The Cinescapader: 2016

Monday, September 26, 2016

Visiting Filming Locations of "The Bourne Identity" (2002) in Prague, Czech Republic

Directed by Doug Liman
Produced by Doug Liman, Patrick Crowley and Richard N. Gladstein
Screenplay by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron
Based on The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Starring Matt Damon and Franka Potente

The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American-German action thriller film. It is an adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name.

From the onset of filming, difficulties with the studio slowed the film's development and caused a rift between the director and Universal Pictures, as executives were unhappy with the film's pacing, emphasis on small scale action sequences, and the general relationship between themselves and Liman, who was suspicious of direct studio involvement.
A number of reshoots and rewrites late in development, plus scheduling problems, delayed the film from its original release target date of September 2001 to June 2002 and took it $8,000,000 over budget from the initial budget of $60 million; screenwriter Tony Gilroy faxed elements of screenplay rewrites almost throughout the entire duration of filming.
A particular point of contention with regard to the original Gilroy script were the scenes set in the farmhouse near the film's conclusion. Liman and Matt Damon fought to keep the scenes in the film after they were excised in a third-act rewrite that was insisted upon by the studio. Liman and Damon argued that, though the scenes were low key, they were integral to the audience's understanding of the Bourne character and the film's central themes.
The farmhouse sequence consequently went through many rewrites from its original incarnation before its inclusion in the final product.

Other issues included the studio's desire to substitute Montreal or Prague for Paris in order to lower costs, Liman's insistence on the use of a French-speaking film crew, and poor test audience reactions to the film's Paris finale. The latter required a late return to location in order to shoot a new, more action-oriented conclusion to the Paris story arc.
In addition to Paris, filming took place in Prague, Imperia, Rome, Mykonos, and Zürich; several scenes set in Zürich were also filmed in Prague. Damon described the production as a struggle, citing the early conflicts that he and Liman had with the studio, but denied that it was an overtly difficult process, stating, "When I hear people saying that the production was a nightmare it's like, a 'nightmare'? Shooting's always hard, but we finished." -Wikipedia

Politických věznů 20/931.

Opletalova.

křižovatka Politických vězňů a Jindřišské / ul. Panská.

Hotel Carlo IV. - Praha, Senovážné nám. 13.

ul. V cípu.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Visiting Filming Locations of "Amadeus" (1984) in Prague, Czech Republic

Directed by Miloš Forman
Produced by Saul Zaentz
Screenplay by Peter Shaffer
Based on Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce and Elizabeth Berridge

Amadeus is a 1984 American biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman, written by Peter Shaffer, and adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus (1979). The story, set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, is a fictionalized biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack of the movie.
The film was shot on location in Prague, Kroměříž, and Vienna. Notably, Forman was able to shoot scenes in the Count Nostitz Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito debuted two centuries before. Several other scenes were shot at the Barrandov Studios. -Wikipedia.