WIN: FREE TRIP TO ANTARCTICA GO ICE CAMPING WITH PEREGRINE ADVENTURES – SEE INSIDE FOR DETAILS
WORLDWIDE 2004
ISSUE #01 $6.95 >GST INCLUDED
TRAVEL CULTURE
PHOTOGRAPHY: JANA LIEBENSTEIN
get on location!
A very different way to see a city... Spend a fun twenty four hours tracking down the locations where your favourite films were shot or check out restaurants with an orgasmic twist.
7:00am
I kick off my tour of the Big Apple at Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue à la Audrey Hepburn, munching on a croissant, then saunter off for a spot of window-shopping in the world’s most expensive street.
7:45am
After a visual orgy of fur coats and designer clothes I go barefoot in Central Park hoping to catch a glimpse of Demi Moore out for a jog. One woman amuses me by saying “If you spot a posse of beefy men jogging in shell suits, they’re bodyguards, and they are concealing a celebrity.”
8:32am
Heading across the park to Central Park West, a.k.a. Celebrity Row, I stop off for a frothy cup of coffee. Residents
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in the towering Gothic apartment blocks that line this filthy rich stretch of real estate include Madonna (the penthouse apartment at 55 Central Park West) and Barbara Streisand (320 Central Park West). Further up I stumble upon a building that looks eerily familiar. It finally dawns on me that it’s because I’ve seen it in the classic Rosemary’s Baby. It is the Dakota building where the newlyweds, played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes, lived in Roman Polanski’s demonic thriller. The Dakota is a spectacularly creepy and gothic structure and has been home to many Hollywood stars, from Lauren Bacall to Boris Karloff. Sadly, it is now a tragic popculture footnote, destined to be remembered forever as John Lennon’s final residence and the place where he was murdered in 1981.
text: juliet coombe
9:15am
I hop into a taxi and head out to Liberty Helicopters’ heliport at West 30th Street and 12th Avenue, where I join a group for the scenic flight. Once in the air, the helicopter swoops toward the southern tip of Manhattan, Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty, which has been used to shamelessly sentimental effect in every immigrant epic ever made (and just as shameless effect in Ghostbusters 2). For nudie fans, Liberty Island is the site Daryl Hannah’s naked mermaid makes her first appearance on dry land in Splash (1984). From here it’s across to Manhattan Island to make sense of 200-odd skyscrapers, including the Chrysler Building which was home to the eponymous monster of 1982’s Q: The Winged Serpent, and whose gargoyles inhabited the opening sequence of Brian De Palma’s The Bonfire Of The Vanities. Then there’s The Rockefeller Centre from which you can look down on the site where the World Trade Centre once stood. The flight takes only minutes, but it covers ground that would take days to cover by foot.
get in the know! New York’s Central Park is nearly twice the size of the entire country of Monaco
Birdseye view of Manhattan
NYPD squad car
Tony from Tony’s Bar An unusual view of the Statue of Liberty
“Sweetheart, don’t believe everything you see in the movies!” – Tony from Tony’s Bar INSET PHOTOGRAPHY: JULIET COOMBE/EDDIE ZAMMIT
10:38am
Being a wannabe movie star I decide to mix eating and fame with brunch at Television City, a food-media palace which allows you to be filmed eating on television. While the film rolls I dine sitting in the actual studio sets, making me an instant star in my own TV food show, available for later purchase at 64 West 50th Street, across from Radio City Music Hall. I think of ordering pea soup and re-enacting Reagan’s head spinning vomit in The Exorcist – but figure that’s just not the done thing for a starlet.
12:00pm
I catch a yellow taxi to Wall Street, the city’s financial centre. In the movies, it looks like a sprawling metropolitan area teeming with power brokers and wall-towall high rises. In reality I discover it’s more like a side street. That’s probably why directors usually confine themselves to shooting the street sign, then move off somewhere else to capture the frantic action. Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, of course, is the street’s milestone movie, although the 1983 Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places also made thorough use of the area.
