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Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Arnie and Sharon Stone's trip to Mars: The ultra-violent saga of Total Recall
Thirty-five years since Total Recall landed in cinemas, screenwriter Gary Goldman has a memory of director Paul Verhoeven pulling out a huge box. 'Paul scared me!' Goldman says, remembering the writing task that lay ahead. The contents of that box – a pile of scripts – represented Total Recall's agonising, stop-start journey. It was the summation of everything that kept the film – based on Philip K Dick's 1966 story, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale – at various levels of development hell for 15 years. Multiple writers and directors had produced some 40 drafts, which included – most curious of all – a David Cronenberg version that would have starred Richard Dreyfuss and a pack of sewer-dwelling mutant camels. Total Recall had done the rounds so often that it came on Goldman's writer-for-hire radar on three occasions. Now his job was to crack what no previous writer could: a satisfying conclusion. 'Paul gave me six or seven drafts and showed me the things he liked in them,' says Goldman. But Verhoeven and Goldman had a not-so-secret weapon, a name that would become a byword for cinema's, bicep-bulging, bankable brand of action – Schwarzenegger. The Austrian superstar – whose muscles were matched by a sharp mind for box office and marketing – had pursued the Total Recall script as determinedly as his T-800 Terminator once pursued Sarah Connor. Arnold Schwarzenegger saved the Total Recall script from bankruptcy, and the film was retooled specifically for him. But Total Recall isn't just any old Schwarzenegger vehicle. Total Recall is the ultimate Schwarzenegger film: a near-future, off-world fantasy that cranks up all the Arnie-isms to a hyper degree. It's all there – everything that was specific to Schwarzenegger's appeal at that time – in the fabric of Total Recall's not-quite-a-dream, not-quite-reality. The gruesome violence and bad language. The knack for dispatching villains with creative panache and a quip (' Screw you! ' he shouts as he runs one chap through with a giant drill). Also, the weirdly recurring idea of Arnold's dual identities and – continuing from The Terminator – the sense that he's somehow more than human, as rendered by Total Recall's Oscar-winning special effects. See Arnold emerging from beneath the gurning visage of a 'fat lady' disguise; yanking a golf ball-sized bug from his lively nostrils; and – the film's best remembered scene – choking on the surface of Mars, eyeballs being sucked out. Schwarzenegger plays Doug Quaid, a construction worker who dreams about going to Mars. To satisfy his urge, he visits tech company Rekall and has an 'ego trip' implanted – an artificial memory of being a secret agent on Mars, where he saves the planet and bags the brunette of his literal dreams, Melina (Rachel Ticotin). But the procedure uncovers a suppressed memory. He really was a secret agent on Mars, his real identity has been erased, and his beautiful-but-deadly wife (Sharon Stone) isn't his wife at all. To find out who he really is, Quaid goes to Mars and joins a mutant rebellion against Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), the oxygen-hogging Mars governor. Producer and writer Ronald Shusett first optioned Philip K Dick's short story back in 1974 for $1,000. 'I knew it would be an incredible movie,' Shusett later said. 'An incredibly expensive movie.' Shusett began writing with Dan O'Bannon (the same duo also created Alien) but they ran out of story to adapt by page 30. In Dick's version, the character never makes it to Mars. The story ends with an abrupt punchline about an invasion of alien field mice. For Shusett and O'Bannon, the question was where to take the character next. O'Bannon suggested a solution (though an ultimately expensive one): 'We take him to Mars.' Shusett tried to develop the film with Disney before Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis picked up the rights. David Cronenberg then developed his version under De Laurentiis and Shusett. Beginning in 1984, Cronenberg produced 12 script drafts over a year. By that point Total Recall was already notorious as one of the great unmade scripts. 'The thing that would not die,' said Cronenberg, though he had to concede 'because it had a terrific premise.' Cronenberg went to De Laurentiis's studio in Rome to prep the film with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead – Cronenberg actually wanted William Hurt – but the director clashed with Shusett and walked away. 'You know what you've done?' said Shusett about Cronenberg's serious, more intellectually probing script. 'You've done the Philip K Dick version.' 'Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?' replied Cronenberg. 'No, no,' said Shusett. 'We want to do Raiders of the Lost Ark Go to Mars.' Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger was tracking the project but De Laurentiis – who executive produced Arnold's Conan films – didn't see Arnold in the role. Total Recall came close to production again in 1987, this time in Australia with Driving Miss Daisy director Bruce Beresford and Patrick Swayze. This version, said Shusett, was more 'Spielberg-ish'. But just 60 days before production was set to begin, De Laurentiis's company filed for bankruptcy. Beresford called Shusett with the bad news. The director watched his sets being torn down as they spoke. Seeing the bankruptcy news, Schwarzenegger called Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, the executive producers at Carolco Pictures. Carolco, an independent studio, was known for spending big money and giving film-makers relative freedom. Carolco had hit big with Sly Stallone in Rambo and with Schwarzenegger in their stable – the next big thing in action –– they snapped up Total Recall for a reported $3-5 million. Mario Kassar laughs looking back at the deal. De Laurentiis, ever the salesman, had upsold them to include his already-paid-for production materials. 