‘Poor Things’ Host Hungary Anticipates Continuing Production Boom After SAG-AFTRA Strike Settles

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias With the resolution of the Hollywood writers strike in September, hopes were high for a return to business as usual in bustling Budapest, host to such recent high-profile productions as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice sensation and Oscar frontrunner “Poor Things.” But the sudden breakdown in negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP in early October dampened that enthusiasm. “We were starting to get momentum back, which was leading us to believe that we would be opening up offices on new shows in early November, on the assumption that the strike would be over by the end of October,” says Adam Goodman of Mid Atlantic Films, which is currently servicing Peacock and Sky’s spy series “The Day of the Jackal.” Instead, a waiting game is playing out in studios and C-suites across the globe, as actors, talent reps, executives and other industry players not only try to hash out a blueprint for the film and TV business moving forward but plot the next step for the many productions put on pause during the nearly four-month-old strike.

Nevertheless, business in Budapest — the second-largest production hub in Europe, after the U.K. — has proven to be surprisingly resilient. “We have been lucky because we haven’t really stopped,” says Ildikó Kemény, managing director of Pioneer Stillking Films, which provided production services on “Poor Things” and Netflix’s “All the Light We Cannot See,” a limited series starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti. “We are constantly budgeting, presenting location and studio possibilities for U.K.