Lights Camera Action – Ideas For Film Set Holidays
If you have ever oggled a beautiful film set and wished you could see it too – there are plenty of places that have opened up for visitors. The Lord of The Ring series, filmed in the South and North Island of New Zealand can be seen over a 12 day tour! Here are a few ideas of what’s available to inspire you to create your own holiday films.
The Island of Ko Tapu – South China Seas
In the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun saw the suave British secret agent James Bond played by Roger Moore taking on Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). The chase sees Bond tracking the arch-villain through Lebanon, Hong Kong and Bangkok before the final face off at the island lair of the assassin. The location for this iconic scene is known locally as Ko Tapu (“Nail Island”) though since it found fame is sometimes known as “James Bond Island” and the scenic topography not only helped make the film into a firm Bond favourite but transformed the previously unknown Phang Nga Bay into a major tourist attraction.
Mos Espa, Tatouine in Tunisia
One of the greatest movie franchises, with all 6 films featuring in the top 100 highest grossing films, Star Wars put Tataouine, Tunisia, on the map. Not only did George Lucas base the name of Luke Skywalker’s fictional home planet on it but he also used various locations throughout the area for filming. The Tunisian tourist office, asked that a number of sets in the south of the country were left standing! Ksar Ouled Soltane (a 15th century Berber fortified village), along with two other local tsars, features in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace as the locations of Mos Espa’s Slave Quarters Row, where Anakin Skywalker lived as a boy.
Putagirua Pinacles – New Zealand
Ever since Peter Jackson made his epic film trilogy, millions recognise New Zealand as the living embodiment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginary world. Movie tourism tied is now flourishing with many location tours available enabling fans to immerse themselves in the lands of the hobbits, elves, wizards and dwarves. There’s even a 12 day excursion across both the North and South Islands which covers most of the breathtaking film locations. Probably the most eerie location used is Putangirua Pinnacles, depicted as the Dimholt Road in The Return of the King where Aragorn and chums trot out to meet the Army of the Dead.
Philadelphia Museum of Art – Philadelphia, USA
The original montage in the Oscar-winning Rocky practically set the bar for this type of film editing. After running through a Philadelphia slum, one-armed push-ups in the gym and then pummelling a side of beef in a meat locker, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) returns to the streets, via a shipyard and runs up the steps fronting the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the iconic song “Gonna Fly Now”, raising his arms at the summit. Follow Rocky’s famous climb of the 72 stone steps – and yes – the view is worth the effort. At the top you can look back on Eakins Oval, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Philadelphia City Hall.