Summary
NICOSIA: Watch out Hollywood and Bollywood, the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus that has built a reputation as a tourist magnet thanks to its pristine beaches wants a piece of the action: Enter "Olivewood" and Nicolas Cage.
Cage's action packer "Jiu Jitsu" is, along with adventure flick "S.O.S: Survive or Sacrifice" featuring U.S. actor William Baldwin, the first foreign film to take advantage of the incentive plan dubbed "Olivewood".
Last year, Cyprus hosted its first-ever promotional film conference, attended by dozens of delegates from the foreign film industry.
The filmmaker said Hollywood had become too costly for filmmakers with limited budgets, so he had canvased several European countries that offer financial benefits before settling on Cyprus.
And he is already thinking of filming a second movie next year in Cyprus.
Invest Cyprus has an annual budget of 25 million euros and hopes it will be enough to attract 70 million euros' worth of investments from foreign film production houses, as well as create dozens of jobs on the island.
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