Ambition & Fiction

It’s another business deal involving millions which, according to Manuel da Luz, “will serve to contradict all the negative verbiage flying around these days”. The ebullient President of Portimão Town Council explained that the principal objective of «Picture Portugal» is to create “a privileged welcoming environment” for all sorts of film productions: cinema, commercials, audiovisuals, multimedia and video games.

“I’ve always maintained that the role of a mayor who defends a competitive town is more than simply solving problems – he has to become an instrument for that town’s advancement and clear the way for projects which, of course, must be ambitious”, da Luz proclaimed.

The main focus of the project is the creation of 11 super-modern film studios to be built over an area - donated by the Town Council - of 80 hectares. The idea is for two of the studios to be up and running by the end of 2010. During the first phase, the plan is also to construct post-production areas for audio and video, an area for shooting outdoor scenes and a «water tank» - a specially adapted pool for underwater filming (and other scenes involving water). All this will be done on the scale the mayor demands for his municipality. “It will be the biggest in the world”, to quote him exactly.

The project’s promoters – which include Parkalgar, as well as other private investors – are also hoping to create a fund to finance films “made in Portugal”. They hope to raise 180 million euros (250 million dollars) – to be spent in two years. Right now, they’re negotiating the production of two new films to be made in Portimão, which will involve a budget of 30 million euros and mean 600 jobs for 12 months.

Other news is the staging of a major new film festival – to be held in Portimão from 2011, with open-air screens transmitting along Praia da Rocha. According to Joaquim de Almeida, the festival “will be dedicated to new directors and will last five days”. One of the major arguments for «Picture Portugal» being able to attract filmmakers is the Algarve’s many hours of sun, and the exceptional light that we have here. The new festival “will involve a special prize for the director of photography,” said de Almeida. “I think it’ll be as good as, or better, than Fantasporto – which is currently the best film festival we have in Portugal”, he added.

And alongside the construction of the studios – which, last January were given the green light for financial support from PROVERE (the national programme set up to stimulate projects and innovation) – there’ll be «Media Park»: a theme park connected to the cinema, audiovisual field and world of racing cars…The park is expected to cost in the region of 550 million euros, and be constructed on approximately 150 adjoining hectares of land. Its structure is currently under consideration by the North American company Universal Studios, which manage other theme parks in the United States and Japan.

Meantime, the Portimão municipality – through their own «Portimão Turis» programme, along with the «Algarve Film Commission», are negotiating a possible partnership deal with north American TV channel CBS. Apparently, there’s a meeting on 15th June in Los Angeles, California, that should be decisive. According to Joaquim de Almeida, it will be “important” for the Portimão studios to woo a new CBS series, or trilogy.

For the moment, the presence in Portimão of Lynn Fero, vice-president of CBS Television Network, serves to help convince anyone who may be sceptical of the latest plans.

“I’ve worked for the last 27 years in the film and television industry in the United States – and when I look at Portimão, and Portugal in general, I see the potential for the next Hollywood. Why? Because the country is a treasure trove in terms of locations”, she declared.

The CBS executive also gave another strong argument for the project – the possibility of saving money in a very competitive industry. “Right now, with the state of the economy the way it is, we have to stretch out our dollars to the maximum. Portugal appears economical – cheaper than London, and people speak English here. All this counts!” Fero explained, adding that “here, an independent director could get a lot more for his or her budget”. The distance between Lisbon and New York, the strategic location of the country and its climate, are all factors to consider – and to serve the logistic necessities of film studio executives and movie stars, the Town Council intend to open the way for new flight paths. “We have a financial estimate involving 80 million euros” for a new Portimão aerodrome to go ahead shortly, the mayor revealed.

At the end of the presentation, Joaquim de Almeida declared the whole project “ambitious”, adding “just because we’re small, why can’t we have ambitions?” Certainly, Portimão’s mayor has given free rein to his. Summing up with other infrastructures planned for the future world capital of cinema (a technology centre, shopping mall and services, hotels and other luxuries), Manuel da Luz declared that “we’re talking about a project that will be conceived in five years – costing more than three thousand million euros, and create, in the final analysis, seven thousand immediate jobs”.