Texas Hollywood (movie studio/theme park in Spain)

“Texas Hollywood” is a movie studio/theme park that is neither in Texas nor in Hollywood, California. The Tabernas Desert in Spain is similar to North American deserts, and in the 1950s-1980s several “spaghetti westerns” were filmed in this desert. In the 1990s, the movie studio opened to tourists under the name “Texas Hollywood.”
 
In Texas itself, the West Texas town of Marfa has become a more authentic “Texas Hollywood,” being the film location for There Will Be Blood (2007) and No Country for Old Men (2007). San Antonio previously used to be “Texas Hollywood” (see book title below).
     
       
Wikipedia: Tabernas
Tabernas is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, as well as the name of the principal town of the municipality. It is located on the edge of the famous Tabernas Desert, the filming location of many feature films and TV series. The three film sets in the area: Mini Hollywood, Decorados, and Rancho Leone attract a modest number of tourists. It is the site of Moorish castle ruins, an old church, and a refurbished Teatro Municipal.
 
Wikipedia: Tabernas Desert
The Tabernas Desert is a desert in Spain. It is located in the province of Almería about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the capital, Almería, in the Tabernas municipality. It is protected as a wilderness area (paraje natural) spanning 280 square kilometers (110 square miles).
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Popular culture
The Tabernas Desert, because of its similarities with the North American deserts, was used from the 1950s to the 1980s to film many Spaghetti westerns such as For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars, featuring directors like Sergio Leone, musicians like Ennio Morricone, and actors like Clint Eastwood.
 
Kylie Minogue used the Tabernas Desert in her video “Some Kind of Bliss”.
 
Andalucia Travel Guide
Mini Hollywood And Texas Holywood - Almeria Province
Posted by Jim Mackie
Located in the Almeria province , some 24 km west of Almeria itself along the N340 you will find one of the best tourist attractions in the province
 
Mini Hollywood and the nearby Texas Hollywood have been used to film scenes in more than 100 famous films including the westerns A Fistful of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
 
At Mini Hollywood you can enjoy a daily mock bank hold-up and shootout staged at noon and 5pm daily while just 3km down the road at Texas Hollywood you will find a Western town, stockaded fort, Mexican pueblo and Indian tepees
 
Texas Hollywood - Fort Bravo
Texas Hollywood - Fort Bravo is located in the province of Almeria. It is open to the public as a tourist attraction. Besides the fort, there is a complete western town and a Mexican town.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY:
“Boot Hill” (Film Ventures International 1969) Directed by: Giuseppe Colizzi. Cast: Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Woody Strode, Lionel Stander.
“El Condor” (National General Pictures 1970) Directed by: John Guillermin. Cast: Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, Patrick O’Neal, Marianna Hill.
“Hannie Caulder” (Paramount 1971) Directed by: Burt Kennedy. Cast: Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam.
 
flickr
Texas Hollywood : l’arche de « Once Upon A Time In The West »
This is the arch under which “Franck” (Henri Fonda) hangs “Harmonica” (Charles Bronson) ‘s brother in the great Sergio Leone movie “Once Upon A Time In The West”.
 
Located near Almeria in the south of Spain, Texas Hollywood is a cinema studio open to tourists, where stuntmen mimic famous Western movies as Sergio Leone ones. This is where “Once upon a time in the west”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, or more recent “Blueberry” were shot…
   
Texas Hollywood - A mini guide from Rentspain
The Tabernas Dessert in the south east of Spain has for decades provided filmmakers with suitable locations for a range of movies set in the frontier land of the ‘wild west.’ As Europe’s only real desert the dramatic natural scenery found in the province of Almeria continues to inspire a number of directors that has included Sergio Leone.
 
A number of the local film studios have responded to the massive growth in the Andalusian tourist industry by adapting the region’s existing film sets to accommodate the visiting public, whilst continuing to make movies. Texas Hollywood has been the location for a variety of successful films such as, Boot Hill (1969), El Condor (1970) and Hannie Caulder (1971) and is now one of the most popular working film sets combined with a theme park in Spain.
 
Texas Hollywood has close links with the dedicated wild west theme park Mini Hollywood, which is situated literally down the road. Both parks are conveniently located approximately 25 kilometres north of the gorgeous provincial capital city Almeria on the N-340. As well as the continuation of the film making process Texas Hollywood also offers a broader view of the western genre than it’s counterpart, consisting of distinct areas that represent the most dominant themes in the classic western including, Fort Bravo the replica US cavalry frontier fort, America Village, Mexico Village and Indian village.
 
The America Village area reflects the typical town of the Wild West with a saloon, a jail, shops, a bank and stables complete with horses and authentic stagecoaches. The Mexican Village area boasts a traditional town square, a church and homes for the villagers, whilst Indian village has a cinematic reconstruction of a Native American Indian village. There is a wide range of entertainment available throughout Texas Hollywood and the daily live shows in particular are popular and exciting events offering breathtaking displays of somersaults, acrobatics, free falls and the mastery of weapons, all of which is performed on horseback.
 
Maverick Publishing Company
Texas Hollywood: Filmmaking in San Antonio since 1910
$16.95 (softcover)
96 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 inches,
109 illustrations, notes, bibliography, index
ISBN: 1-893271-20-X
 
“I much prefer San Antonio for the production for pictures to either New York or Los Angeles,” one movie director observed in 1919. “San Antonio has all the advantages of both places with the addition of a few neither can boast of.”
 
Such advantages—varied countryside, interesting architecture, rich history, good weather, talented people—continue to yield a remarkably diverse number of films. A broad San Antonio presence is obvious in some: Cloak and Dagger (1984), Still Breathing (1998), Evenhand (2001). Others draw on the city’s longstanding relationship with the military: Wings (1927), West Point of the Air (1935), Air Cadet (1951) plus a host of Alamo films beginning with The Immortal Alamo (1911). San Antonio also substitutes for such places as the Old South (The Warrens of Virginia, 1924), Chicago (The Big Brawl, 1980), Colombia (Toy Soldiers, 1991), Africa (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, 1995).
 
California film historian Frank Thompson sorts it all out in this entertainingly written, dramatically illustrated and thoroughly researched work, concluding with a landmark San Antonio filmography. He leaves no doubt about the richness of the filmmaking heritage that gives San Antonio claim to the title “Texas Hollywood.”