1:00pm
I hit Tony’s bar and meet the cheeky owner, who laughs at the thought of any mafia connection. Puffing on his enormous cigar he says, “Sweetheart, don’t believe everything you see in the movies.”
all American eat out. A favourite location choice with filmmakers, it’s the oldest and largest deli in New York and was famously immortalised by Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm in Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally. “How many takes did it take for Meg to get that fake orgasm just right?” I ask Katz’s manager. He laughs; “25, with the actress nibbling on the same number of turkey sandwiches before Reiner was satisfied and called it a wrap.” Nowadays, the deli is deluged with tourists who inevitably order by saying, “I’ll have what she’s having.” As I nibble on my own sandwich two female tourists disturb the Katz regulars by re-enacting the entire scene, moaning, shrieking and sending food in all directions. I think it’s highly amusing, but the regulars are less than happy. The table where Meg Ryan sat is even marked (to keep tour groups interested, claims the owner) with a placard that reads, “You are sitting at the table where Harry met Sally. Hope you had what she had!”
For lunch I go to Katz Diner, a 110-year-old Jewish Deli, for an
Tracking back into the heart of the city, the phallo-centric Empire
I head to Little Italy, which is sadly being swallowed up by neighbouring Chinatown. However if you look hard enough you can still find the area New Yorkers affectionately call “Mafia Land”. This is of course where Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather was shot in 1972, using more than a hundred different locations in and around Little Italy. For Part II, made in 1974, parts of Alphabet City on the city’s east side around Avenue A and B were dressed up to look like Little Italy. Indeed Dr. Puglio’s dentist’s tooth still sits in the window on Avenue B. Unlike Little Italy, however, Alphabet City is not an area to go wandering through on your own. The Godfather Part III was also shot in Little Italy and at the Waldorf Astoria.
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4:15pm
get in the know! ‘The Big Apple’ term was coined by jazz musicians in the 1930s who used the slang ‘apple’ for any city. And to play New York City is to play – The Big Apple
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get on location!
State Building is a lovely place to end a day of sightseeing. The building looms as large as its reputation in the legendary King Kong. The 102-storey building is the tallest in NYC and plays host to the scene in which Fay Wray is dragged screaming to the summit of the massive structure. But if you feel anything like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, you can meet at the top of the Empire State Building in the city that never sleeps.
6:00pm
I head back to my hotel and change for an evening out on the tiles. It’s hard selecting a place to eat dinner when there are over 17,000 restaurants and cafes in New York, covering over 90 different ethnic cuisines.
8:13pm
In the end I pick LE CIRQUE, a restaurant designed like a circus. This luxury venue at 455 Madison Avenue is a favourite with the likes of Woody Allen. Famous for its tasty international cuisine, you can mingle with the stars and meet the Cambodian chef who dishes up meals suitable for a giant. But then everything about America is over the top and that is the reason why everyone who visits loves it so much. Keep room for dessert, because that is a circus in itself.
10:16pm
If you like dancing and love a good night out check out one of New York’s hottest night clubs Naked Lunch, the place to meet celebrities and listen to everything from acid jazz and hip hop, to pop and live DJs. Forget your sneakers and jeans, this place is all class.
the Guggenheim, Central Park, the Rockefeller Centre, The Empire State Building and down to colourful Greenwich Village. You can jump on and off along the route at your leisure.
another 24?
Try shopping at one of the New York’s traditional big name stores. Macy’s: Officially the world’s largest department store, it runs the length of 34th Street with ten floors of merchandise: a dreamcome-true for those who want a one stop shop. Bloomingdale’s: World famous for its great style, this Art Deco building in Lexington Avenue is an icon. Make sure you visit the International Service Desk on the first floor, where staff arrange personal shopping services for you.
must see in nyc 12-3am
The White Horse Tavern – midnight to dawn, where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death. You could make yourself infamous by doing the same.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTHEA EDWARDS
• Television City at 64 West 50th Street • The Empire State Building • Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue • Central Park Central Park West,
a.k.a. Celebrity Row • Liberty Helicopters
The heliport is at West 30th Street & 12th Avenue (For a bird’s eye view of New York) • Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty • The Chrysler Building • The Rockefeller Centre • The site of where the World Trade Centre once stood • Radio City Music Hall • Greenwich Village • Wall Street • Chinatown • Broadway • Little Italy
get there! now...
it’s never been so cheap...
