POLAND
A long Winter oF Filming
The last months of 2015 witnessed a true influx of foreign productions to Poland. American-Polish thriller “Chronology” was filmed in Poznań, while the Goetz Palace in Brzesk, in Lesser Poland, hosted filmmakers from India who, for six days, shot “Fitoor”, an Indian adaptation of Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”
The crew consisted of over 40 Indians and almost 80 Poles. Another crew from India – this time from the so- called Kollywood in the south of the country – spent twenty days on the set in various Polish locations (Zakopane, Wałbrzych, Kracovia, Łeba among others).
The film titled “24” features Surya, a Tamil superstar, in the main role.
The autumn months were also very intensive in Łódź with three big films being shot simultaneously: Andrzej Wajda worked on his new film “Powidoki”; Opus Film, the producer of “Ida”, organized an eleven-day shoot for an Israeli partner to make a film set in the 1970s – “Past Life,” directed by Avi Nesher; and the American director Martha Coolidge (“Sex and the City,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Weeds”) filmed her project “Music, War and Love” produced by Fred Roos, among others, who is known for films such as “Apocalypse Now,” “The Godfather” and “Lost in Translation.”
Małopolska and Kraków were the sets for an American-British biography of Martin Luther commissioned by PBS with Padraic Delaney in the main role; and for a feature titled “True Crimes” starring two-time Golden Globe winner – Jim Carrey, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marton Csokas and Polish actors Agata Kulesza (“Ida”) and Robert Więckiewicz (“Wałęsa. Man of Hope”).
The picture was directed by Greek Alexandros Avranas (“Miss Violence”), written by Jeremy Brock (“Brideshead Revisited,” “The Last King of Scotland”), and produced by Brett Ratner (“X-Men 3: the Last Stand”, TV series “Rush Hour”).
In January, Kraków hosted the crew of the French black comedy “Grand Froid,” Gérard Pautonnier’s debut featuring Jean-Pierre Bacri, Olivier Gourmet and Arthur Dupond. The project won the first edition of the International Film Fund in Kraków.
SPAIN
Emerald City at park Güell
The NBC series “Emerald City”, based on “The Wizard of Oz”, filmed for a week in Barcelona at the Park Güell.
The action focuses on Dorothy, aged 20, who is transported by a tornado to another fantastic world, a mystical land where a powerful magician has banned magic and made regulations in many areas.
LITHUANIA
War and Peace in Vilnius
The six-part television series based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” was filmed in Vilnius.
The series is being made by BBC Cymru Wales Drama, in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Renowned British director Tom Harper has been chosen to direct the series.
“Vilnius welcomed the BBC and this new production of ‘War and Peace’. We did everything possible to assist in making it go as smoothly as possible. Having the production in town has generated a lot of excitement. Our film professionals were involved and completely engaged in the project and I am sure that it will be very successful,” said Ms. Jūratė Pazikaitė, the director of the Vilnius Film Office.
The story of four aristocratic families was filmed mainly in Vilnius, Lithuania. Shorter segments were also filmed in Latvia and Russia. The series is scheduled to air in 2016.
GERMANY
Stuttgart, the Vfx Capital
The Vfx scene in the Stuttgart region is still growing. In addition to sophisticated commercials, Stuttgart-based companies are also contributing their skills to famous international productions. Pixomondo is responsible for the 1960 ́s look of Spielberg ́s “Bridge of Spies” and Mackevision won an Emmy for the famous series “Game of Thrones”. As the visual effects department at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg is said to be one of the ten best in the world, the studios in the region are happy to welcome well-trained and creative newcomers. www.amcrs.de/de/
CROATIA
Lots of sets for the Istria Film Commission
After its launch at the Pula Festival last July, the Istria Film Commission is already actively supporting local and international productions.
These include “Pula it is heaven” Nenad Miković, a Polish movie, produced by FlatFish Films in Warsaw, in co-production with EBH Warsaw, Marsh Belgrade and Kinoteka Zagreb, filmed in Pula and the surrounding towns (post-production should be completed by July 2016), the short “In the name of the strawberry, the chocolate and the holy spirit“, by the young director Karla Lulić who, in 2014, founded the Croatian production company Dobar Film, which specializes, alongside Magnolia Noir, in international co-productions, particularly between France, countries in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe (filming will begin in the spring). Plus “Bijeg do Mora” (“Escape to the sea”) that Veljko Bulajić will film in fall 2016, produced by Tomislav Žaja for Gral Film, and «Three Heist and a hamster», a Danish produced comedy (Fridthjof of Copenhagen), directed by Rasmus Heide, in which Istria will ‘play’ the role of Italy (for the outdoor scenes) and Denmark (for the interiors). The production service is managed by Spiritus Movens of Zagreb.
