The demise of the cinema legend Elizabeth Taylor took me back in history in search of few cool facts about movies and Sri Lanka. If you are a history buff and a movie geek combined, here’s some interesting trivia, with some links to more related stuff.

Elizabeth Taylor, when she was 22, came to Sri Lanka (Ceylon at the time) to perform in the 1954 film, Elephant Walk, with Dana Andrews and Peter Finch. It is said that because of her preganancy Elizabeth had to reject the offer for Elephant Walk, a role which had been created just for her, at first. Instead, Vivien Leigh, who was 20-years older than Elizabeth, won the role. But, while filming in Sri Lanka, Vivien had suffered a nervous breakdown and Elizabeth had won the role back after giving birth to her first child, Michael Wilding, Jr.

Here‘s an interesting review about the movie, which later hillariously turns into a debate about caste system in Sri Lanka and drama on its own. This is a note about filming the movie in Sri Lanka with some pretty vintage posters.

This is an article by Sanji Gunasekara about famous films made in Sri Lanka, including ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai‘, ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom‘ and ‘Water‘.

In all the three international television series, from 1980 to 1994: Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers and Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious Universe, his segments to camera were all filmed in Sri Lanka. In his own words.. “The island of Ceylon is a small universe; it contains as many variations of culture, scenery, and climate as some countries a dozen times its size.”

Here‘s a list created by lasantha-sd about top 30 movies shot in Sri Lanka. And here’s some music for the 80’s fan. I like both of them except the fake monk scenes in the end.