Luxor4u

You may have already discussed this new film version of Agatha Christies Poirot novel, if so I apologise for duplication. Apparently Kenneth Branagh produces, directs, stars, does make up and makes the tea; in this one.
It was decided NOT to film in Egypt for security reasons and instead to construct replicas of the most significant locations.
A 72 metre long full size replica, non seaworthy, of the steamer SS Karnak was constructed and fully fitted out with authentic 1930's interiors. Abu Simbel presented an even bigger challenge and, using photographs and physical measurements, a replica 70 feet tall and 100 feet long was constructed. This is so large that it can be seen on its site from the M25. The film is described as 'Racy' so I guess it will all prove to have been worth the investment.

Security reasons, pah! I don't believe it unless, the insurance companies kicked up.
Mind you, I noticed under 'filming locations they mention Aswan, Luxor & Cairo.
So some filming must have taken place there, it will be interesting to see.

I love spotting locations, as in Luxor 2020, 49 seconds into the trailer the star is staring out
from the lower level of the Marsam Hotel....



Ps: Estimated cost: £120 million.

Sounds like Grandad has been doing a bit of sleuthing! Indeed it seems very little of the movie was shot in Egypt .....although they did go there.

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/255507 ... signing-on

https://bleedingcool.com/movies/death-o ... n-england/

What they did there in unclear!

There’s been some fuss over the casting of Israeli actress Gal Gadot....maybe they felt Egypt was too dangerous for her?

She’s also being criticised for taking on the role of Cleopatra in a new movie of that name about to be shot.

Wouldn’t surprise me if both films are boycotted in Egypt. Hey ho.

Many hundreds of films have been made in Egypt.

It's the government's fault, if they made filming easier they would attract droves of tourists visiting.

Quote: "To look behind the curtain for a moment, the truth is most movies set in Egypt were not filmed there ?
1999’s The Mummy: Morocco. 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark: Tunisia.

It’s a complex process today for studios to get permission to film on location in Egypt, especially when it comes to shooting in the country’s historic ruins. Filmmakers have to give their scripts to the Interior Ministry’s Public Relations Sector of the country and obtain shooting permits.

It's a lot cheaper using the original ancient sites than recreating them elsewhere..
A small list of films filmed in Egypt....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... t_in_Egypt

It's a lot cheaper using the original ancient sites than recreating them elsewhere..

True...,except for the permissions, general hassle etc you noted earlier.

Obviously, recreating the pyramids, or even Karnak, would raise logistical issues but nowadays, with CGI and the use of stock shots from libraries, there’s really little need to visit Egypt in order to create a plausibly authentic Egyptian background.

The film “Luxor” is getting good reviews. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it’s not on general release yet nor is it available on DVD. It can be streamed through a number of on- demand digital sites....but I don’t know how secure or reliable they are. Particularly the “free” ones.

Film
Luxor review - beautifully sparse character study amid Egypt's ancient glory
Andrea Riseborough stars as a war-zone medic going through a low-key mid-life crisis as she tries to recover by visiting the famous archaeological site

Slow, delicate and sparse, Luxor is coming out on digital this week just as all the cinemas close down again. If you have a chance to see it, try to view it in the dark, without distractions, on the biggest screen you can in order to approximate a cinema setting and to best appreciate its deep-breath pacing and dry-heat beauty.

Writer-director Zeina Durra’s feature, her second after the evocatively titled The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, follows English surgeon Hana (an unusually subdued Andrea Riseborough, giving a great, slow-burn performance) as she recovers from the horrors of working in a Syrian war zone for an aid organisation. As she rests up at a plush hotel in Luxor, the open-air museum of a town in Egypt she used to live in years 20 before, she passes the time visiting the sights and having polite interactions with other guests and tourists, all the while considering what may be an even more traumatic assignment in Yemen.


When she runs into an ex-lover, Sultan (a smouldering Karim Saleh), an archaeologist working a dig nearby, the two revive their old friendship and maybe a bit more. But the tentative romance isn’t really the point of this thoughtful study. Through a very studied use of posture, expression and even clumsy stoned dance moves, Riseborough outlines the contours of Hana’s low-key midlife crisis, the contemplation of roads not taken and lives not led, all somehow more present because of the history-steeped ancient setting of the town. Someone mentions at one point that, “the more unstable the world is, the more the supernatural comes to forefront,” which might set up certain expectations for some viewers, but the ghosts here are all strictly theoretical, or at least off-camera.

Like director Joanna Hogg, Durra excels at suggesting subtexts and undercurrents threaded through everyday conversations. At all times the dialogue sounds improvised and flows entirely naturally, even when characters are paraphrasing Antonio Gramsci’s ever resonant gloss on historical chaos: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Classy stuff, and a good way to get in some cinematic tourism to a place no doubt soon to feature in the possibly much trashier Death on the Nile.

• Released on 6 November on digital formats.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/n ... iseborough