The television series, so fashionable in recent times, and the cinema have become the best tourist advertisement for many towns and countries. Decades ago series like Chronicles of a people o Blue summer They made it possible for towns like Nerja or Puebla Nueva del Rey Sancho to receive many more tourists attracted by the landscapes, architecture or gastronomy of these places than they had seen through the small screen.
The difference is that, nowadays, social networks and marketing have turned filming locations into the viewer's excuse to travel and into an economic opportunity for the cities that host the recording of series or movies. In Spain we can mention a few cases in this regard.
The climate, the great variety of landscapes and the rich historical-aristic heritage of Spain have attracted the filming of numerous international productions made famous by some of the scenes of those filming. Here are some of them.
Canary Islands
In recent years, the Canary Islands have become a favorite destination for foreign films.
- The popular saga 'Fast & Furious'chose Canarias to shoot some sequences for his sixth film. The protagonists walked their imposing cars on the roads of Tenerife and the municipalities of Icod de los Vinos, Garachico or San Juan de la Rambla, among others, where they shot one of the most impressive shots of the entire film.
- British director Ridley Scott is very attached to our country, where he has already shot four films. For the last one, 'Exodus: gods and kings'(2014), chose the Canary Islands as the setting (Betancuria, La Oliva, Pájara ...) although it also included other locations in Almería.
- The coasts of La Gomera and Lanzarote they hosted the filming of 'In the heart of the sea' (2015), by American Ron Howard, which narrates the sinking of the whaler 'Essex' due to the onslaught of a huge cetacean. As a curiosity, the Canary archipelago is one of the few places in the world where you can watch whales throughout the year.
- The Los Gigantes cliffs and the Teide National Park served to recreate the myth of Perseus, the central axis of the films 'Clash of the Titans' (2010) and 'Wrath of the Titans' (2012). For something the Canary Islands are also called the Fortunate Islands, a kind of 'paradise' in Greek mythology.
Almería
The Tabernas desert in Almería is popular for having hosted the filming of many 'westerns'The most famous being those that make up the trilogy of the dollar by Italian director Sergio Leone. Such is its importance that you can even make a route following in the footsteps of the main characters of 'The good, the ugly and the bad'.
The epicenter of this route is in the Tabernas Oasys Desert Theme Park, one of the western towns built in this area, next to Fort Bravo and Western Leone, which currently offers various shows in which scenes from the classics of the genre are recreated for fans.
In addition to western films, great international productions of other genres have been filmed in the Tabernas desert, such as 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), 'Cleopatra' (1963), 'Patton' (1970), 'Conan the barbarian' (1982) or 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989), all of them with their arid and rocky landscape as a set.
Sevilla
Throughout the history of cinema, Seville has fascinated numerous filmmakers. One of the films that gave the city the most international fame was 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), directed by David Lean and with such famous actors as Anthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole and Alec Guinness.
The Plaza de España is one of the emblematic places of the Seville capital and also one of the most flat. This scenario appears in 'Lawrence of Arabia', but gained even more fame with its appearance in 'Star Wars, Attack of the Clones' (2002), which became a plaza on the planet Naboo.
The Real Alcázar of Seville also stands out as a favorite setting, which has appeared in films such as '1492, the conquest of paradise' (1992) or 'The kingdom of the heavens' (2004) and also in the popular series 'Game of Thrones' .
Bilbao
In recent decades, Bilbao has undergone a regeneration process that has made the city a very popular destination for national and foreign tourism. Also, for the cinema since the last film shot in Bilbao was 'Jupiter's Destiny' (2015), a science fiction film by the Wachowski brothers in which a futuristic Bilbao is shown, where some of the city's icons such as the Guggenheim, the University of Deusto and the Zubizuri catwalk.
However, Bilbao has attracted other shootings. Perhaps the most memorable is that of 'The world is never enough' (1999), one of the James Bond installments starring Pierce Brosnan, in whose intro appear the Guggenheim museum, the well-known work 'Puppy' that presides over the building and the Bridge of the Salve.