15-07-2008

Hungarians shoot first English language film

By Gyorgi Karpati

    Pinprick by Daniel Young will be the first Hungarian film shot in English. Shooting started March 10 for 24 days. The film is now in post-production and on schedule, producer Agnes Havas told FNE.

    "The premier of the movie depends on the editing," she added. The film was shot on 16mm and in CinemaScope, and used a storyboard, which is unusual for Hungarian films. The movie will be dubbed into Hungarian for local distribution.

    The film is produced by Skyfilm (www.skyfilm.hu), established by director Gabor Herendi (A kind of America, Lora). The co-production partners are the Swiss Kontraproduktion AG (www.kontra.ch) and the Hungarian TV channel RTL Klub (www.rtlklub.hu). Pinprick is the first Skyfilm production not directed by Herendi. The film is a low-budget thriller with estimated budget of 500,000 Euros. 100,000 Euros comes from the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (www.mmka.hu), and makes use of the Hungarian tax incentive system.

    Swiss born writer/director Young studied in the U.S. before moving to Hungary. The film stars Rachel Blake (Lantana), Laura Greenwood, and Hungarians Ervin Nagy (Overnight, Season, Mansfeld) and Zoltan Ratoti.

    The Hungarian theatrical release is already confirmed and the Swiss partner is negotiating a Swiss theatrical release.