Weir docks in Morocco for 'The Way Back' shoot

The production will be located in the North African kingdom from April 16 to June 23, according to data released by the Moroccan Cinema Centre.

 

The film will follow a factually inspired plot, outlining the escape of a group of soldiers from a Siberian gulag in 1940. Morocco was selected as a location by Weir for the shooting of several scenes.

 

Sana Elkilali, production manager at Dune Films for The Way Back project told DPME.com that the crews would undertake two full weeks of filming in Morocco, once the production team arrives from their current filming location in Bulgaria.

 

“We will arrange hotels, transportation, technology, catering, and assistance with importing the necessary equipment that is being brought over – basically anything they need while they are in Morocco,” she said.

 

“We have provided the filmmakers with approximately 100 additional crew here in Morocco, so it’s a medium-sized production.

 

“This project is not as big as some of the other films we have worked on in the past, such as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which we finished work on in November, and {Oliver Stone’s] Alexander, which was also an extremely large production.”

 

If Weir’s latest film hits its intended release target of 2010, it will have been seven years between projects for the director, whose previous title, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was released in 2003. Other works from the director include Gallipoli, Witness and The Truman Show.

 

The Way Back joins two other foreign productions, and a gamut of local film and television content set for production in Morocco through 2009.