Bulgarian movies - The new movie-making hotspot is the Balkans
Bulgaria Films, bulgarian movies
Bulgarian movies are where the new movie location hotspots are, say filmakers. Bulgarian films have come a long way. As in Scarlet Johansson long. Think Spartacus (the old and new versions...) Picture a Bulgaria film Back Lot, Hollywood Dreams. Sofia, Bulgaria Boyana Film Studios is being courted by Tinseltown player Nu Image -- but a sale is complicated business.
Stray dogs drinking from puddles are the only sign of life on a rainy day at Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria. Rotting cabbages and potatoes, left from an Italian TV shoot, lie scattered on a street built to look like Boston's North End. A Roman coliseum awaits a new sword-and-sandal epic. No, there's not a palm tree in sight, but this Communist-era studio could become the Balkans' answer to Burbank. Los Angeles film producer Nu Image Inc., which has made 47 Bulgarian movies since 1999, wants to buy Boyana and use it to vault beyond its action-flick niche and into films with Oscar potential. "I'm going to turn Boyana into one of the most important studios in Europe," says David Varod, a set-designer-turned-producer who is Nu Image's man in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria Films: Celebrities hauled in Bulgarian film - Starring Scarlet Johannson in The Black Dahlia Varod's vow is not just show-biz bluster. Currently, Nu Image Bulgaria operates from a building that once housed an indoor swimming pool in Sofia, where it has built a thriving business churning out lowbrow titles such as Today You Die and Raging Sharks. But last year, Nu Image achieved what Varod hopes will be a breakthrough when it shot director Brian De Palma's latest thriller, The Black Dahlia, on an ersatz L.A. street. Boyana, set on 74 acres just outside Sofia, this Bulgarian movies producer would give Nu Image a prime launching pad for its ambitions to produce more such prestige work. Scarlett Johansson talks about Filming in Bulgaria Eastern Europe is already a filmmaking hot spot. Studios such as Prague's Barrandov, the setting for some of Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS ) current hit The Chronicles of Narnia, have a reputation for skilled technical work at relatively low cost. But Bulgaria is even cheaper. Varod estimates thatcosts are 50% to 60% below those of Hollywood. Besides, "Boyana is up there with the iconic film studios. It's a great brand," says Patrick Newman, a consultant who represents London's Ealing Studios, which covets Boyana, too. Some Boyana equipment is out of date, but its facilities include gems such as a soundproof orchestra recording studio that would be prohibitively expensive to build from scratch. It also has an arsenal of medieval weapons. Buying Boyana would seem like a simple decision. But Nu Image's purchase of the studio has turned into a cautionary tale of how complicated business can still be for Westerners who covet prime assets in Eastern Europe. On paper, Nu Image already won a competitive bid for Boyana in August with a bargain-basement price of $7.4 million. But Bulgarian filmmakers -- known for wrenching dramas that collect film festival awards but not much money -- are balking at the idea that Boyana may go to the maker of Crocodile 2: Death Swamp. That has given rise to a nasty battle. U.S. diplomats are pressuring the Bulgarians to honor its deal with Nu Image, arguing that the controversy is a test case of whether Bulgaria, which has joined the European Union January 2007, shows adequate respect for business agreements. British diplomats, meanwhile, are plugging for Ealing. Bulgaria Films: Art vs. Culture In fact, somebody should option the whole story. The cast includes Bulgarian Culture Minister Stefan Danailov, an actor who in his youth was known as the Bulgaria films version of 1960s French heartthrob Alain Delon. Aside from dozens of local films, Danailov appeared in a 2002 U.S.-made thriller called Crisis in the Kremlin, where he uttered such lines as: "We want you to kill Gorbachev." Now, Danailov, 63, is playing the heavy in the Boyana drama, blocking the privatization deal approved by a previous government. Danailov declined a request for an interview, but said in a statement that the deal contains "unacceptable peculiarities." Formally, the decision is back in the hands of Bulgaria's Privatization Agency, which could either approve the deal or reopen the bidding process in the Bulgarian movies world. At its core, the Boyana saga is a classic battle of art vs. commerce. Nu Image's Varod, looking Hollywood-casual in faded jeans, his gray hair tied in a ponytail, and an earring in his left ear, makes no grand claims about Nu Image's oeuvre. "Action movies are part of the culture," says the Israeli-born Varod, who saw combat in both the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars but says he personally opposes violence. Whatever their artistic merit, Nu Image movies have created some 600 jobs in Sofia, including regular freelancers and employees of a Sofia-based Worldwide FX, which does computerized effects for Nu Image, the Sci-Fi Channel, and others.
As the local talent pool grows, other film-related companies are moving in. "Bulgarian movies are hot right now," says Scott Coulter, manager of Worldwide FX. Nearby, a Bulgarian at a workstation digitally retouches the forehead of an actor in Lonely Hearts, a new John Travolta film. Bulgarian movies film well from a directors point of view, and comes in on spec. Nu Image's status is rising as well. As a framed photo on the wall of Varod with actress Scarlett Johansson attests, the company is starting to work with more A-list talent. The Black Dahlia was shot in Bulgaria and Scarlett Johansson gives us her thoughts on filming in Bulgaria. In addition to The Black Dahlia, which stars Johansson and Hilary Swank, Nu Image Bulgaria last year shot The Contract, featuring Morgan Freeman and John Cusack. Upcoming films include a Johansson project in which she plays an Englishwoman who befriends Napoleon in exile. There are currently over 10 Bulgarian movies being made, with more queued in post production.
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