Atlas Studios – Stars are Born
In what seems like a long time ago, but was less than a week, we visited the former Roman city of Volubilis on this Adventures Abroad Quintessential tour of Morocco. Our local guide pointed out some locations where scenes from the movie Gladiator were shot. We are now in the city of Ouarzazate which is known as the ‘Hollywood of Africa’ because of the presence of Atlas Studios, the largest on the continent. Literally dozens of well known movies were shot here, as well as hundreds of lesser known flicks. In this post we’ll visit Atlas Studios and some of us might even become overnight sensations as we star in our own cinematic epics. It promises to be a blast so please come join us.
When I signed up for this trip, the itinerary simply referred to Ouarzazate as being a movie production centre, but made no mention of visiting Atlas Studios, so this was a really pleasant surprise and a nice change of pace. The current itinerary does specifically include the visit.
Atlas Studios
Atlas Studios was founded in 1983 by Moroccan entrepreneur Mohamed Beighmi who recognized that the area around Ouarzazate with its arid climate and desert landscape was the perfect backdrop for certain types of movies, particularly those set in ancient times. The nearby ksar of Ait Benhaddou, which we will visit in the next post, had already played host to numerous productions including Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 with Moroccan army soldiers serving as extras.
The first major production at Atlas Studios was The Jewel of the Nile, a take off on the Indiana Jones style of movie that was wildly popular in the 1980’s.
That was followed by the desert scenes in the James Bond thriller The Living Daylights.
However, it was not until 1998 when Atlas Studios really hit the big time with the filming of the Roman epic Gladiator which won Oscars for both Best Picture and Best Actor.
After that, Atlas Studios became the go to place for any producer looking for that ‘ancient look’ and the number of productions soared; just to name a few that many people probably have seen – The Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven, The Passion of the Christ, Hercules. A visit here will also allow Game of Thrones aficionados like myself to add another filming location to the list that so far, for me, has included Croatia, Northern Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Malta, Canada and now Morocco.
The acreage of Atlas Studios is immense which allows for keeping the sets as tourist attractions after filming is complete, similar to the Harry Potter studio outside London and unlike Universal Studios which is essentially a theme park.
Our group is assigned our own guide and although there are a lot of buses in the parking lot, the place is so big that it does not in any way seem crowded. There are a lot of left over props out in the open with everything from modern army vehicles to a Viking ship.
While these are interesting, the real reason to visit Atlas Studios is to walk through the massive indoor sets.
There are two Egyptian temple complexes which are pretty amazing.
This is the interior of one used in The Mummy as well as other movies set in ancient Egypt. The attention to detail is really surprising, if a bit over imaginative. Having been in numerous real Egyptian temples I know they did not put the faces of the rulers on their monuments like those of Cleopatra in this set. You can see that they are actually the same size as the real deal and even though it would not have been necessary, every pillar and wall, no matter how far back from the main nave is completely covered with painted designs.
There is a throne in the temple and I obediently serve Queen Alison as did all the husbands in turn pay obeisance to their royal wives.
Our guide is a wiz with our smart phones and is able to create some special effects with them that I had no idea were possible (and still don’t), like creating this aura that imbues me with god-like powers, if only for a nano second.
He then gets us to line up in vee formation with George as the frontman.
And takes this video.
Next we wander through the streets of Jerusalem just as Jim Caviezel did in his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
And then we are looking up from inside the same dungeon cell occupied by Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator.
The high plains near Ouarzazate not only fill in for desert locales, but in the case of Martin Scorsese’s movie Kundun about the life of the Dalai Lama, for Tibet. The producers constructed this true to scale Buddhist temple which remains intact some 28 years after the movie was shot here at Atlas Studios.
This is our group inside the temple with Buddha giving the abhaya mudra hand gesture that symbolizes peace and protection.
Our last stop on this visit to Atlas Studios is the second Egyptian temple complex which is even grander than the first one.
This was built for the 2002 movie Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra and we will shoot a scene from the movie starring our very own Elisha as Cleopatra.
Camera ready – Action!
Apparently there is yet another version of Cleopatra about to be shot at Atlas Studios, this one starring Gal Gadot aka Wonder Woman. I can’t wait to see how it compares to our version.
Our visit here this morning was a lot of fun and although a bit corny, I’m glad we did it.
Next we will visit yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ait Benhaddou which has also doubled as a movie set for even longer than Atlas Studios. Hope to see you there.