Indian mega production in Warsaw
Numerous superstars from the Indian film industry are participating in this project, including the idol of hundreds of millions – Salman Khan. The Polish part of the film is produced by Film Polska Productions. The project is supported by the Film Commission Poland.
The shooting planned for Poland includes the most difficult scenes taken during the whole project. The audience, especially those expecting a Bollywood-style film, will be pleasantly surprised by the parts produced in Warsaw: tense moments, spectacular action scenes and American-style pursuits will keep you on the edge of your seats.
The film is directed by one of the most significant representatives of the Indian film industry – Sajid Nadiadwala.
The Indian superstars and the “Kick” crew will arrive in Warsaw a few days before the first take. Keeping to the thriller model, “Kick” is the story of three heroes whose paths cross in a European capital – Warsaw. Other great stars of Indian cinema will appear alongside Salman Khan: Randeep Hooda, Jacqueline Fernandez and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The main and, at the same time, the most spectacular scenes will be shot in and around the heart of the capital.
You will be able to see the Indian and Polish filmmakers, amongothers, at the Palace of Culture and Science, the Gdański Bridge, on Marszałkowska and Piękna Streets, as well as at Constitution Square and on the outskirts of Warsaw.
The Film Polska Production company is an undeniable leader in Polish and Indian film and television industry collaboration. It has co-produced around forty advertisements and two feature films for the Indian market.
Their portfolio includes many projects produced with the greatest players on the world market, including National Geographic, History Channel, BBC (United Kingdom), ARD, ZDF (Germany), SyFy (Canada), and Channel 9 (Australia). They are the Polish producers of the Indian mega-production “Kick”.
The project is supported by: the Capital City of Warsaw, the Polish Tourism Organization, the Warsaw Tourism Organization, and the Film Commission Poland.
CROATIA
Swedish Tv chooses the sun of Brac
In Bol, on the island of Brač, filming has begun on the children’s adventure series with the working title “Christmas in the Sun”. It is produced by one of the most successful Swedish TV companies, Tre Vänner, with the Croatian production company Kinorama as line producer. “Christmas in the Sun” is a part of Sveriges Television’s Julkalendern programme – a family oriented series that consists of 24 episodes broadcast daily from December 1st until Christmas Eve – December 24th. The Julkalendern program has a long tradition. It was first broadcast in 1960 and, over the years, has become an integral part of Sweden’s Christmas folklore, reaching millions of viewers every year. This is the first time that the Julkalendern series has been filmed outside Sweden.
Christmas in the Sun tells the story of two young siblings who come from Stockholm to visit their relatives on the island of Brač.
The children are looking forward to travelling and playing, without realizing they will soon become involved in revealing the secrets of Aquilla, the pirate, whose ship sank near the island’s shores in the 16th century. The series stars Lea Stojanov, Alexandra Breschi and Buster Isitt.
From May 16th filming will take place in locations in Bol, Pučišća, Lovrečina bay, Vidova gora, and on Brač’s beaches, coves and roads.
The crew will then move on to Zagreb to finish the series which is scheduled to be completed by May 28th .
Season 3 of the Borgias in Dubrovnik
After “Game of Thrones” season three and four, Dubrovnik becomes the set of yet another high-budget international project: season 3 of the French-German-Czech series “The Borgias” presents the plots of the infamous family and their fight for power in Renaissance Italy.
The leading role of Rodrigo Borgia is played by John Doman, known for his appearances in the cult shows Oz and The Wire, his son Cesare is Mark Ryder, and daughter Lucrezia is Isolda Dychauk.
The company Pakt Media is in charge of the Dubrovnik shooting, made possible thanks to the Croatian Audiovisual Center and its cash rebate program.
The Borgias was shot in Prague, Croatia and Italy. Shooting in Croatia took place in January on locations in Dubrovnik, the Istria peninsula and the island of Pag, after which the production moved to Italy. The launch of Season 3 is set for 2014.
