Sandokan returns to TV. And part of the filming of the brand new television series will take place in Calabria. Malay rebel in constant struggle against the British colonizers, born from the pen of Emilio Salgari, the Mompracem Tiger arrives on the small screen after, upon his debut in 1976, he made an entire generation dream with Kabir Bedi as the protagonist – who this time will be played by Can Yaman. The drama is produced by Lux Vide, in collaboration with Rai Fiction and with the support of the Calabria Film Commission and the Calabria Region which were crucial partners for the operation.
«Sandokan is a project that will make viewers dream, taking them to distant and uncontaminated worlds – declared Luca Bernabei, CEO of Lux Vide – gathering the whole family in front of the TV! The series has undergone a long development process which has allowed us to adapt the iconic Sandokan saga into an international product with a highly contemporary approach.”
While waiting for the first take, which will take place at the end of April, Calabria is preparing to become a location of choice. The construction site has been open for a few weeks in the area chosen for the film studios. This is the former SIR (Italian Resin Company) of Lamezia Terme which at the end of the works will become Labuan, the infamous British colony in Malaysia, theater of the events of Sandokan and birthplace of the girl loved by the rebel, Lady Marianna, the Pearl of Labuan .
«This is an important project for Calabria – stated Luciano Vigna, general director of the Calabria Film Commission – which the Film Commission Foundation has decided to develop, both from an industrial and promotional point of view, with a first-level partner in the sector. of the audiovisual. With the Lux backlot, which will host the sets of the prestigious series, a first phase of construction of the film studios in Lamezia Terme is inaugurated, which in parallel, in recent days, have started the construction of the soundstages and post studios production. Filming of the series will also involve other Calabrian locations to allow wider promotion of the image and landscape of our beautiful land.”
Rai Fiction also participates in the “Sandokan” project. «The joy of the announcement of the start of filming – underlined director Maria Pia Ammirati – is combined with that of the return of an extraordinary title in the history of Rai in a totally renewed version. A great event that will illuminate the next season of public service.”
Once again Calabria confirms itself as a welcome destination for large television and film productions. And this news takes on an even more suggestive aspect if you think about the area identified for the construction of the film studios. Until this new location vocation, in fact, the former Sir of Lamezia Terme represented one of Calabria's many lost opportunities, the industrial mirage that remained a utopia. A story that has its roots in 1971, after the “riots” in Reggio Calabria, when the so-called “Colombo Package”, named after the then Italian Prime Minister, financed the construction of a pier for the docking of ships that would had to “serve” the chemical hub of SIR, in fact. Unfortunately, the chemical center never took off, until it went bankrupt in 1981, and the pier gradually crumbled, without accommodating any ships, ending up disastrously between the shore and the sea. Today, however, we can finally tell a different story…