09-03-2009

Mancs in preproduction

By Gyorgy Karpati
    Mancs, a Hungarian-French-German-Irish co-production movie about a famous life-saving dog, will begin filming in autumn.

    Robert Pejo is set to direct the film, which will likely be shot in English with a name international cast at Hungarian locations.

    The below-the-line estimated budget is €2 million. The production companies are Hungary's Új Budapest Filmstudio (www.ujbudapestfilmstudio.hu) under managing director Laszlo Kantor; Germany's Neue Mediopolis (www.mediopolis-online.de) with producer Alexander Ris; and France's Clavis Films (www.clavisfilms.com) with producer Shandor Simon. Negotiations are underway with Ripple World Pictures (www.rippleworld.com) and producer Dominick Wright. An Irish co-production partner will be brought in, in order to take advantage of the new Irish-Hungarian co-production support agreement which started on March 1.

    Mancs, a germen shepherd who died 2006, became famous after the 1999 Turkish earthquake when he found a girl under the ruins alive after 82 hours. He later participated in rescues in El Salvador and India.

    The original story was written by Norbert Kobli and expanded by Magda Dajani.

    A longer-than-average 40-45 day shoot is planned to allow for dog training. The film will be release in the second half of 2010.