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Films
By Dee McMath
Almeria
- Where it all began It all started almost half a century
ago in Almeria. Way back in 1961 the world of the western took
off in Almeria,
with the filming of "The Savage Guns", directed
by Michael Carreras, Almeria proving a perfect match for the deserts
of Arizona.
Due to the fabulous locations long
days and incredible light, Almeria was the choice for filming
many big budget films, - most famously perhaps for "Lawrence
of Arabia" depicting the Sahara desert, "Cleopatra"
in Egypt. As well as this type of major production, there have
been endless films of spaghetti westerns genre made in Almeria.
The area has been transformed into settings for gruesome epic
battles of war, in depth biblical sagas, African territory movies
and much more. In its heyday, Almeria was dubbed the "Spanish
Hollywood". Big stars have spent time in there, including
Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Barbarian", while
Spielberg spent time there setting some of his "Indiana Jones
and the last Crusade" in the nearby natural park of Cabo
de Gata-Nijar. Almeria is also more recently being somewhat reclaimed
by the Spanish Film Industry and many new films have been shot
there, including, "Extasis", "Poniente", "800
balas" and "El Pájaro de la felicidad".
Still many American and worldwide productions are made in the
fantastic province of Almeria - unbeatable for the infinite location
possibilities and for the exceptional light so appreciated by
filmmakers.
Malaga and
the Costa del Sol - The New Spanish Hollywood?
While Almeria led the way as the
Spanish Hollywood - producers and film makers soon also saw the
endless benefits of filming in other parts of Andalucia. During
the 1980's the very successful BBC TV comedy series, "Auf
Wiedersehen Pet" based a whole series of the Costa del Sol.
After this, in the early 1990's the shooting of the UK sun soap
of El Dorado involved the building of an entire fictional village
just a few kilometres back from the buzzing Costa del Sol. In
April 2005 the historic Alcazaba
in Malaga was used in the filming of the popular ITV 1 series,
Rosemary & Thyme starring Felicity Kendall and Pam Ferris.
Other major TV series, such as Shed Production's, "Bad Girls"
and "Footballers Wives" have taken full advantage of
the excellent facilities and locations on the coast to enhance
the already soaring viewing figures for their addictive drama
soaps.
Antonio Banderas, who is extremely
proud of his home town of Malaga, is currently casting and filming
for his new film production, "El Camino de los Ingleses"
(The way of the English). For the purposes of the film, parts
of the historic centre of Malaga will be depicted as it was for
youths living there during the 1970's. Banderas also has plans
to produce another film in his beloved Andalusian home land. "Malaga
en llamas" (Malaga in flames) is his next project. Wife
and actress, Melanie Griffiths is expected take on the leading
role in this film, so Malaga will obviously be remaining securely
under the spotlight for some time to come.
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