娱乐英语新闻:Feature: Bulgaria's film studio boasts of its role in world blockbusters

SOFIA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Filming of The Expendables 4 and another movie with Morgan Freeman is in the pipeline for Bulgaria-based NuBoyana Film Studios amid dozens of world blockbusters already made there, an insider told Xinhua.

Yariv Lerner, the CEO of NuBoyana Film Studios, told Xinhua that the movie with Morgan Freeman would happen either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, while The Expendables 4 would probably be made mid-2016, showing the upward trend in the company's development.

Established in 1962, and privatized ten years ago by U.S. company Millennium Films, the studio hosted the production of 180 world famous films such as 300: The Rise Of An Empire, Olympus Has Fallen, The Expendables 2 and 3. Movies that have yet to be shown include London Has Fallen and Septembers Of Shiraz, the first that was entirely produced by NuBoyana.

Filmmakers from countries like the United States, Russia, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Israel have recently worked there.

Walking around the buildings of the studio located at the foothills of Vitosha Mountain near the Bulgarian capital, there are real-size models of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and streets from New York, Baghdad, and ancient Rome.

In addition, a three-storey warehouse with clothing containing 10 million pieces, the largest in the Balkans, is available to filmmakers.

Surprisingly, price is not the main reason that brings film producers to the poorest country of the European Union.

"I think the first benefit we have is the crews are very, very talented here," Lerner said. "They've worked, they do five to 10 movies a year, and they are very good. They are very quick, they're efficient, and they know what they are doing. So, directors and production designers and producers really appreciate the efficiency of the crew," he said.

The other one is the easy filming, Lerner said. "The government is very generous with permitting and allowing us to film certain things. For example, I know in France you can't even use a drone without special permission; here you can," he added.

It is very cost effective, too, having so many things like sound stages because you don't spend time with transport. "You can do everything on the site," he said.

Lerner said the money compared to the United States could range between a third to a tenth of the price, a lot cheaper than in Western Europe.

"In terms of the crews, when they are so good and so efficient, just from that you have a lot of savings. If something takes you two hours instead of four hours because everyone is so prepared, you'll save money," Lerner said.

"We have done more than 140 movies so far, most of them feature. Our latest project is London Has Fallen. We have done Conan the Barbarian. We have done Olympus Has Fallen previous to that, and, basically, in the world of visual effects there is nothing we cannot do," Markov said.