Munich in Malta

According to a report on Sky News, Steven Spielberg spent around Lm5 million last summer while filming the movie Munich in Malta:

The report, prepared by Sky correspondent Rachel Ammett, began with some stunning footage of Grand Harbour by night, and focused at length on a particular corner of Valletta, where the British Hotel is situated and where some of the kidnap scenes were filmed. Snippets of the film were also shown in the report. Ms Ammett interviewed Malta’s Film Commissioner Oliver Mallia, who explained that the film had not been shot in the usual locations for which Malta is famous but featured places – such as a café in Rabat – that are not normally featured in films which are shot on our islands.

Ms Ammett said that filming of large budget films is rapidly becoming an important mainstay of the Maltese economy which was, no doubt, music to the ears of the government, which has long been touting the potential of this industry. She also spoke to a taxi driver who said that he had worked for Brad Pitt when he was here filming Troy and to an extras coordinator who said that around 1,000 local people had taken part in Munich.

With a history that is the envy of most countries and with diverse foreign rulers that have included the Knights of St John, the French and the British, Malta is ideally poised to exploit the important niche market of blockbuster films, said Ms Ammett. “You can now add Hollywood to that list”, she concluded – an ideal sweetener for those who dream.