for Aussies in NYC as our dollar continues to rise, meaning those cheap Levi’s just got cheaper and a Budweiser tastes even better. Okay, so it’s still not third world prices, but hey, you’re in the Big Apple. There are ways to save a dollar: head for brunch at a small eatery like Pastis in the Meatpacking District or Fiamma’s in Soho. For a Broadway show, try TKTS in Times Square which sells unsold tickets on the day of a performance for 25-50% off. Get on one of NYC’s famous TV programs including The Late Show With David Letterman (Phone: 1 212 -242-6497), Conan O’Brien (head to NBC’s marquee at 49th Street entrance of 30 Rockefeller Plaza before 9am). And for the really cheap, check out Rob Grader’s definitive Cheap Bastard’s Guide to NYC.
gettin’ around...
Crime on the metro subway has dropped by 64% since the 1990s making it the most convenient and quickest way to get around. An electronic card has eliminated waiting around for tokens. Big Apple bus tours are a fun way to get orientated around NYC’s major sites. The bus route goes from the streets of Harlem, past the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
ground zero...
There are still queues to look at the empty, dust-filled space and loads of NYPD who smile at you. Nervously. The lady serving in the gift shop at the exquisite Trinity Church close by explains how they were all knee deep in ash on the day the towers came down. Shops still leave some of their windows as they were on the 11th including Levis’ Jeans and Nike trainers covered in a thick layer of ash, as though untouched for a hundred years. The most poignant reminder is not the empty space itself, but the metal globe that used to sit in between the towers. It now sits amongst the cherry blossom trees in Battery Park, half bashed in, half unscathed, like some ugly, half-finished work of modern art. Passers by often think it’s a clown’s face looking sad. The globe had represented world peace. People, many of whom are children, looked at it, glassyeyed and silent. It’s interesting to note that no children died at the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001.
India’s Bollywood film industry exposed: from spangly saris to heated love scenes.
ILLUSTRATION: LUKE FRASER
#26 get lost! ISSUE #01 get in the know! The world’s longest urinal measures 88m and is installed every year at the base of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge on Staten Island in preparation for the New York Marathon
Ghostbusters (1984)
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55 Central Park West: Apartment block where Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis lived before they became Key Master and Gate Keeper for Gozer the Gozerian.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
205 East Housten: If you’re feeling brave, act out the famous orgasm scene in Katz’s Delicatessen.
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Big (1988)
Fifth Ave & 58th Street: The toy store where Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia performed “Chopsticks” on a floor piano that lit up.
Seinfeld
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Soup Kitchen International: 8th Avenue & 55th Street. 259A West 55 Street. ‘The Soup Nazi’ is based on Ali “Al” Yeganeh from NYC.
Late Show with David Letterman Ed Sullivan Theatre: 1697 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 Location: Broadway & 53rd Street.
Trading Places (1983) & Wall Street (1987)
Wall Street: Not quite as impressive as in the movies, but you might still meet a Gordon Gekko type.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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700 Fifth Avenue at 55th Street: The Peninsula Hotel. Travis Bickle picks up two passengers in front of this hotel in what became one of De Niro’s iconic films.
Superman (1978)
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220 East 42nd St: The News Building. Used as the Daily Planet offices, this is where Superman often took off to save the world.
Spider-man (2002)
59th Street Bridge: Where Spider-man (Tobey McGuire) fights the Green Goblin and the girl falls from the bridge.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
1 West 72nd Street: The Dakota Building. Where John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow became proud parents to the anti-christ.
