Czech Republic Touts Production Return: ‘Wheel Of Time’, ‘Carnival Row’, ‘Dangerous Liaisons’, ‘The Gray Man’ Among Host Of Shoots

Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Filming volume is about to reach back to record-breaking 2019 levels in the Czech Republic, according to the Czech Film Commission.

That year saw €347M / $420M in foreign investment flowing into the country.

More from Deadline

The claim comes despite ongoing Covid-19 concerns in the Czech Republic, which was among the hardest hit Central and Eastern European countries earlier this year. However, infection number have been steadily decreasing in recent weeks.

Among the projects that are shooting or in prep in the Czech Republic are the serial adaptation of E. M. Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) starring Daniel Brühl and directed by Edward Berger; Operation Totems, a Cold War-era story of love between two spies that takes place in East Berlin, Moscow and Paris (Amazon, Gaumont); the new adaptation of the novel Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (Lionsgate); the apocalyptic series Extinction (Sky); and the Netflix feature films Spaceman of Bohemia, an adaptation of the novel by Czech writer Jaromir Kalfar starring Adam Sandler; and The Gray Man, a CIA thriller with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the lead roles.

In addition, work continues on the two biggest projects ever shot in Czech Republic: The Wheel of Time (Amazon, Sony) with Rosamunde Pike, which is finishing up shooting on the first series, with the second series to follow immediately afterwards, and Carnival Row (Amazon, Legendary TV) with Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevigne.

Recently completed projects include the ZDF fairytale The Dwarf’s Nose; director Marco Forster’s feature film The White Bird: A Wonder Story (Lionsgate) with Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren, the story of a Jewish girl hidden by a family in occupied France; and the third series of American series Hanna (Amazon, NBCUniversal).

“Foreign production interest was only temporarily held back last year, and we are once again seeing huge demand for filming in the Czech Republic. The audiovisual industry has an extraordinarily strong capacity to adapt and recover rapidly, so it is also the perfect tool to jumpstart employment and entrepreneurship in the post-coronavirus period,” said Helena Bezdek Frankova, director of the Czech Film Fund.

Last year, the Czech industry introduced a set of hygiene and cross-border transport rules to allow people to return to work in the film production sector. The country’s state of emergency ended on April 11, 2021.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.