Mercury Towers Flying Theatre

Experience the magic of Malta as you fly like a bird across the islands and their rich history

category

Flying Theatre

client

Sarner & Mercury Towers

IN PRODUCTION

A new immersive visitor attraction, to open in spring 2024, will transport guests through Malta’s history and explore the islands in the present day. It offers an innovative combination of entertainment and education, with an immersive dark walk experience, an interactive exhibition, and the first flying theatre ride in Malta.

The new mini flying theatre is being produced in a partnership between Talesmith, Simtec Systems, Sarner and Moonraker VFX.

The ride ‘fuses entertainment with education,’ and features an immersive dark walk experience, an interactive exhibition, and a flying theatre ride – unique to Malta.
Situated inside Mercury Towers, an iconic new development designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the custom-built flying theatre installed by Simtec, provides special onboard effects thanks to its six-degrees-of-freedom motion platform to take visitors on a magical flight around the islands and is suitable for the entire family.

Filmed over the changing seasons, Talesmith were commissioned to provide the live action media for the flying ride, filming cinematic visuals on a purpose-bullt state of the art FPV drone, and from a specially constructed helicopter nose mount. Working once again with Moonraker VFX, this live action footage was seamlessly blended with photo real computer-generated imagery to tell a gripping story of Malta's rich association with the past as guests negotiate historical battles, mythical beasts and stunning underwater seascapes.

Situated inside Mercury Towers, an iconic new development designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the custom-built flying theatre provides special onboard effects thanks to Simtec's six-degrees-of-freedom motion platform to take visitors on a magical flight around the islands.

The project has created a unique and innovative approach to flying theatre. This exceeds the traditional “fly over” experience by integrating immersive storytelling and informative scene-setting shows with a historical story-led flying theatre ride and immersive special effects. As a result, the attraction is both educational and exciting, and sets a new standard for the heritage attractions sector.

Behind the scenes

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Filmed over a year, Talesmith and Moonraker VFX partnered to create the giant screen film -the main attraction for the flying ride - continuing our successful long standing relationship in delivering high end, narrative driven experiences. Talesmith produced the live action content and reenactments, creating a fleet of custom-built FPV drones carrying ultra high definition 8K cameras to deliver a thrilling low altitude, high-speed experience for guests. A helicopter was used to capture spectacular views from high altitude.

Moonraker delivered stunning photo-real VFX to enhance the live action and take guests under water and back in time to witness Malta's most dramatic moments, sites and battles.

Sarner produced the wider piece, working closely with Heritage Malta throughout the development process in order to maintain the greatest degree of authenticity.