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Walt Disney invests in the Czech Republic

15.3.2007 - Hospodarske noviny Page 1 Title page

Author: Ales Borovan

DISNEY INVESTING ALMOST 850 MILLION CROWNS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

PRAGUE, March 15, 2007

The Czech economy will receive an enormous booster shot from Hollywood’s Walt Disney Studios. Starting in April, this company will start shooting “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, a megafilm based on the book by C. S. Lewis, at Barrandov. “I anticipate that the net investment will be between 30 and 40 million dollars,” says David Minkowski, from Stillking Films, the Czech production company that is making the arrangements for shooting in the Czech Republic.

That amount converts to about 850 million Czech crowns the foreign producer will be spending during filming at the soundstages in Prague and the exterior locations around Usti nad Labem. A large chunk of the money will go to steel magnate Tomas Chrenek, who owns Barrandov Studios. “Prince Caspian” will be the first film to use the giant, two-hundred-million crown soundstage that Barrandov Studios opened last December.

Additional tens of millions of crowns will result as secondary effects of the investment, such as from the purchase of accommodations for the film crew. According to Minkowski, “Prince Caspian” will more than likely become the greatest blockbuster to be shot in the Czech Republic. The world premiere for the picture is scheduled for May 16, 2008.

“Prince Caspian” is the sequel to the commercial successful “Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” (2005), which, with a budget of 180 million dollars, has thus far brought in 745 million dollars. This first film in the intended seven-part series was also shot in the Czech Republic. However, this included only a few scenes that were filmed on location at sites such as the mountains of the Czech-Saxon Switzerland region.

This time, the situation is different. Walt Disney and Walden Media, the film’s co-producer, will shoot almost the entire “Prince Caspian” project here. The filmmakers will spend eighteen weeks in the country. “Prague offers a good infrastructure and environment – large soundstages, office space, film crews, and equipment. In addition, it’s a great base camp if shooting is to take place in other parts of Europe,” explains Minkowski.

Minkowski’s company is concurrently making the arrangements for yet another foreign picture – “Wanted”. This film features the famous Morgan Freeman in the lead role. The budget for this project, which is being produced by Universal Pictures, is less than that for “Prince Caspian”. Nevertheless, it still involves an investment of several tens of millions of crowns.

According to the study that was prepared last year for the Ministry of Culture by the renowned British company Olsberg/SPI, in 2003 foreign film producers spent 178 million dollars directly in the Czech Republic. One year later it was 60 million dollars. Each dollar of direct investments brought in another dollar indirectly.