Dilip Kuner
A BUYER is wanted for the film set where iconic Sergio Leone film Once Upon a Time in the West was shot.
The mock town was built by the Italian director in the Tabernas desert of Spain’s Almeria back in 1968.
The movie starred Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale and Charles Bronson and was part of a series of spaghetti westerns directed by Leone and filmed in the desert.
Western Leone is one of three sets to survive as theme parks and has now been put up for sale as its present owners want to retire.
Whoever takes on the set – which the sellers insist must be preserved as a tribute to the movies filmed there – will be walking in the footsteps of acting greats.
Other stars to have filmed there include James Coburn, Faye Dunnaway, Yul Brynner and Jack Palance.
Not far from Western Leone is the set A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, were filmed, making Clint Eastwood a Hollywood A-lister.
Jose Ruda,of Grupo Rukasa which is handling the sale, told EFE: “Anyone can buy it, but we are looking for someone to preserve to the smallest detail these 40 years of history, this bit of the history of Tabernas, of Almeria, where the Spaghetti Western was born.”
The surviving set includes the Western, Indian and Mexican ‘towns’ that featured in more than one movie.
“It has everything to begin functioning from minute zero, with eight hectares out front that can be developed into a film school or recording studios,” added Ruda.
READ MORE:
- Set Jetters – The best holiday destinations in Spain for movie lovers
- How to escape Spain’s midsummer madness: Head to Almeria and the Cabo de Gata
- Finding my inner cowgirl in the Tabernas desert
