When Warner Bros. wanted to shut down a highway for a scene from “The Hangover Part III” last month, they filmed the action not on the 405 Freeway but on a stretch of California 73 between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

Despite complaints from some, the two-day film shoot -- which took three months of planning -- was a high profile boost to Orange County, which has been trying to recover some of the film and TV business it lost over the last several years because of the recession and the migration of work to other areas outside of California.

“We’re trying to bring filming back to Orange County,’’ said Orange County Film Commissioner Janice Arrington. “This was an opportunity to say, ‘OC is available for filming.’ We can meet requests that take a great deal of planning.”

Although long overshadowed by its more famous neighbor to the north, Orange County has long provided a scenic backdrop for Hollywood classics, from the 1934 film “Treasure Island” to the 1954 movie “A Star is Born” starring Judy Garland. The old town area in the city of Orange famously played small town America in Tom Hanks’ 1996 hit “That Thing You Do!” and the Coen brothers’ 2001 movie “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”

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