SEX AND THE CITY
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PHOTOGRAPHY: HUCK HUR/EDDIE ZAMMIT
SEX UP YOUR TRIP TO NYC: get on the official SATC tour, drink wher e the girls drink, shop where they shop, an d gossip where they gossip – including Carrie’s ap artment step for only US$33. For bookings, email: tvtour@aol.co m ISSUE #01 get lost! #27
MALTA
PHOTOGRAPHY: WARNER BROS. PICTURES / JULIET COOMBE
text: matt mueller
THE SHIP THAT CANNOT BE SUNK
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BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE EPIC ‘TROY’
OCALS JOKE THAT MALTA IS an experienced and versatile actress. The tiny Mediterranean island has portrayed Turkey, Italy, Africa, Greece, Spain, Lebanon, Egypt and France to name a few of her location-doubling TV and film appearances. But it’s her latest guise, as ancient Greece and the West Turkish city-state of Troy in the titular Hollywood epic starring Brad Pitt, that looks set to rocket her from bit-part
The US$180 million Hollywood blockbuster team rocked into town last May – and has left its giant footsteps in the sand, leaving a lasting imprint and guaranteeing that this miniscule Mediterranean blip goes the way of New Zealand: turning from sleepy backwater into top holiday destination. Malta, and its smaller sister islands Comino and Gozo, will never be the same. In this big screen spin-off of The Illiad, Pitt dons a toga to play Achilles, who goes
of Paris. Australia’s own Eric Bana is the mighty Trojan prince, Hector. Director Wolfgang Petersen’s epic on the triumphs and tragedy of the Trojan War is a throwback to the days of the old-fashioned, star-packed Hollywood epic. Under Petersen’s guiding hand (and thanks to some healthy tax relief from the government), Malta ended up standing in for Ithaca, Sparta and the Turkish coast, where the city of Troy lay – apart from scenes showing the Greek armies’
“There’s 5,000 years of culture in Malta. I love being there.” Brad Pitt player to global stardom. Troy will put her firmly on the A-list for movie location scouts and holiday hunters seeking to descend on her shores. Malta’s picturesque landscape, baroque architecture, ancient heritage and movie magic will inspire holiday hunters to follow Brad Pitt.
to the mat for the Greeks when Queen of Sparta and legendary beauty, Helen, is stolen from her husband by Paris, Prince of Troy, sparking a 10-year siege. With Pitt as the hero, Orlando Bloom looks set to justify his burgeoning The Lord Of The Rings-fuelled stardom in the role
get in the know! You can visit the real site of Troy in Canakkale in north-west Turkey
beachhead encampment and the exterior walls of Troy, which were shot near Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico. Kicking off in April 2003, the mammoth production team constructed what is claimed to be the largest movie set ever built. The vast main ISSUE #01 get lost! #29
sets for the city of Troy itself, including King Priam’s (Peter O’Toole) palace and the towering gates through which the infamous wooden nag is drawn, were built with the aid of hundreds of Maltese craftsmen on the wide, flat space at Fort Ricasoli. According to Troy’s construction manager Malcolm Roberts, “we used more plaster than Gladiator and Harry Potter put together”. This ten-acre compound also housed Gladiator’s replica of the Roman Coliseum. Another exterior temple set, where Brad Pitt’s Achilles and Odysseus (Sean Bean) train before going off to war, was built on the cliffside at Mellieha, near the port of Cirkewwa on the north side of Malta. Beyond the Fort Ricolasi sets (which are off limits to the public) and the temple, Malta’s beaches were the main source
12 MOVIES THAT ARE MOVING TRAVELLERS: Lost in Translation (2003) - Japan - Tokyo. Under the Tuscan skies (2003) - Italy - Tuscany.
- Inspires people to drop everything and buy property in Italy. Lara Craft: Tomb Raider (2001) - Cambodia - Angkor Wat - put Cambodia back on the map. The Beach (2000) - Put Thailand’s Khao San Road on the Map. Gorillas in the Mist (1988) - Uganda - Encouraged a fascination with Uganda’s Mountain Gorillas. The Lord of the Rings (2001) - New Zealand - Turned New Zealand into a travel hotspot overnight. Gladiator (2000) - The famous ‘African’ arena in Morocco was home to those opening battle scenes. Braveheart (1995) - Scotland - Stunning Scotland made a home for this epic story. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999) - Brought Tunisia into the spotlight. Forest Gump (1994) - South Carolina held Forest in good sted. Harry Potter - The Sorcerors Stone (2001) - UK - If you're not sure where Oxford is by now then we’re in trouble. Only You (1994) - Positano is as beautiful in real life.
dweira
for Troy locations, including the Golden Bay beach a few kilometres west of Cirkewwa, where Petersen was granted permission from the Malta Film Commission to shoot for three weeks. This was the site of huge battle sequences and shots of Achilles’ ships arriving at Troy (using 200-ton winches in the sand so that the ships could be towed ashore). The Rivera beach, which is next to Golden Bay, was host to a scene where Odysseus lands on Ithaca to meet Achilles – with olive trees brought down from Italy to make it look more Greek. Petersen and crew also shot a sailing sequence in one of Malta’s most famous spots, the Blue Lagoon. This expanse of water between the tiny islands of Comino and Comenetto is only eight-feet deep all the way across – and electric blue.
