This Turkish art series, telling about the events that took place in the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I, was loved by millions of viewers from various countries. This movie is about great love, friendship, betrayal, incredible valor and cruelty. Everything is perfect in this film: script, music, scenery, costumes, and acting. Let's take a look back a bit and see how they shot The Magnificent Age.
The start of a grand project
Now it’s hard to believe that when the famous Turkish film producer Timur Savji decided to shoot a television series filled with real oriental luxury, similar to a fairy tale, but at the same time telling about real historical events and faces, few believed that such a project could be implemented . After all, shooting on a similar scale required incredible financial investments, and there was no guarantee that all this would pay off. When the first episodes of the film appeared on television, many could not understand how they shot The Magnificent Century - it was so original and not like other series.
And in the beginning there was only a script written by the talented Meral Okay. The producer and screenwriter were looking for like-minded people and at first could not find them, since many refused to participate in the project, having learned how financially risky it was. Nevertheless, the creative team was gradually formed. The difficulty also consisted in the fact that very little archival data was preserved about the times of the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , and even they sometimes had to be collected almost bit by bit.
Directors and actors of the series
The story of how they shot The Magnificent Age is impossible without mentioning the names of these talented people - the directors of the series Durul Taylan, Yagmur Taylan, Mert Baikal, Yagyz Alp Akaydin. And Khalit Ergench (Suleiman the Magnificent) and Meryer Uzerli (Hurem) had the chance to play the main roles in the Turkish epic.
Scenery & Costumes
Everyone who watched the film was delighted with the magnificent palace interiors, among which the main action of the picture takes place. The palace where the Magnificent Century was filmed is certainly not real, it’s just the scenery copying the Istanbul Topkana Palace. Imagine that their total area is 5000 m 2 !
The interiors specially built for the shooting very successfully recreate the real rich decoration of the chambers of the Sultan and his concubines. In the series, many scenes were shot outdoors, the scenery for which could fit on 3000 m 2 . And when creating the film "The Magnificent Century", where not only the lives of representatives of the Sultan dynasty were shot, but also many scenes with the participation of ordinary people, it was necessary to build a whole city block copying the streets of ancient Istanbul, its market, city square and squares.
A whole army of costumers worked on the creation of costumes and exquisite jewelry of movie heroes. All toilets and outfits were carefully selected for individual characters. Beautiful caftans and dresses were made of natural silk. And the decorations on the actors of the series are mostly real. And how many weapons and armor had to be made to dress all the warriors!
Film about the film
The series was a resounding success and was purchased for display in 50 countries. Fans of the series were eager to learn as much as possible about the actors of the film and about the filming process itself. The creators, seeing such a genuine interest in their creation, decided to make a separate movie about the series - how it was invented, how it was shot. "The magnificent century. Creating a legend" - this is the name of the film, which tells in detail about everything related to filming. The film about the film was released in 2014.
Now viewers can see their favorite actors playing the heroes of a historical picture without makeup and listen to their candid stories about working on the role.