Famed Hollywood actor and Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has announced that his next movie will be exclusively filmed in Cyprus in a bid to highlight the value of the island on the global scene.
According to The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (also known as Invest Cyprus), the martial arts and science fiction-themed movie will be directed by Dimitri Logothetis and produced by Logothetis and Martin J. Barab on a budget of €24.6m. The cast includes JuJu Chan, Rick Yune, Marie Avgeropoulos, Frank Grillo, and Alain Moussi thus far.
In a statement to the press, Invest Cyprus applauded the development, stressing on how decisively importance it was to the island nation’s audiovisual sector and the economy and will have multiple benefits to help portray itself better on an international scale.
It is to the organization’s credit that it managed to attract such mainstream attention not much long after it assigned the task of having to promote Cyprus as a suitable and viable international location for filming. The organization itself was made by the Cabinet to help develop the film sector. The Cabinet also appointed a chair of the evaluation committee the Cyprus Film Scheme, which would help the film sector gain several good incentives.
In October 2018, Invest Cyprus along with the Cyprus Tourism Organization and the Press and Information Office organized the first ever Cyprus Film Summit 2018 that was held in Nicosia. The summit had some of Hollywood, Bollywood and Pinewood’s leading figured attending it, along with participants from all over Europe. Dubai, Russia, Egypt, Egypt and Australia, among others.
It was at this event that that then Senior Officer for Invest Cyprus, Lefteris S. Eleftheriou presented announced the christening of the Cyprus’ film industry as Olivewood.