MALTA-EASERS Pitt, who’s white-hot star wattage is largely responsible for catapulting Malta into the limelight, said he “loved being there”, and his spouse, Friends star Jennifer Aniston, told Tonight Show host Jay Leno it was “an absolutely beautiful and ancient island”. While the Troy production base was a 40-minute drive away at Malta’s Mediterranean Film Studios, the cast and crew stayed in St. Julian’s, which started life as a small fishing village but has merged with neighbouring Paceville to become the centre of Malta’s nightlife – a buzzing hotbed of clubs, casinos, restaurants, cafes, bars, restaurants, and, of course, the island’s best and newest hotels– including the Malta Hilton coastal
complex, where almost the entire cast and crew of Troy stayed. The exceptions were Brad Pitt, who had his own villa with stables so he could practice his horse-riding, and Orlando Bloom, who began the shoot in a rented clifftop villa – where he quickly gained a reputation for throwing wild parties – before deciding he wanted to be with everyone else and moving into the Hilton. Cast and crew spent their free time at the Eden Bowl, a huge cinema complex, as well as the Villa Dragonaro, the former home of a 19th century Maltese aristocrat that now houses a casino; horse-racing on Sundays at the Marsa Racecourse; and of course restaurants, including La Dolce Vita in St. Julian’s overlooking Pinola Bay (Pitt and Aniston’s favourite restaurant – there’s a signed photo of them hanging on the wall now); Papino’s, which is opposite La Dolce Vita; and a Greek restaurant called Bouzuki. For the wilder crowd, Paceville – which ends up spilling out onto the streets for most of the summer – was the place to be, including a club called Fuego, where they set the bars on fire. It goes wild seven nights a week. When not on set, practicing horse-riding at his house or in La Dolce Vita, Pitt could be seen working out in the gym of the Hotel Intercontinental Malta in St Julian’s, or touring the island’s historical sites with Jennifer Aniston – the duo spending most of their touring time in and around Medina. Oh, and by the way: the house Pitt stayed at, about a 15-minute drive outside of St Julians’, has recently gone on the market.
“Troy used more plaster than Gladiator and Harry Potter put together”
gozo blue lagoon
comino
cirkewwa
mellieha st julian’s valletta
grand harbour
rabat
italy
malta
sea mediterranean
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medina
vittoriosa
PHOTOGRAPHY: JULIET COOMBE
get on location!
Essentially, it’s water that put this ex-British colony on the movie map. How else could a tiny island tucked away in a far-off corner of the Mediterranean, only 16 miles long, have become so popular with so many big directors and producers? Sure, it’s got everything from craggy bays to sandy beaches along its miles of gorgeous, unspoiled coastlines – but it wasn’t until 1963 that feature films, TV drama, miniseries, commercials and music videos suddenly had a reason to start pouring in. It was then that Jim Hole, a British special effects specialist, and Paul Avellino, a Maltese construction manager, devised their plan to help directors film safely on water. At Rinella, on Malta’s eastern coast, they built Malta Film Facilities: a shallow-water tank, 300 feet wide and immune from producers’ nightmares: unpredictable tides and stormy weather. The tank blends seamlessly with a clear horizon, so directors can give audiences the illusion of action taking place miles out to sea, with no need for special effects. The newly-opened Malta Film Facilities welcomed its first client, the Cold War drama The Bedford Incident, in 1964, and water-logged movies (in more sense than one) started flowing Malta’s way, like Orca: Killer Whale and Raise the Titanic (for which Lew Grade, head of the Rank organisation, which backed the production, spent US$1 million building a second and much deeper shooting tank.) (Raise The Titanic’s escalating budget caused Grade to moan: “Raise the Titanic? It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.”) Renamed Mediterranean Film Studios in 1978, the illusion offered by the two main water tanks – one shallow water, the other
