03-07-2008

First Hungarian production shooting at Korda Studios

By Laszlo Kriston

    The €2.5 million (HUF588 million) romantic comedy, Chameleon, marks the arrival of Hungarian filmmaking to the €91M Korda Studios' premises (www.kordafilmstudio.hu).

    The film's Korda-bound principal photography takes up almost half of the entire 48-days shooting schedule. The production has built a hospital set, an apartment and a television studio at some of the five Korda sound stages that total 9000 square-meter, and has been shooting there throughout June for more than 20 days.

    Directed by Korda co-owner Andrew G. Vajna's protege, 38-year old Krisztina Goda (Children of Glory), Chameleon tells the story of a swindler who assumes various identities to seduce unattractive women, so that he can rob them of their savings.

    Co-producers, Megafilm's Gabor Kalomista (www.megafilm.hu), Eniko Mesterhazy and Monika Mecs of M&M Film (www.mmfilm.hu) have not disclosed to the local press what amount of the budget the production is spending at Korda. The film stars Ervin Nagy, and is expected to be a local hit upon its Hungarian release later this year. UCLA-alumni Goda's first feature, Just Sex and Nothing Else (2005) was a smash hit in Hungary where it gained 430,000 admissions. Goda's 1956 revolution drama, Children of Glory, also broke records. School classes flocked to the screenings, and their attendance was responsible reaching the 460,000 admissions mark.

    Korda was launched last summer with Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army.