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09-07-2008

Hungarian film strives for repeat success

By Gyorgy Karpati

    A Kind of America 2, Gabor Herendi's follow-up to the most successful Hungarian film of the past decade, wraps filming on Saturday, July 12.

    The film shot 34 days, with 3 days in New York City. The cast includes American actress Lucia Brawley (World Trade Center). The budget is €1.4 million, with €730.000 from the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (www.mmka.hu) and the rest from sponsors. However, Herendi said, there will be no product placement in the film, a trend Hungarian audiences dislike.

    The film will again be produced by Skyfilm (www.skyfilm.hu). Expectations are great, after the 540,000 admissions of the first film, and a gold record for the 15,000 soundtrack CDs sold in 2002. The second film again has a strong music component, but with the songs more integrated into the story, according to Herendi.

    "Everything is on schedule," Herendi told FNE. "I'm very excited because the crew is in a very good mood, the feeling of the first part's shooting is back, and the screenplay is much better than the first was," he added. "The first episode was my first screenplay and directing debut, and of course I made several mistakes. Now I'm working with Reka Divinyi, with whom I wrote Lora, and she's also co-written the screenplays of Just Sex and Nothing Else and Children of Glory - both were huge successes in Hungary. Gabor Harmat was also a co-writer of the screenplay."

    The Hungarian premier will be December 18. Initial interest in the film could result in distribution beyond Hungary.