deep – has been used in recent films such as Cutthroat Island, the Madonna flop Swept Away and Ridley Scott’s White Squall. The producers of Troy originally planned to use MFS’s water tanks, but decided to take to the sea instead. Two ships were built out of steel and wood, and they took them out for seven weeks to get “the real thing”, according to Troy’s location manager Simon Marsden. Some films have made excellent use of Malta’s locations. Cutthroat Island shot its most exciting chase sequence along the western waterfront of Vittoriosa, also known as Xatt ir-Risq, in which pirate heroine Geena Davis and Matthew Modine escape from their pursuers by horse-drawn carriage. The Count Of Monte Cristo, a lavish Hollywood retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s classic revenge story, made extensive use of Maltese locations: the French port of Marseille in 1814 was recreated using Valletta’s Grand Harbour; St Mary’s Tower, a cliff-top fort perched 150 metres above the sea close to the southern tip of Comino, was used as the exterior of the infamous Château d’If, the prison where Edmond Dantès is kept for 13 years; and the fortified city of Medina, was the setting for a kidnapping sequence. Gladiator shot in Malta in 1999, built one-third of its replica of the Roman Coliseum (the rest was computer generated) in the grounds of the 300-year old Fort Ricasoli, overlooking the island’s Grand Harbour. Russell Crowe could often be found watching football matches at the Tex-Mex bar and grill on the Sliema seafront. Apart from the fact that Gladiator went on to become a multiple Oscar-winning epic, the bigbudget production made Malta newsworthy when that legendary British party animal, Oliver
at the World Travel Market with the assistance of a Brad Pitt lookalike.)
TROY BOY
VILLAGE PEOPLE
Brad Pitt was the subject of much gossip while shooting Troy, including news that he left the Troy set mid-shoot to fly off to Britain to have his hair dyed – the star was reputedly worried that the powerful Mediterranean sun had damaged his hair. More scurrilously, a London newspaper claimed Pitt’s legs were being beefed-up with the help of a muscly stunt double, because they didn’t have that “Gladiator look”.
Popeye, Robert Altman’s 1980 film of the world-famous cartoon, is unique amongst Malta-shot movies because the whole of its main set is still in place – due to an agreement between the government of Malta and the filmmakers – at the Popeye Village near Mellieha. In the gorgeous natural haven of Anchor Bay, so called because it was formerly used as a store for disused anchors, Popeye’s ramshackle fishing village, Sweethaven, was built using thousands of planks of Canadian wood, eight tonnes of nails and 2,000 gallons of paint. Now open all year-round to visitors, it’s become extremely popular as a corporate teambuilding destination!
WALK OF FAME With its new, self-proclaimed title as the “Hollywood of the Mediterranean”, the Malta Tourist Board has launched a “Malta Movie Map” so visitors can follow in the footsteps of all the blockbuster movies filmed on Malta in recent years, from Gladiator to The Count Of Monte Cristo to Troy. (It was even launched
BEAUTY SPOT Azure Windows, the 100-metre high natural arch that’s hollowed out of the Gozo coastline
get in the know! In Malta a lot of women wear coral necklaces to protect themselves from the evil eye
Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom Brad Pitt
Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger
PHOTOGRAPHY: WARNER BROS. PICTURES
WATER WORLD
at Dweira, is Malta’s most famous landmark and has attracted the attention of several filmmakers over the years.
ISLAND HOPPERS After World War II, there was a massive wave of immigration from Malta, with most Maltese migrants going to the UK and Australia. There are more Maltese people now living in Australia than in Malta itself.
A KNIGHT’S TALE The tiny island of Comino, where the fabulous Blue Lagoon is, didn’t have much significance until the Knights arrived. It then served as a staging post in the defence of the Maltese Islands against the Ottoman Turks, the Knights building the imposing St Mary’s Fort in 1618. They also used Comino as a hunting ground. Though stark and barren today, it seems the island was home to wild boar and hares when the Knights arrived in 1530. ISSUE #01 get lost! #31
PHOTOGRAPHY: WARNER BROS. PICTURES
get on location!
