Guided tours taking southeast Asian tourists around Maltese sites used to film a Japanese film based on a hit TV series will begin this summer, Visit Malta said on Saturday.
Confidence Man: HERO Edition used Malta as its backdrop and features the island as itself.
Slated for release in Asia, it will be the third film in the Confidence Man franchise which is based on the Confidence Man JP comedy-heist TV series that aired in Japan.
The films follow a scammer who fleeces yakuza bosses and evil businessmen and then tries to get away with it.
Visit Malta believes the film will serve as a showcase to audiences in Japan, China and South Korea.
“Having this movie shot in Malta is definitely a big plus for the Asian Market,” Mr Shingo Endo, VisitMalta’s Japan and South Korea representative said.
Package tours offering visitors the opportunity to tour various sites used to film the production will begin in June of this year.
The film production received the support of the Malta Film Commission and of VisitMalta, which organised a pre-production visit to the Maltese Islands when the film was still in its early stages.
“This is a side of our marketing endeavours which is rarely seen, but which is of extreme importance. While we obviously recognise the importance of mainstream advertising, showing our support to movie productions such as this one, can translate to the islands being exposed to millions of people, in movies which will remain available forever,” said VisitMalta deputy CEO and chief marketing officer Carlo Micallef.
“Productions such as this movie become a sort of a fixed advertorial of Malta, Gozo and Comino, featuring spots which are not always defined as tourism hotspots, but which are yearning to be explored by tourists,” he added.
Correction January 29: A previous version stated that the film has yet to be shot.