An “explosive” surprise awaits Thessaloniki at the end of the month, as Hollywood stars Megan Fox, Jason Statham and Andy Garcia plan to arrive in the city, in view of the shooting of the “The Expendables” sequel.
After the successful shooting of “The Enforcer” with Antonio Banderas, Millennium Films gave a vote of confidence to Thessaloniki, which it chose for the shooting of the fourth film of the series, the American action franchise written by Sylvester Stallone, which has scored a huge success at the box office.
The shooting of the big production is scheduled to start at the end of October, in which the number of stars of the big screen will star.
The city will of course be visited by Sylvester Stallone, who also has the main leading role in the series of films. As the president and CEO of the National Center for Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), Panos Kouanis, told Voria.gr, a special effects specialists from London are already in the city: “They have set up a huge set in Thermi and are currently building a 100 by 30 meters warship to shoot a very large action scene. And after the 20th of the month we are expecting Andy Garcia, Jason Statham, Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Dolph Lundgren and a host of other actors”.
Mr. Kouanis stated that the company will try not to shoot in the city, but it is not ruled out that it may be needed. “It’s a movie, full of action, explosions. They have various scenes that include car chases and discuss with the Traffic Police, the municipalities and the region how to set it all up”, he noted, adding that the filming is estimated to end in late November.
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We may not expect another big movie this year, but overall 2021 seems to be the year of big producers not only for Thessaloniki, but for all of Greece.
“Now the conditions have matured for us to have large productions in our country and of course in Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia. A key element is the financial incentives that other countries had and we did not have until 2017. We improved it over the years and especially last year we made them very attractive. That’s why we had a launch in 2021 in productions. Until 2020, the most expensive productions that had come were two foreign ones of the order of 3.5 million euros and the most expensive that had ever come to Greece was Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which cost around 6.5 million euros in 2001. In 2021 alone, we have more than 10 productions from 8 to 20 million euros in Greece. These are in addition to the rest that continue to come, the small productions of half, one, two million, plus the Greek ones that have increased a lot, both film and television. So we are talking about a productive explosion in our industry”, stressed Mr. Kouanis, who pointed out that discussions are already taking place for 2022.
