Four productions – from Germany, France, Denmark and the UK – are considering using Malta as a film location and may be filming here for around 21 weeks in the summer.

Malta is quickly becoming a popular film location for production houses – not only because of the different types of scenery, that can double for almost any location, but also because of several incentives introduced by the government.

Furthermore, in collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority, an episode of the longest-running and highest-rated British soap, Coronation Street, will be filmed in Malta this summer.

Although there have been rumours on film websites that the third film in the Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, might be filmed in Malta, the Malta Film Commission said it was too early to say.

According to the websites, Malta, along with Australia and the Bahamas, has been put forward as a potential location for the third film, that will be directed by Michael Apted and is scheduled for release in 2009.

The government has invested around Lm90,000 in promoting Malta as a film location and it was said that for every Lm1 spent, the economy had a net benefit of Lm13.

The government had also introduced tax incentives under which a company can claim up to 20 per cent of the eligible expenditure as a tax rebate, once filming is complete. Production companies can also claim back the VAT spent on goods and services.

In the last few years alone, the Maltese islands have doubled for ancient Rome and Greece, France (including Marseilles), Italy (including Venice and Genoa), Palestine, Israel, Athens, Spain, Turkey and Beirut.

Recent productions filmed on the island include the motion pictures, Munich, Troy, A Different Loyalty, The Count of Monte Cristo, the TV series Byron, Helen of Troy and Julius Caesar, and commercials for Coca-Cola, Shell and Pirelli Tyres as well as television series, films and documentaries.