Incentives for filmmakers continue to draw international productions to the Czech Republic. Local film crews are working on interesting projects from various corners of the globe this year, including a number of feature films and a TV series.
From January to March 2012, French director Jean-Pierre Amérise filmed L’homme qui rit (The Man Who Laughs) in the Czech Republic. Based on a novel by Victor Hugo, the film stars Gérard Depardieu and Emmanuelle Seigner. A crew of 100 Czech film workers and 16 of their French colleagues shot the film entirely in the Czech Republic, primarily at Barrandov Studios. Local spend on the production amounted to more than CZK 100 million (approx. $5.3m).
Production on the second season of historical TV series Borgia began at the end of March at Barrandov studios. Broadcast of the first season was a huge success with audiences in France, Germany and Italy as well as with TV Barrandov viewers in the Czech Republic. Czech film professionals at Barrandov created a range of historical sets for the show, including an extraordinary replica of the Sistine Chapel. Local crews also decorated more than 20 rooms of the Martinic Palace in the centre of Prague with facsimiles of Renaissance frescoes. The palace owners were so impressed with the work that they decided to leave the decoration in the palace permanently. The production’s local spend on Season 2 is estimated at CZK 400 million ($21m).
Danish director Susanne Bier began filming Serena on March 26. Bier’s previous film, In A Better World, won an Oscar in 2011 for best foreign-language film. Serena is based on the 2008 bestseller of the same name by American writer Ron Rash. The film takes place at the end of the 1920s and depicts the life of loggers in North Carolina. It stars Bradley Cooper and rising Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence currently appears in The Hunger Games and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role in Winter’s Bone (dir. Debra Granik, 2010). Filming on Serena in the Czech Republic takes place mainly at sets built on location, including a logging camp and an American town with a train station. The production is expected to spend more than CZK 200 million locally ($10.5m). Czech professionals make up 80% of the 250-member crew. Shooting will wrap at the end of May.
Korean director Joon-ho Bong will begin filming his English-language debut, Snowpiercer, in April. Filming will continue until July 2012, mainly at Barrandov Studios and the KCD Vysočany stages in Prague. A co-production between the U.S., Korea and France, the film is based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, a post-apocalyptic story about a wandering train and its passengers. Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Tilda Swinton, Ewen Bremner and Korean star Kang-ho Song play the main roles. Czech crews built 26 train cars from designs by local production designer Ondřej Nekvasil, who holds an Emmy Award for his work on U.S. miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001). Expected local spending on the production amounts to CZK 385 million ($20m).
