Alexander | 2004
Years in the planning, Oliver Stone’s epic resolutely stayed on to be filmed in Morocco after the Casablanca bomb attacks when other productions fled the country.
The massive sets for the ‘Hindu Kush’ were built in the Atlas Mountains about an hour’s drive outside Marrakech.
Alexander’s palace grounds are the gardens of the grand La Mamounia Hotel (also seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much).
The production moved to Thailand and Ubon Ratchathani for the jungle scenes and the spectacular battle with elephants.
The Grand Harbour of Valletta in Malta was shot, prior to principal photography, from Fort St Elmo (where Midnight Express, scripted by Stone, was shot), Upper Barrakka and Senglea Port, to represent (with a little CGI) the port of ‘Alexandria’.
