Sunday, November 18, 2007

Making Movies

Jaime 1 - the movie. Jaime, Jaume, Chaime, James - choose your language - same one-time Aragonese king, conqueror of Mallorca, vanquisher of Moors. Shooting is just starting, Tim Roth is starring, though not as Jaime.

This is not Hollywood. The film is to be directed by a Valencian; the producer is from a Valencian studio. Still, it will be an international fim, shot in English. It will be the tale of arguably the most important figure in Mallorca’s history, albeit that he was born in Montpellier, France. Quite what the film will cover I have no idea, but I somewhat doubt that it will delve too deeply into the fact that Jaime was, among other things, a massive figure in establishing the Catalan language; he was a patron of this, making it the official language and himself writing in the language.

Some of the filming will occur in Mallorca - in Palma and Santa Ponsa to be precise. That it is not to be some huge Hollywood costume-drama blockbuster is a shame in a way. What could be better than a major international film using Mallorcan locations for attracting ever more tourists (hopefully of a winter variety). Perhaps, therefore, this is another potential solution for Mallorca’s winter woes. Or maybe a soap opera. Classy boats, intrigue, back-stabbing, bitchiness, fraud cases, poseurs in the yacht clubs - yes, Howards’ Way goes to Mallorca. But then they did a soap set in Spain - the wonderfully awful Eldorado. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t give it another go. Tell you what, I’ll write the script. Piece of cake.


QUIZ
Yesterday - The Fortunes. Today’s title - album by?

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