Written by new-contact on Dec 10, 2014. Posted in On Location

BBC returns to Morocco for season two filming of adventure series Atlantis

The BBC has returned to Morocco to film scenes for the second series of its historical family adventure series Atlantis. As with the first series, production was based in a retrofitted studio in Chepstow in Wales, but the team also filmed in and around Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.

For the second series, scenes for two separate episodes were filmed in the Assounfou region of the Atlas Mountains, while Ait Benhaddou stood in for the exterior views of the Atlantis town of Helios, reports the Radio Times.

“Ait Benhaddou is the most famous town of its kind and also featured in Gladiator,” Julian Murphy, the series co-creator and executive producer, in comments to the outlet: “We filmed Atlantis there last year and it forms the outside of the town Helios. There are probably five or six other mud forts worth exploring in the area, too.”

Atlantis didn’t film in Marrakech itself, but the city’s visuals had a big impact on the show’s overall look and the production team sourced some of their props locally.

Morocco is one of the world’s most popular spots for desert filming locations, and particularly as a double for the Middle East. The BBC is in fact a return visitor, having recently shot parts of its drama miniseries The Honourable Woman locally, as well as a TV production of biblical tale The Ark.

Just in the last few months, Tom Cruise filmed car chase scenes for Mission: Impossible 5 on the Casablanca-Agadir highway. Spike TV’s drama series Tut, set in ancient Egypt, is also scheduled for a Morocco shoot, as is the new James Bond movie Spectre.