To say that Agora - the new film from The Others and Open Your Eyes director Alejandro Amenabar has been functioning on a closed set is a bit of an understatement. Despite a simply massive budget the film managed to run entirely under the rader for the majority of its production cycle, not even releasing a synopsis until relatively late in the game. And though the film is now through photography and into post there are still no actual stills from the film to be found but some interesting materials are slowly beginning to trickle out. First of all, here's the official synopsis:
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria.
Rachel Weisz heads up an international cast as Hypatia and what you see above is a shot of Weisz on set with the director. And, man, that's one hell of a set - as it should be considering the sets ate up a huge percentage of the budget. How? Well, it appears that Amenabar essentially rebuilt an entire complex somewhere near Malta and though he's been keeping people out of the complex he hasn't been able to stop them from going over it and the scope of this thing is absolutely staggering. Hit the links below.
I've been a huge fan of Amenabar since I first saw Abre Los Ojos. This looks like it could be quite phenomenal.
I am so excited about this movie. I love Raechel Weisz and I love Max Minghella. And more importantly I love the setting.
wow epic sets.