Hollywood movie filmed on Santorini

The island of Santorini was the shooting location for a particular sequence of the Hollywood movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was released around the world in June 2005. The movie is based on the novel of the same name written by Anne Brashares and it is directed by Ken Kwapis. The movie revolves around the lives of four teenage girls, Lena, Tabitha, Bridget and Carmen, who go separate ways to different places for their summer vacation, after having lived all their lives in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. In the eve of their departure, they visit a gift shop to find a pair of jeans that magically fits all of them even though the girls are of different shapes and sizes. They devise a plan to keep their emotional bond intact by each wearing the magical jeans for one week and then passing it on to the others. The movie narrates the life of these four teenagers that summer as each girl goes through a life-changing experience. This special summer, Lena (played by Alexis Bledel) visits her grandparents in the picturesque island of Santorini. While there, she falls in love with a local boy Kostas, whose family, unfortunately, is having a long-running feud with Lena's family. The Santorinian sequence revolves around Lena gradually asserting her individuality and overcoming her family's objections to her having a final meeting with her Greek lover. The character of the local boy Kostas is actually played by an American actor, Michael Rady, who had to train especially hard to convincingly speak with a Greek accent. The residents of Santorini will be disappointed to learn that the underwater scene supposed to be taking place on the island was actually shot in a tank in Vancouver, Canada. Nevertheless, the audience gets a treat of the quaint streets and buildings as well as the beaches of Santorini. Warner Brothers, the producers of the movie, are planning to shoot a sequel to the movie in 2007 starring the same leading actors.