Movie producer eyes up Alicante
Multi-million-euro budgets would bring investment to Alicante
FILM producer Rafael Primorac has visited Alicante’s Ciudad de la Luz film studios.
He told reporters that he is ‘very interested’ in making two productions, one set in Afghanistan and another about a shipwreck for which the complex’s water tank would be ‘very important’.
Speaking to state news agency EFE after seeing the studios and looking for locations in Novelda, Mr Primorac said he was ‘certain’ the film set in Afghanistan will be filmed in Alicante and it will be ‘very similar’ to the one made last year by British director Guy Richie, which was released on April 21.
This latest production would start next year at the latest with a budget of €10 million and an American cast, said Sr Primorac after meeting
Novelda mayor Fran Martínez.
His other project would
cost about €15M and 85% of it would be filmed in the water tank to tell the story of a castaway who kept himself afloat for hundreds of days and turned into a being ‘that is no longer human’.
Both productions by the company Luz Films are at an advanced stage, he assured, noting that he hopes to announce the directors of both at the Cannes Film Festival, but needs to seal the Ciudad de la Luz deal first.
He said the water tank was ‘very impressive’ and ‘better’ than others he had seen in places such as the Dominican Republic and Malta.
Mr Primorac assured the Alicante studios are ‘like those in Hollywood’, as they are ‘big and spacious’, and said Spanish cinema is ‘in good health’ and has ‘a lot of quality’.
The California resident, who was born in Croatia, explained he is well aware of the
history of the Ciudad de la Luz, which reopened in July after a decade closed due to an EU sanction, and he said the most important thing now is ‘to start hosting productions’ and go ‘step by step’.
He also hailed the quality of Spanish locations, noting that another production is due to start filming in Navarra in June with John Malkovich and Rosa Salazar, among others.
This project was going to be filmed in the Basque Country but could not obtain cultural subsidies there so was ‘moved’ to Navarra, where they are now ‘finalising the details’, added Sr Primorac.
According to the website Imdb, he has produced a number of action movies over the last two decades, including ones starring Wesley Snipes, Steven Segal and John Claude van Damme.