Chateau d’If is where they put the ones they’re ashamed of.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Poster for the Guy Ritchie movie, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Santa Marija Tower, Comino, Gozo.

The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Edmond Dantès, a young sailor falsely accused of treason and unjustly imprisoned in the forbidding Château d’If. After a daring escape and the discovery of a vast hidden treasure, he returns to society transformed as the mysterious, and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, a man of charm, patience and cold, calculated revenge.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and Henry Cavill in one of his earliest major roles, this 2002 Hollywood adaptation was filmed across several locations on Gozo and Comino. Santa Marija Tower on Comino doubles convincingly as the dreaded Château d’If, while the Azure Window and the dramatic caves and coastline of Comino stand in for the Isle of Monte Cristo itself.

This was the first English-language film adaptation to use the Maltese islands, beginning a remarkable tradition of Monte Cristo productions returning to the same waters across four decades.

Released


2002

Directed


Kevin Reynolds

Starring

Jim Caviezel
Guy Pearce
Henry Cavill

Mark Twain was such as fan of Dumas’ book, The Count of Monte Cristo, when toured Europe in1867, he made a special stop to see the prison, Chateau D’if, which lies one mile offshore from Marsielle.

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