The first film, which will begin shooting in October, is the remake of Red Sonja, while the second is titled Dirty Angels.
Two new Hollywood productions are coming until the end of the year to Thessaloniki, which is developing into a pole of attraction for the audiovisual industry, as the Nu Boyana Hellenic Studios are in a phase of development and evolution and modern film sets.
This was announced by Rob Van Norden, producer of Millennium’s films that were shot in Thessaloniki (Enforcer, The Bricklayer), on the sidelines of an event organized by EKOME and the Hellenic Investment and Foreign Trade Company -Enterprise Greece on the topic “The development of the audiovisual industry in Greece: infrastructure creation, content production and international extroversion”, in Thessaloniki, in the context of the 86th TIF.
As Mr. Van Norden mentioned, the first film, which will start shooting in October, is the remake of Red Sonja, while the second is titled Dirty Angels and is action-oriented exclusively with female protagonists. The Dirty Angelswhich will star the well-known actress Eva Green, will be directed by Martin Campbell, who directed the James Bond film Casino Royale in which Green also appeared.
Before the start of the event, the producer presented to the president and managing director of EKOME, Panos Kouani, a… trowel in plexiglass, signed by the director and the protagonists of the movie The Bricklayer in recognition of his contribution to the realization of the production .
Mr. Kouanis pointed out that since April ’18 we have 158 Greek and around 120 foreign productions. “We are talking about an investment in Greece close to 500 million euros, we are talking about close to 70,000 jobs, we are talking about over 200 locations throughout Greece. There is no point that has not emerged in all the regions of Greece”, he emphasized and added that the goal is to build infrastructure and that this relationship that has developed with foreigners is consolidated and not a bubble. “EKOME will soon be five years old. Its purpose and goal was to highlight the audiovisual sector as one of the key sectors of the Greek economy and it succeeded. Through its tools we have attracted many large and foreign productions, we have strengthened Greek production, television and film, and now the question is what we must do, so that the audiovisual sector is consolidated in the long term as one of the main pillars of the Greek economy ». Especially for the benefits to the local communities, he mentioned that the film that won this year’s Golden Palm, The Trigon of Sorrow, was filmed in two thirds in Greece and highlighted Katakolo and Chiliadou Evia. He also emphasized that there is a “bright field of glory” in the sector, as Greece is a country that has everything and what is missing can be acquired, because it has visionary businessmen and politicians.
“We are ready to prepare the construction of a modern set and all other conditions for the films to be created here. Greece has many advantages, because it has been modernized, there is infrastructure and above all there is the support of the government, but also of the local society, especially for us in Thessaloniki. they have surrounded us with trust and we have their absolute support”, said the managing director of Nu Boyana Hellenic Studios and York Studios, York Films, Yannis Kalafatis, who emphasized that in addition to infrastructure and equipment, we need and the adaptation of the legislative framework, something that the government is working on, but mainly the education of the youth of Greece in this subject, so that they can cope with the demands of these films. In fact, he expressed the assessment that in addition to the two films that will be served by Thermi studios until the end of the year, in 2023 even more foreign productions will come.
The “present” at the event was given by the Deputy Minister of Economic Diplomacy and External Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Konstantinos Fragogiannis, who emphasized that the government from the beginning “embraced” the effort to develop the audio-visual industry. “The next bet is to give incentives to attract investment, that is, to create the necessary studios, in order to shoot films here, when the conditions allow, but also to have the infrastructure for this shooting,” he said.
“A new, very promising industry is being born,” noted the Deputy Minister of the Interior (Macedonia – Thrace sector), Stavros Kalafatis, and added: “Thessaloniki and the wider region are entering the field of audio-visual media as well as cinematography. It is already emerging as an attractive destination and there are specific competitive advantages and reasons for this. In addition to the government giving incentives, so that film productions can also take place, especially in Northern Greece and in Thessaloniki, there are very important elements that highlight the destination as interesting: a very good welcome from the residents, a very good environment, willingness and very high level of people involved. We are optimistic, we are here to support this effort.”
The Deputy Regional Governor for Tourism, Alexandros Thanos, addressed a greeting, who stated that the Film Office of the Central Macedonia Region is fully organized, has developed synergies with the outside world, has a toolbox for audiovisual material and a database of professionals and services. Mr. Thanos emphasized that “the regional governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas wants to implement the next NSRF in this direction as well, so that entrepreneurs who want to invest in infrastructure and services can also take advantage of this tool, which is very important.”
On behalf of the mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas, the deputy mayor of Technical Works, Makis Kyrizidis, emphasized that the objective of the municipality is to make the city “film friendly” and that in addition to the effort made to facilitate productions with licensing, the local government helps by improving the infrastructure of the city, so that it is friendly and sustainable first for the residents, but also for the investors.
Bety Alexandropoulou, authorized advisor and executive member of the Board of Directors of Enterprise Greece, Yannis Karagiannis, managing director of Kapa Studios -JK Productions, Stelios Kotionis, managing director of FOSS Productions spoke about the industry’s investment prospects, in addition to Mr. Kalafatis , Stratis Liarellis, mandated management consultant of ANTENNA Group, Joseph Samaan-president of Tanweer Group and Andreas Tsilifonis, producer of CENTRAL ATHENS Productions.
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