The oft-photographed doorway at Ta Prohm can be seen in a new fantasy film, The Portable Door, released this year and starring Christoph Waltz and Sam Neill. Murray Pope, the visual effects supervisor, who has previously produced the Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia documentary and The Last Reel in Cambodia, said of the Australian-produced movie: “The film features locations in London, Utah, Alaska, Norway, Egypt, Nepal, Cambodia and Central Australia. All of these location sequences in the film were achieved with stock footage that meant the film crew did not have to travel from the production studios on the Gold Coast.” So, no big production actually came to Cambodia and the doorway, photographed by thousands of tourists every year, plays a very minor role in the movie. Ta Prohm temple, including the doorway under assault from strangler fig vines growing on top of a silk-cotton tree, featured in the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film of 2001. Thanks to the sharp-eyed Gimini June who informed me about The Portable Door.
