The next major foreign film tipped to be filmed in Sri Lanka is "Toomai of the Elephants", an adaptation of a story from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book", starring former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan and veteran Omar Sharif, AFP reported.
Filming is set to begin in January, and many local film professionals see it as a major chance to advertise Sri Lanka as a flexible and attractive film location.
"The post-war era has opened doors for more movies to be shot in Sri Lanka," Chandran Rutnam, a Sri Lankan film maker who wrote the "Toomai of the Elephants" script, told AFP.
"Safety and difficulty to get insurance to cover film productions in Sri Lanka were the biggest drawbacks during the war. People are now willing to invest in films here because we are cheaper than other Asian locations."
Rutnam knows better than anyone the island's potential as he has worked on more than 50 international projects over the decades.
He was a 16-year-old film hand on the multiple Oscar-winning "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), directed by David Lean and starring Alec Guinness, which was filmed in a valley near the western town of Kitulgala.
Rutnam was also production manager alongside director Steven Spielberg on the 1984 blockbuster "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". It was shot in and around the royal city of Kandy.
- AFP
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