The “Trojan Horse”
“The Maltese are a film-loving nation – movies are one of the most popular pastimes.” Reed, playing the gladiators’ trainer Proximo, died while enjoying himself in a Valletta drinking hole called The Pub. The bar, which is in Archbishop’s Street, tucked away behind the President’s Palace, was later renamed Ollie’s Pub in Reed’s honour. Other films to use Malta as a backdrop include last year’s Sean Connery-starrer The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, parts of which were filmed on Gozo, and Alan Parker’s
Midnight Express (1977), which used the historic 16th century Fort St. Elmo, in Valletta, to double as the infamous Turkish prison. (You may even notice some of the actors playing Turkish prison wardens, speaking Maltese rather than Turkish). The Maltese are a film-loving nation – movies are one of the most popular pastimes. The Prime Minister was a regular visitor on the Troy set, and the whole country embraced Pitt,
CLIMATE BEST FLIGHTS With STA Travel: from Adelaide AUD$1889 (plus $290 tax) from Melbourne AUD$1739 (plus $270 tax) from Sydney AUD$1739 (plus $295 tax) from Brisbane AUD$1889 (plus $270 tax) *Valid for travel 04 October - 11 November
The climate in Malta is generally warm. Rainfall is almost negligible between June and August, when the average daily high is about 35˚C (95˚F).
COOL HOTEL
Visas are not required for holiday visits of up to three months for Australians.
The Three Star Osborne Hotel, 50 Triq Nofs In-Nhar, Valletta. The hotel has been created out of two limestone houses. A simple yet extremely comfortable hotel, it dates back to the 15th Century – around the time of the Knights of King John. For more information email: plaza@aghl.com.mt
IN THE KNOW
GET GOING
Malta is always good value compared to the rest of Europe. For the best deals organise your trip to Malta between March and June, because room rates drop by as much as 40%.
Medina, a fortified hilltop city some of whose buildings date from the 12th century, had a cameo role in The Count Of Monte Cristo. The square and side streets around St Paul’s Cathedral were used for a carnival scene set in Rome, in which the hero, Edmond Dantès, fakes the kidnapping of his son. Brad Pitt
VISAS
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Bloom, Bana and all the other actors and crew working on the film. “Having Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom walking in the streets of Malta for months on end certainly built up a lot of publicity for Malta,” says Adriana Cuccinotta, Malta’s UK-based tourism director, who is already noticing a huge upsurge in interest about the island nation entirely based on Troy. “The stars themselves genuinely did enjoy being there. In several interviews, they were talking about having a good time in Malta while filming Troy.” Malta is planning a big marketing push based around the release of Troy, although they want to wait and see how Warner Bros markets the film on a global scale before setting major plans in motion. As the burgeoning island’s list of credits continue to bloom, so does Malta’s reputation as the mini-Hollywood in the Mediterranean. Not bad for an ex-British colony that’s only 16 miles long. “It’s going to be the jewel of the European crown, I’m convinced,” says Simon Marsden, location manager for both Troy and Cutthroat Island. “It joins the EU in May this year, and to me, it’s going to knock the socks off everything; it’s got so much to offer. It’s the only place in the world you can really live the life for virtually nothing. It’s so cheap. It’s like a dream.” With Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and the rest of Troy’s gang all charmed by their Malta stay, and the superstar likes of English footballer David Beckham rumoured to be househunting on the island, it’s fair to say Malta’s earned a healthy celeb following. But despite its knack for playing other nations and bygone eras, it’s ready to step out of the shadows and take its place with the holiday big-boys.
and Jennifer Aniston spent much of their time in Medina when the Friends star was over visiting her hubby.
BEST BUYS You can even buy yourself a toy knight in Malta! Academy award-winning producer of Gladiator, Branko Lustig, was recently awarded Malta’s National Order of Merit for his significant contribution to Malta’s booming film industry. Malta is also famous for its intricate handmade lace, colourful blown glass and silver household pieces, which are incredibly good value and make for excellent gifts. They also sell thigh-slapping folk music CDs and gelati to rival Italy.
WANT MORE INFORMATION Guidebook: Malta, lonely planet Visit Malta’s tourist office at: http://www.visitmalta.com
get in the know! Malta is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 1200 people per sq km