A staged homeless encampment appeared Friday in the middle of San Francisco’s Financial District, alarming some residents — until they learned the scene was part of a Netflix film shoot.
Tents lined sections of California and Battery streets as production crews remade the area for “2034,” a sci-fi mystery directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and featuring Rachel McAdams and Jeff Daniels.
The set looked real enough to prompt a wave of concern, with residents contacting the city’s 311 hotline and submitting complaints through SolveSF.
“I was walking around, and there’s a million tents everywhere, which seems more than normal for this area,” one resident told ABC7.
“To the trained eye, somehow they don’t look like regular homeless encampments,” another San Francisco resident said.
The large-scale production arrived only months after Mayor Daniel Lurie — reportedly seen at the shoot — approved legislation designed to bring more film and television projects to San Francisco.
“Mayor Daniel Lurie today signed legislation championed by Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman to modernize and strengthen San Francisco’s film incentive program—which will help attract film and television productions back to San Francisco and support the city’s creative community,” a statement released back in February said.
The push mirrors a broader effort across California to bring Hollywood productions back to the Golden State.
“Governor Gavin Newsom will announce a $750 million film and TV tax credit, boosting one of California’s hallmark industries, Los Angeles’ local economy, and thousands of industry jobs,” the governor’s office announced in July 2025.
“It’s really important for us to have productions here,” said the executive director of Film SF, Manijeh Fata.
Despite being set in San Francisco, much of “2034” has been filmed in Serbia and Montenegro. Production is expected to wrap later this month.
