It’s like buses, you wait around for ages for one and then two come along at once. Is it a coincidence that, after years of featuring in major movie and TV productions only in local tour guides” imaginative spiel, this week Tenerife is the subject of two high profile productions?
By now just about everyone knows that the epic Clash of the Titans is about to bring the best of Tenerife’s scenery to the world’s attention in mind-blowing 3D when it goes on national release in Britain and the United States on Good Friday.
But what has really put Tenerife on the map for millions of people in the USA has been the fact that the island has just become the latest piece of a puzzle which has enthralled and perplexed fans for six mind boggling series.
The TV series Lost has been one of the major TV success stories of the last few years. When episode 9 of the sixth series last week focussed on a major character, Richard Alpert returning to the island of his birth ““ Tenerife, Americans suddenly sat up, took notice and started “˜Googling’ Tenerife to find out where the hell it was.
And what they found fitted perfectly with the mysteries thrown up by Lost over the years.
Volcanoes, plane crashes, myths and legendary islands all fitted neatly in with Lost’s meandering storyline and as soon as the episode had aired, bloggers were concocting theories which expounded why Tenerife was perfect as Lost’s mysterious island.
Even the LA Times got in on the act, pondering whether Lost’s producers chose Tenerife coincidentally or specifically because of similarities between the real thing and the fictional island featured in the show.
To be part of a cult TV show of Lost’s magnitude will do more to promote Tenerife to an American market than any amount of advertising. And if there are any Americans reading this, there are direct flights here from the United States to the north airport.
Who knows if Tenerife’s role (actually the episode was filmed in Hawaii) in Lost was as a result of Clash of the Titans being filmed here bringing the island to Hollywood’s attention? But I’m willing to bet that with this sort of high profile exposure, before long we’re going to see our favourite island become a regular star of the big screen.
For millions of Americans, Tenerife has just been found.
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