U-571

U-571 (2000) Director: Jonathan Mostow. Cast: Matthew McConnaughey, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, Bill Paxton.

The cast and crew of this spectacular WWII action-adventure – a number one box-office smash in the US – filmed on Malta for ten weeks from March to May 1999.

Part of the film’s $90m budget was spent constructing two full-scale replica WWII submarines, which were placed in the shallow-water tank at Mediterranean Film Studios (MFS). So when you watch McConnaughey, Bon Jovi, Keitel and the rest of the American heroes supposedly paddling across the waves of the North Atlantic to capture the German U-571 sub that is carrying an Enigma code machine, they’re really at MFS.

In a nighttime scene near the start of the film, when the American crew prepare to board the submarine for their dangerous mission, they’re standing on the quayside of the Malta Drydocks in the Grand Harbour, Valletta.

Other footage was shot at sea using a full-size sea-faring submarine that was built in Malta. Special effects were also done in the deep-water tank at MFS.

Malta Movie Trivia: U-571 producer Dino De Laurentiis first used Malta’s MFS in 1976, for the making of Orca: Killer Whale.