Lights, camera and action

REPRESENTATIVES for the Majorcan audio visual industry are currently ironing out some minor details with the local authorities in a bid to secure Majorca as a location for a 150 million dollar blockbuster starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. The Bulletin has known for weeks that a major production has its eyes set on filming on location here on the island but are the local authorities going to put a spanner in the works? The local audio visual industry has been working extremely hard for the best part of a decade to land such a production and it is now within its grasp. And the local industry can pull it off, it has literally beaten off stiff competition from Europe's top filming locations with no fiscal incentives to offer.

The Valencian government, for example, offers up to 20 percent of local spend in the region to international, producers while Italy, France, Germany and Malta offer huge incentives.

Here in the Balearics we have no tax breaks or rebates to offer.
However, if the island can lure Hanks and co. to the island, then it will give the local industry further ammunition as it sets about drawing up a white paper for a new regional incentive for the international film industry.

This is due to be presented to central government in September but with general elections in November, the document could sadly end up gathering dust for a few months. In the meantime, let us hope someone in the new local government has some sense.