One of my very first jobs as an English teacher in Seville was to be a tutor for a young English boy who was coming to Seville to act in a film. The film was “Kingdom of Heaven” starring Orlando Bloom, and directed by Ridley Scott. After two days of helping the boy with his homework in the hotel and taking him to various nearby parks, they were finally ready to film a scene with the boy. The set was in the royal palace or “Reales Alcazares”. The scene involved a dramatic moment where the boy (recently crowned king after his uncle had died of Leprosy) is signing several official documents when a clumsy clerk spills a drop of hot wax on his hand. The boy fails to notice he has been burned (a sure sign he has inherited leprosy as well), and although his mother quickly covers the boy’s hand, an ambitious rival has seen everything. I had the privilege of watching the scene play out on the monitors in the next room, looking over the right shoulder of Ridley Scott himself.

Uncharacteristically, it rained in Seville nearly non-stop for three weeks and they were unable to shoot many of the scenes they had planned. In the end, the entire part of the story involving the boy was cut from the final version of the film, though some of the deleted scenes made it to the DVD. Nonetheless, there remain several scenes from the film that were shot in Alcazares as well as the “Casa Pilatos”. In fact several locales in Seville have recently served as filming locations for big time films.

Recently, the Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz blockbuster “Knight and Day” features exhilarating (and comical) chase scenes through the streets of Seville. In the end the heroes manage to escape with a slick maneuver in front of two trains that block the path of their pursuers. Unfortunately for me, the filming shut down the trains to the public for several days during which I was forced me to walk a long way around to get to a business class. However, before they closed it off, I happened by when the motorcycle stuntman (a Tom Cruise look-alike) was practicing a jump from under the archway of the Ayuntamiento. It’s a spectacular jump in the film and was even more so in person! Watch the trailer here to see it (time of jump – 1:50 min).

For those fans of the Star Wars series, you can imagine yourself strolling with Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala through the palace of the city of Theeds on the planet Naboo. This scene from Episode II – Attack of the Clones was filmed in the Plaza España in the Maria Luisa Park in Seville.

Apparently you need to go in mid-afternoon for your photos to have the exact same shadowing effect as in the film as one enthusiast has posted on the internet here. Given the splendor of the Plaza España, which was built for the 1929 Spanish-American Exposition, it is not surprising that it has been used previously in films. Specifically, it was one of many of Seville’s landmarks that can be seen in the classic Lawrence of Arabia.

Although sometimes an inconvenience, this blogger hopes that major motion pictures continue to come to Seville to film.

Blogger: David, EFL School Manager Sevilla.