Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
ancient egypt... In Polystyrene!
Filming in Egypt was deemed too risky as the country has changed so much since the Arab Spring ten years ago, so the parts of the country visited by the wedding party as they travel down the Nile were created at Longcross Studios.
The filmmakers went to the original temple of Abu Simbel in Aswan, with its huge statues of Ramses the Great, and took countless photos and measurements. It then took 16 weeks to re-create the temple in a backlot at Longcross, carefully using the measurements of the real thing – 70ft high and 100ft wide – but made out of polystyrene and plaster rather than stone.
‘The construction was so large you could actually see it from the M25,’ says producer James Prichard. ‘It was extraordinary, and that is what Hollywood brings; the ability to do that kind of construction on that kind of scale.’
An Egyptian spice market was created at Cotswold Water Park, while back at Longcross, portions of Aswan’s Old Cataract Hotel were re-created. The hotel has long been associated with Agatha Christie, who lived there while with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, on digs. It is also where she started writing Death On The Nile.
Located on the banks of the Nile, it was again re-created from film and photos. The set included a marbled lobby and jetty, and was designed to give the idea of slightly faded 1930s glamour.