_t_1. Accessed November 18, 2025; “Michael Shannon.” Internet Movie Database. “https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0788335/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_in_0_q_michael%2520. Accessed November 18, 2025; Roszkowski, John. “LHS Hollywood: Student Extras March to the Drill.”  Libertyville Review, February 24, 2000, p.7, Cook Memorial Public Library Local History File – Motion Pictures.
5. Peterson, Eric. “Libertyville High makes a cameo in NFL’s ad.” Daily Herald, February 4, 2020, p. 1. Cook Memorial Public Library Local History File – Motion Pictures.
6. Schaenzer, Amie. The Patch, Nov 11, 2025. https://patch.com/illinois/libertyville/filming-start-soon-another-rom-com-downtown-libertyville.