Poker Generation Movie – A new milestone in Maltese Poker history!
Malta is currently host to the first Italian Poker movie ever, going by the name of ‘Poker Generation’. The movie, produced byTiziano Cavaliere, centres itself around Betpro’s annual Poker tournament – The Malta Poker Dream – which, as the name suggests, is hosted in the Maltese Islands, more specifically at theMalta’s ever-growing Portomaso Casino in St. Julians.
The movie portrays the Malta Poker Dream as the Poker arena where two brothers will face-off after a fallout, following their mission to save their sick sister by winning money to help ease her health condition. DirectorGianluca Mingotto promises lots of drama, action, and love triangles (who can do it better than our Italian neighbours?) and will be all expressed around a centrally dominant Poker theme.
The cast includes some well know faces from the Italian show business like Melita Toniolo, Francesca Fioretti and Manuela Arcuri. The main actors are being played by Andrea Montovoli, better known for his performance at “Ballando con le stelle 5” as well as a dozen more Italian movies. Andrea will play the role of “Tony” an Americanised Italian Playboy come Poker player whilst Piero Cardano will be playing the role “Filo” his introverted and autistic brother, who has a superhuman ability when it comes to Texas Hold’em.
The movie is great news in Malta for a number of reasons most importantly for the Poker industry. By portraying Malta as a European Poker capital in real life and on the now on big screen too, Malta has reached yet another height in the Poker world. In Europe, Montecarlo has often been considered the European gambling capital, but in the last two years, the scales have started tipping themselves in Malta’s favour. It really seems like a new trend is emerging here…fingers crossed for the next few years!
Secondly, the Tourism industry: Malta, being the stage for the Poker Generation movie, will undoubtedly result in a large influx of incoming tourism from Italian regions, possibly for future Malta Poker Dream tournaments but not necessarily limited to them only. This is true for the youngsters who are fanatical about poker, risk taking, etc… As Malta is uttered more frequently in Poker circles around the world, we are also sure that an added influx of European players will make their way to our warm islands to take advantage of the mediterranean weather, the international poker tournaments, the island life we enjoy… and so many foreigners crave.
The emergence of a new niche in Malta’s tourism sector will undoubtedly be appreciated by the many service providers in our tiny islands, this is especially true since such a niche was hardly ever foreseen in the recent past, and kicked off relatively quickly, especially for such a small island that nonetheless, has a very strong tourism infrastructure.
Tracing ourselves back to Poker Generation, we were on the set of the poker movie earlier this week. We kept a close watch on the happenings at the fabulous Grandmaster hall at the Hilton Conference centre – it’s currently acting as an extension of the Portomaso Casino during the Malta Poker Dream event & Poker Generation filming. We also spoke to some actors and the film crew about the movie, their thoughts about Malta, as well as other Poker related stuff.
Watch this space as we publish our findings with these interesting characters during the next few days!