See Mallorca
Nicola Henderson
September 26, 2011

The new movie from the Wachoswki brothers (The Matrix triolgy), starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, has been filming this weekend at the famous beauty spot of Sa Calobra. Filming for 'Cloud Atlas' has been taking place all along the rugged west coast for the past 10 days, with scenes being shot around Soller, Formentor and Puig Major. 

Mallorca is doubling for New Zealand and Hawaii, both of which feature in the multi-stranded story by novelist David Mitchell. The spectacular scenery of the west coast, where the Tramuntana mountains fall into the sea, was said to be ideal for the sea scenes in the movie. The beautiful bay in the Port of Soller played host to the replica galleon ship, the Earl of Pembroke which will feature as a pirate ship in the film. 

The filming is expected to bring around €2.8 million in to Majorca's economy, as a team of 400 technician and production staff stay on the island for three weeks. The arrival of such numbers at the end of the main tourist season has provided an end-of-season boost to hotels in Soller, Deia and Pollensa.

Whilst the filming of the Cloud Atlas is undoubtably good for Mallorca, it has meant that some areas are closed to other visitors during specific shoots. Sa Calobra was off limits yesterday to tourists because of this, meaning that over 40 bus loads of visitors, plus many individual cars were unable to drive down to the cove.

In addition to Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, an all-star cast has been assembled for the movie. Look out for Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Keith David and David Gyasi. 

Halle Berry was in the news recently when she broke her foot whilst walking in the hills near her villa in Soller on a day off. She returned to Mallorca yesterday after receiving treatment for her foot in France. It is expected that she will continue filming with the help of a stunt double.