The Luzzone Dam featured in two series on Disney+ and Prime Video

Iconic and majestic, the Luzzone Dam is in the international spotlight this summer thanks to two TV series distributed worldwide on the streaming platforms Disney+ and Prime Video.

The three-episode series Limitless: Live Better Now, the second season of Limitless created by Darren Aronofsky, features Australian actor Chris Hemsworth on Disney+ pushing both mind and body to understand what can help us live better. It’s no joke even for the famous Marvel Thor: the challenges Hemsworth faces in this National Geographic production range from learning to play the drums to perform with Ed Sheeran in front of 70,000 people to, indeed, climbing the Blenio dam wall solo—the longest artificial climbing route in the world at 165 meters high—where filming took place last February.

On Prime Video, the second season of 007: Road to a Million premieres, a reality show inspired by the adventures of the most famous secret agent of all time. With Brian Cox once again playing the Controller, the enigmatic character who assigns various missions to the participants, eight pairs of everyday heroes will have to discover if a true James Bond hides within them, with the hope of winning one million pounds. Of course, it won’t be easy: challenges for the contestants include swimming in shark-infested waters in the Bahamas or bungee jumping directly from the Luzzone Dam—filmed there at the end of June 2024—which replaces another Ticino dam, the Verzasca, which in the 1990s was one of the filming locations for GoldenEye.

Filming in Ticino for both series was handled by the Zurich-based film service AM Production.

This is not the first time that audiovisual crews have chosen the dam in Val di Blenio. “The Luzzone Dam is spectacular in itself,” emphasizes Engineer Andrea Baumer, head of the facility, “and since it has been used as a climbing wall, interest has increased. We don’t always say yes; we evaluate each request depending on the proposed activities. Usually, filming requests come through the Ticino Film Commission or the Bellinzona and Valleys Tourist Organization, with whom we work very well. These can be valuable opportunities to promote the area, and the presence of a crew for several days in the valley is not insignificant for local businesses. With the help of the Ticino Film Commission, we also try to balance the needs of productions with those of the local population.”

Limitless: Live Better Now has been available on Disney+ since August 15. The second season of 007: Road to a Million is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on August 22.