The source material, the director, the cast—pretty much everything about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is epic, except for one Italian island featured in the film. Favignana, which stands in for Ithaca, has only roughly 3,000 residents in real life. But it seems more people are on the horizon.
Local authorities are trying to capitalize on The Odyssey buzz to turn the tiny Mediterranean island into a tourist hot spot. Sicily‘s culture department and Universal Pictures are working with officials to open a permanent Odyssey exhibition at the former Florio tuna-processing plant, which served as the production’s headquarters.
“The idea is to allow visitors to experience the different stages of the production and see some of the costumes and equipment used in the movie,” Favignana mayor Giuseppe Pagoto told Reuters.
Located about four miles off Sicily’s western coast, Favignana is the largest of the Egadi Islands, covering 7.6 square miles of rugged land. In the film, the island serves as Ithaca, the home of long-lost king Odysseus (Matt Damon), his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and their son Telemachus (Tom Holland). The 15th-century Castello di Santa Caterina, a fortress perched atop Favignana’s highest hill, acts as the royal palace.