SPAIN
A co-production with the US
From February 24th to March 31st, “Summer Camp” was filmed in Barcelona, a feature film co-produced by Spain and the United States that involves Filmax ([REC]), which is distributing the film in Spain, Safran Company (The Conjuring: The Warren Files), Rebelión Terrestre (Los últimos Días) and Pantelion Films (Instructions not included) a joint venture by Lionsgate Entertainment and Mexican media corp Televisa, which is distributing Summer Camp in North America.
This terror movie, with Jaume Balagueró as executive producer, is Alberto Marini’s directorial debut (the “Sleep Tights’” scriptwriter and exec producer of zombie franchise [REC]), and tells the story of four American youngsters that come to Europe as camp counsellors and discover the spread of a strange silent infection.
The film stars Diego Boneta (“Rock of Ages”), Jocelin Donahue (“The house of the devil”; “Insidious 2”), Mariara Walsh (“The HungerGames”, “Zombieland”) and the top model Andrés Velencoso (“The end”).
Violetta chooses Barcellona
“Violetta”, the most successful children’s series in the history of the Disney Channel, which is sweeping across Latin America, Italy, Spain, France and Israel, has chosen Barcelona to film some episodes of season three.
Filming lasted one week and took place at the end of March.
The TV series tells the story of a musically talented teenager, played by the Argentine actress Martina Stoessel, who returns to Buenos Aires after living in Europe for several years, and each episode includes original musical numbers from diverse musical genres.
Besides Martina Stoessel, we will see the entire cast of the series such as Mercedes Lambre (Ludmila), Jorge Blanco (Leon) and Diego Dominguez Llort (Diego) in the most iconic locations of the city such as the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, La Boqueria Market, Reial Square and by the Montjuïc Magic fountains.
GERMANY
Stuttgart, capital of Animation
At the end of April the Stuttgart region turned into a vibrant vfx capital – with the 21st Stuttgart Festival for Animated Film and FMX – Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia taking place at different locations.
Both events attract up to 80,000 visitors every year – fans of animation movies as well as professionals and experts.
This year top ranking filmmakers gave insights into world-famous productions such as “Gravity” and “Spider Man 2”, numerous films from all over the world were screened and professionals as well as newcomers had various options for training and exchanges by taking part in workshops, talks and meetings.
The Film Commission Region Stuttgart organized a special edition of their event “Werkstattgespräch” – a trip to the offices of the FFL Film- und Fernsehlabor Ludwigsburg and Studio Fizbin. The latter is a very young games studio that achieved great international success with its first adventure game “The Inner World”, in 2013.
Look Effects, from L.A. to Stuttgart
The famous vfx-studio Look Effects will establish a branch office in Germany.
With their headquarters in LA and two branch offices in Vancouver and New York they will be now moving to Stuttgart, Baden- Württemberg.
The Film Commission Region Stuttgart has successfully supported the team in finding a suitable location for their new office.
“I am truly amazed by this city”, says Henrik Fett, founder of Look Effects. “There is a wonderful infrastructure, a great pool of creative companies for co-working-projects – and most importantly, so many highly skilled people, who learned their craft at the excellent local schools.”
The Stuttgart region has been well-known for its media schools for more than three decades, especially the Filmakademie Baden Württemberg, which is one of the best institutions for animation and visual effects in the world.
The Look Effects team has already had a first and very successful “test run” in Germany when they were responsible for the visual effects for Wes Andersons’ “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, which was shot in Germany, when they cooperated with the Stuttgart-based Studio Luxx.
ITALY
FIlming Everest in the Senales valley
Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, known for the recent success achieved by “2 Guns” and before that for having directed “Contraband”, also shot his new film “Everest” in South Tyrol during the early months of this year.
The project is the result of a major international Anglo-American production involving Working Title Films, Walden Media, Cross Creek Pictures and Nicky Kentish Barnes.
The film received financial support totaling 700,000 Euros from South Tyrol’s BLS Film Fund & Commission.
About 60 local professionals worked on the set, in all of the technical departments.
The cast of “Everest” includes Hollywood stars of the caliber of Jake Gyllenhaal (“Brokeback Mountain”), Josh Brolin (“Men in Black 3”) and Jason Clarke (“The Great Gatsby”).