Orlando Bloom and Noomi Rapace are co-starring in the spy thriller Unlocked, in which Prague is a stand-in for London (which is at risk of a biological attack). Michael Douglas has just joined the cast in the magical Czech capital.
Unlocked boasts a lot of big film industry names: director Michael Apted has worked on movies the size of The World Is Not Enough (1999) and the latest episode ofthe Narnia franchise, The Voyage of the Dawn Breaker (2010). Rapace was the first “girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, and heart throb Bloom needs no introduction, but it’s Oscar-winner Douglas – last in the Czech Republic 17 years ago –who is drawingthe most attention. “He told us how Miloš Forman introduced him to Václav Havel in Karlovy Vary during the festival,” said film commissioner Ludmila Claussová, who met Douglas at a soiree at the residence of U.S. ambassador to Prague, Andrew Schapiro.
Douglas got to know Czech cinema through Forman.“The first film I was producer of was his One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He was incredible – and I still remember some spicy Czech words he told me,” Douglas said with a laugh. “It’s incredible to work in an international crew where nationalities don’t matter and everyone wants one thing only: the resulting film. If such co-operation could work in politics, it would be great,” he added.
Apart from in the Barrandov Studios, it is being filmed on Štvanice Island and at the park in Průhonice, near Prague. Producer Kevan Van Thompson from Czech Anglo Productions confirms that incentives played a role in choosing Prague. “We originally wanted to shoot in London, as the film is set there,” the producer said. “But the costs were too prohibitive for the budget, so it made sense to look at Prague where some of us had shot before and had good experiences.”
Van Thompson notes that of the 175 crew members,all but 14 are Czechs. “The producers and director have been very pleased with the way the crew have come together and shown the good quality of filmmakers who all understand each other and make sure the film gets made in the correct way, on budget, on schedule and with passion and skill,” said Van Thompson, to which Douglas added: “Do everything to keep the tradition!”