No word from Spielberg

Steven Spielberg left Malta on Friday after two full months of filming. His new film is critical of the Israeli secret service and deals with events following the 1972 Munich Olympic Games massacre. Sarah Puntan-Galea of the Sunday Times writes today about promises made to her for an interview which never materialised:

For the filming, Malta was disguised as Israel, a cheaper and safer location, and the island bent over backwards to accommodate the director and his crew. The heightened security, which verged on paranoia, seemed to be justified after a Lm55,000 truck imported from Germany for the shooting, and its cargo of hi-tech equipment, was destroyed in a mysterious explosion last month. The driver said he heard a bang and fled as soon as he realised the truck had caught fire. The police said explosions happen when heat causes generators to overload but many, including L-Orrizont who were the first to report on the story, hinted at foul play and a terrorist attack. And with Spielberg - arguably Hollywood's most powerful director - being Jewish, the Israeli-Palestinian situation must be something he has strong opinions on. A terrorist attack in Malta - where Mossad gunned down a former Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shqaqi on the Sliema promenade in 1995 - is a real possibility.

Because of events in the Middle East, Spielberg could well have been justified to not face the press. Controlled interviews were given to the international media - until one of his crew spilt the storyline beans to the Israeli press. Spielberg was rumoured to have faced a barrage of questions from the Israeli government. So when I had requested an interview with the director, his publicist asked about my background and found out that I had spent some time writing in Israel at the time of Yasser Arafat's death. She asked for copies of my articles to read and show Spielberg, which I believe were fairly neutral, politically. After the story spillage, the truck fire and what the publicist called her "displeasure" at unofficial shots and stories in the local newspapers, which revealed Malta production budget figures, the interview didn't happen...

Why Spielberg should avoid Malta; Fears of sabotage - Wired Temples
More from today's Malta Independent on Sunday and MaltaMedia
Pictures from the set via Walahi blog