Mark Dermul is organizing one last tour to Tunisia, 22 to 29 May 2010. This is a perfect opportunity if you ever wanted to go, but were afraid of finding everything on your own. Relax with a group of like-minded individuals and let a professional get you to all of the correct locations.
Check out all of the details and previous trips on his site.
http://markdermul.be/tatooine/
MAY THE SAND BE WITH YOU
The Finse 1222 hotel has added two webcams bringing the villages total to 3.
They can be accessed via a link on the hotels web page:
http://www.finse1222.no
Or individually:
http://www.finse1222.no/www/uploads/webcam/Finse1222-Cam1.jpg
http://www.finse1222.no/www/uploads/webcam/Finse1222-Cam2.jpg
The third webcam can be seen here:
http://www.bt.no/kamera/article147.ece?lang=en
The Star Wars sets in Tunisia are being rebuilt. It seems most likely that it is being done solely for tourism purposes but its still nice to see that they aren't going to allow the locations to be swallowed by the desert.
In an article in L'Expression by Abdelkrim Gabous last December - Le Sud, Hollywood du Maghreb
Plus see scans of the original article with larger photos - Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4
The original article is in French but you can see a rough English translation here.
Today, the settings are being restored by their own builder, Tayeb Jallouli, with the same workers.
In another article in The National by Suleman Din he mentions coming across workers at the Mos Espa set on a recent trip. - Star Wars nostalgia in southern Tunisia
The surprise for us, though, was that we found it bustling with activity. A number of labourers were renovating, repainting and building new buildings. Ironically, the effort to build these alien structures was done in a very human way; one man applied plaster with his bare hands, others sat and smoked in the shade of an alien hall.
One worker who spoke English, Farouk Ben Ibrahim, came forward to explain. Renovations began back in December, he said, after an Italian film producer contracted locals. "He gives us money, and we fix it," Ibrahim said. "He said there is another part of Star Wars filming here. In the summer, maybe."
This is old news by now but it is something that I recently found out about. Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, home of the Owen R Cheatham Grove where the speeder bike chase sequence was filmed in ROTJ, came close to being shutdown and is still in jeopardy for the future.
On January 10, 2008 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the proposed FY 08-09 state budget that proposed to close 48 state parks. You can read more about it at the California State Parks Foundation.
The parks were saved from the chopping block later in the year as seen reported on the Save Our State Parks Campaign website and The Times-Standard of Eureka, CA.
”The Legislature's passage of a final state budget avoids the closure of California's state parks - at least for this year... . But the story isn't over. Unfortunately, this budget leaves our parks vulnerable to another uncertain fate next year.”
In other more positive news, Kelley Atherton at The Daily Triplicate wrote an excellent 3 part series about the filming that took place at the Smith River location.
In Focus: Episode I: Movie making
'Jedi' memories: Episode II: Locals look back
Location, location, Episode III: Promoting ourselves
In 2004, my girlfriend and I made a tour through Mexico. We crossed the country from Mexico City to Cancun, visiting tens of ancient Maya sites. We extended our vacation with a trip to Yavin IV, aka Tikal - Guatemala.
We didn't stop there. We have successfully travelled to Middle Earth and The Matrix.
-- UPDATE --
My Star Wars : A New Hope page has been updated with lots of Tunisia set photos and movie reference pictures. With many thanks to Mark Dermul, who organized 3 Trips to Tatooine (Tunisia).
This website was originally published at:
http://www.7norfolk.co.uk/alex/tunisia/ and http://www.soton.net/7norfolk/alex/tunisia/
Here is a version that was archived before it went down, click here.
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The Tataouine Tours: On Location Guidebook is now available as an eBook in PDF format. |
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This website was originally published at: Here is a version that was archived before it went down, click here. |
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