Raleigh Studios, the largest independent studio operator in the U.S., has extended its reach internationally, breaking ground on a new state-of-the-art studio facility in Budapest. Raleigh’s European partner in the venture is Origo Film Group.
Raleigh Studios Budapest is scheduled to open its doors in April 2010. The site is less than 20 minutes from all major hotels and downtown Budapest, meaning it will be home to the closest studio facility to the heart of Hungary. The studio will feature nine soundstages, including a super stage 45,000 square feet and 65 feet to the grid. There will be full transportation, set and location lighting and grip via Hollywood Rentals (which is owned by Raleigh’s parent company), line producing with Raleigh Film (Raleigh’s production service arm), a postproduction facility and digital film lab.
Incorporated into the studio’s design is a 15 acre backlot which will lend itself to such activities as outdoor set builds. A full production training school will also be on let to help maintain Hungary’s existing talent pool while creating a new generation of film crews.
Raleigh will also offer administration services for film incentives and tax rebates available in Hungry. Currently Hungry offers a 20 percent production incentive and can go as high as 25 percent in some cases to qualified productions. A value added tax is also fully reclaimable.
Raleigh Studios also maintains facilities in Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Playa Vista, Calif., as well as Baton Route, Louisiana. Lighting and grip firm Hollywood Rentals maintains shops in Los Angeles, Charlotte, Orlando and Baton Rouge.
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More