‘Studios will find what
they need in Israel’ says Hollywood advisor
Get ready to start seeing some of your favourite Hollywood
stars filming in Israel as a new initiative by Israel’s Finance
Ministry has been announced, with plans to turn the historic
country into a hit with American studios.
MK Michael Oren, deputy minister for foreign policy in the
Prime Minister’s Office, has dubbed the plan ‘Holy-wood’
and has claimed that with his background in Hollywood –
he has worked with Orson Wells and various other production
companies – he believes Israel is ready to become the new
Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
‘I never understood why Israel isn’t an international film center,
as we seem to tick all the boxes to be one,’ he said.
‘We have a large range of terrain conditions such as desert,
mountains, cities and villages, all within short driving distances.
We have teams skilled in photography and editing, and great
hotels that are more than suitable for hosting stars. We have
television and film studios, and expertise in military issues,
such as explosives.’
It’s a sentiment shared by Richard Klein, who advises
Hollywood film studios on locations, script development,
production and marketing and is a former Special Assistant for
International Security Affairs at the Department of State.
‘The scripts and locations I am seeing, Israel is going to become
a country of real interest,’ he told Metro.co.uk of the next big
filming location.
‘It’s got incredible diversity of topography and geography
and architecture, it’s got diversity of language, of culture –
no one has really made a movie that shows you the old city of
Jerusalem, the mountains of the Negev desert, and with the
kinds of stories that are coming productions will find what they
need in Israel.’
He also admitted that ‘on the Israeli side, they’re starting to figure
out how to be more attractive to filmmakers’.
‘They’ve got film incentive laws that are out of date, and not
competitive at all, plus there’s a perception about safety that’s
inaccurare and easy to address. But bottom line it’s got amazing
and historical locations that have never been filmed by Hollywood.’
The ‘Holy-wood’ plan reportedly has three steps that will be
put in place in order to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in
revenue from hosting big-budget productions.
The first would be to establish a film authority in the Finance Ministry,
which would be able to work with the studio as well as local
authorities including police, the Nature and Parks
Authority and other state bodies
that would allow for closures or access to military sites.
Producers would also be offered grants ‘of 25% to 35% of the
value of the investment to film in Israel’ while ‘special insurance
provisions’ would also be set up in case of security issues that later
cause the production to relocate out of Israel.
‘As deputy minister of foreign policy, I think there is diplomatic
‘If Brad Pitt comes here and not Malta [scenes set in Jerasulem
in World War Z were actually filmed in Malta], it is a serious
blow to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction movement. If a
movie says “Made in Israel” it’s great public diplomacy,
an advertisement for Israel.’
(Metro, UK)
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