Flurry lifts Greek industry’s hopes
A burly man in a buzz-cut crosses a busy street, nearly running into a passing cab. Nearby, two Miami police officers monitor a bustling crowd beside their squad car.
The man is Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and standing in for the Magic City is Greece’s northern metropolis Thessaloniki where Millennium Media, producers of The Expendables series, are shooting their latest action flick.
Banderas’ new outing, The Enforcer, is one of several high-profile shoots taking shape in the midst of an uncharacteristic flurry for Greece’s film industry, which reopened from a pandemic lockdown in May.
The busy summer schedule includes Bond star Daniel Craig in the sequel to the surprise 2019 murder mystery hit Knives Out under director Rian Johnson, and David Cronenberg’s sci-fi whodunit Crimes of the Future, starring Viggo Mortensen.
Disney+ had earlier shot scenes in Athens for Greek Freak, a biopic about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s early years as the son of poor Nigerian immigrants before catapulting to NBA basketball stardom.
Veteran Greek producer Panos Papahadzis said this season’s film wave is a “crash test” for the local industry.
“For 20 years we have been calling on the state to turn Greece into a film-friendly country,” said Papahadzis, whose company Argonauts is co-producing Crimes of the Future.
“There have never been [as many productions filming simultaneously] in the history of Greek cinema,” adds Vasiliki Diagouma, communication and PR manager at the Greek national centre of audiovisual media and communication. –