Filming volume is on the verge of peaking in 2019 in the Czech Republic, according to the Czech Film Commission.

That year, € 347m / $ 420m of foreign investment poured into the country.

The claim comes despite continued concerns over Covid-19 in the Czech Republic, which was among the hardest-hit Central and Eastern European countries at the start of this year. However, the number of infections has declined steadily in recent weeks.

Among the projects in the making or in preparation in the Czech Republic, there is the serial adaptation of the novel by EM Note In the west, nothing is new (Netflix) with Daniel Brühl and directed by Edward Berger; Operation Totems, a love story from the Cold War era between two spies that takes place in East Berlin, Moscow and Paris (Amazon, Gaumont); the new adaptation of the novel Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (Lionsgate); the apocalyptic series Extinction (Sky); and Netflix feature films Bohemian Spaceman, an adaptation of the novel by Czech writer Jaromir Kalfar with Adam Sandler; and The gray man, a CIA thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the lead roles.

In addition, work continues on the two largest projects ever shot in the Czech Republic: The wheel of time (Amazon, Sony) with Rosamunde Pike, who wraps up filming on the first series, with the second series to follow immediately after, and Carnival row (Amazon, Legendary TV) with Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevigne.

Recently completed projects include the ZDF fairy tale The nose of the dwarf; feature film from director Marco Forster The white bird: a story of wonder (Lionsgate) with Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren, the story of a Jewish girl hidden by a family in occupied France; and the third series of American series Hanna (Amazon, NBCUniversal).

“Interest in foreign production was only temporarily held back last year, and once again we see a huge demand for filming in the Czech Republic. The audiovisual industry has an extraordinarily strong capacity to adapt and recover quickly, so it is also the perfect tool to relaunch employment and entrepreneurship in the post-coronavirus period ”, declared Helena Bezdek Frankova, director of the Czech Film Fund.

Last year, the Czech industry introduced a set of hygiene and cross-border transport rules to allow people to return to work in the film production sector. The country’s state of emergency ended on April 11, 2021.