When I was in Prague in March, I saw posters for "Van Helsing" plastered all over the metro, but I just saw the movie and was disappointed to see that there aren't very many shots of Prague.....about a minute's worth of a scene near Charles Bridge, but the film tries to pass it off as Budapest. Maybe I'm nuts, but that sure looked like the National Theater in the background..... What did anyone else think? :wink:
Yep that was Prague all right. I recognized it immediately in that one scene, and I had no Idea it was filmed there. I watched all the credits just to make sure and it did list all the Prague Units there. It was sad they didn't have more shots, but I was still excited and surprised to see the bridge just pop into that scene. I suppose some of the interiors as well as the forest shots might have been in Prague and surrounding areas of the Czech Republic, but thats just a guess. They seem to be doing so many movies there nowadays. I've always wondered if I could work as an interpreter go-between for the Czech and American film crews.
Yes, quite a few movies have been shot in Prague of late. I also remember seeing a movie (Fatherland) where they passed Prague off for Berlin. It was kind of akward as in the opening scene there is a view of the skyline of Prague with the Týn in the background and the subtitle reads "Berlin 1964". I just had to smile. Another movie where Prague suddenly pops up is "From Hell" (the one starring Johnny Depp) where you can catch a glimpse of the Olšanské Hřbitovy in Žižkov among other Prague spots.
or XXX, Tripple X with Vin Diesel, that was reeeeally funny he was escaping some sniper and warping in various locations in prague
OK, so here's the deal...I have not yet seen the film Van Helsing so I don't know about other locales throughout Prague, but I can tell you one thing for certain...the village in the film is in Prague--Kunratice (P4), to be exact. It is called kunratický zámek which basically means Kunratice Chateau in English. It is generally in quite bad shape for a historical landmark, and is not even open to the public but for a few select times during the year. It was only permitted as a film location because of the reconstructive efforts the filmmakers had to do to in order to make it film-worthy. It was actually a quite eerily interesting place even before they filmed there. I recommend checking it out if you're there at the right time. For more info: http://www.praha-kunratice.cz/ And the reason Prague (and other locations throughout Czech Republic) are used so extensively by filmmakers as of late is the low cost of filming there. Also, it is due to the fact that through the years, the Czech government has discouraged (thankfully) the altering of historical landmarks (of which they consider almost everything), so many places look quite appropriate for "period" or other films where such a setting is desired. On a related note, there was a request a year or so ago to film the Charles Bridge, but the filmmakers wanted to shroud the statues in blue cloth (to be able to block them out later and disguise the fact that it was Prague). The government was only too eager to deny such a request.
