PRAGUE: Pavel Sadílek’s Nagano -The Birth of Heroes, a long puppet animated film made under the auspices of the Czech Olympic Committee and the Czech Ice Hockey, is currently in pre-development.

PRAGUE: Director/producer/screenwriter Petr Jákl is preparing a historic epic film about one of the most important personalities in the Czech history, Bohemia’s greatest warrior Jan Žižka of Trocnov. Expected to be the most expensive project in the history of Czech cinema, Jan Žižka is slated to be shot in 2017-2018..

PRAGUE: Czech director/actor Miroslav Krobot is currently shooting his second feature film, Quartet / Kvarteto. The film stars popular Czech actors such as Jiří Schmitzer and Barbora Poláková.

PRAGUE: Several big international productions are shooting and prepping in the Czech Republic in the second half of 2016. The spend of international productions in the Czech Republic has increased almost by 500 percent since the introduction of the incentives in 2010.

PRAGUE: Almost a half of Czechs go to the cinema less often than once a year or even not at all. Czechs prefer watching films at home to visiting cinema, according to a poll ordered by the Czech Television and conducted by the TNS AISA agency.

KARLOVY VARY: Jean Reno, currently a guest of Karlovy Vary IFF, will stay in the Czech Republic after visiting the festival to play a role of a French policeman in the new Hong Kong adventure film Adventurers directed by Stephen Fung.

PRAGE: The latest in a string of German period films shooting in the Czech Republic this year, Die Vergeltung/The Retribution started filming on locations in Jaroměř and Hradec Králové in mid June 2016.

PRAGUE: Wasteland / Pustina, a new eight-part original drama series produced for the Czech branch of HBO Europe has been completed, and the first two episodes will premiere at the forthcoming Karlovy Vary IFF.

PRAGUE: The Oscar-winning Czech director Jan Svěrák is in preproduction with Barefoot in a Stubble / Po strništi bos based on the book by his father Zdeněk Svěrák.

PRAGUE: Czech State Cinematography Fund has given 2,220,000 EUR in grants to six Czech feature projets. A total of 25 projects applied for this round of support for feature film production.