'Dino said, 'I've made all these special effects,'' remembers Kassar. ''I'll give you all the effects [for an increased cost]. It was a box of toys! Train and car miniatures... a few little Dinky toys! It was all part of his salesman speech.' With the script secured, Schwarzenegger enlisted Verhoeven. The pair previously met at an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. Schwarzenegger went over to tell Verhoeven how much he had enjoyed RoboCop, which opened in 1987, and they made a loose, gentlemanly agreement to find a project together in the future. Schwarzenegger called Verhoeven a few months later. 'I have the project,' he said. Verhoeven was sold on one particular scene, in which Dr Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) comes to Quaid and explains – quite convincingly – that his adventure is just a delusion, the exact secret agent fantasy that Quaid purchased at Rekall. Edgemar, who claims to be a safeguard within the artificial reality, offers Quaid a red pill to return to the real world (a decade before The Matrix handed out reality-awakening red pills). But when a bead of sweat dribbles down Edgemar's brow – proof (or is it?) that he's real after all and one of Cohaagen's goons – Quaid shoots him dead. It's the point of no return for Quaid. It was also the point at which every previous script draft had fallen apart. 'There were no more twists and turns,' remembers Gary Goldman. 'My goal was, let's keep this smart and surprising, if possible, all the way to the end.' Verhoeven also insisted that they keep the film ambiguous. Is Quaid's adventure real? Or is it just the Rekall-induced dream? There are details throughout that suggest it could just be the fantasy. Edgemar, for instance, plainly spells out the final act. 'We figured out ways to do it – to keep it on this razor's edge,' adds Goldman. 'Ultimately, we decided to make it work both ways, so there's no definitive answer that it's one or the other.' Total Recall was filmed in Mexico City and made use of the suitably futuristic architecture. The Mars colony – an alien mine-turned-industrial estate–turned sleazy red-light district – was constructed across nine soundstages at Churubusco studios. For Goldman, another challenge was to make Total Recall a Schwarzenegger film, and to get around the inherent ridiculousness of Arnie – with his distinctive accent and Mr Universe-winning physique – playing an agent in deep cover. (See also: the least inconspicuous undercover cop/kindergarten teacher of all time.) In Philip K Dick's original story, the character was a meek office worker – 'a miserable little salaried employee'. The Arnie version of Total Recall required lashings of Arnie-sized violence: skewering someone through the head with a steel bar; slicing off Michael Ironside's arms in a nasty elevator mishap; using an innocent bystander as a pulpy flesh-shield during a shootout. The violence – way more extreme than most modern action films would have the guts to serve up – was carefully scripted to deliver creative kills. Indeed, ultra-violence was one unifying factor in what feels, on the surface, like a melding of The Terminator and RoboCop – the T-800 storming through a RoboCop-like world of dark science-fiction, sleaze, and smirking satire (the commercials for Rekall easily sit alongside RoboCop's news bulletins). Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven were a perfect pairing for the moment. Arnold was blowing away bad guys and snapping necks all over the place. Meanwhile, Verhoeven's sense of obscenity, sleaze, and knowing silliness manifests as one of Total Recall's most enduring images, the triple-breasted mutant hooker (Lycia Naff), a character so deeply ingrained in the film's memory that she was updated for the (ironically forgettable) 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell. Mel Johnson Jr, who plays Benny, a mantis-armed mutant cabbie with five kids to feed, recalls being accosted by a gang of teenagers after the film was released. After asking him some rudimentary questions, one of them blurted out, 'Were the three breasts real?!' 'You just knew that's the question they really wanted to ask!' Johnson says, laughing. Johnson had actually auditioned for a Sylvester Stallone film before Total Recall. 'It was just horrible, the character was so stereotypical black,' he says. He read the Total Recall script the very next day and remembers that Benny was described as a 'jivester', which read like another blatant stereotype. 'I just took the script and threw it across the room,' he says. 'I was fed up.' Johnson gave Benny another chance and was hooked by the twist: Benny is an undercover villain and tries to squish Quaid and Melina with a mole drilling contraption. Selected for the role by Verhoeven's daughters, Johnson killed time on set by learning to drive Benny's double steering-wheeled taxi. He became so adept behind the wheels that he had to take over from the stunt driver and take a tricky corner at high speed. When Schwarzenegger's double went to sit in the back, Arnie stopped him. 'Arnold goes [adopting a Schwarzenegger accent], 'Oh no, if Mel is driving the car, I'm getting in the car, too,'' recalls Johnson. 'Everyone was going, 'Oh Jesus, what if he crashes the car?!'' Arnold, says Johnson, was 'witty, funny, no muss-no fuss, no entourage, none of that stuff.' Johnson also remembers the film's most impressive special effects creation: Kuato, a parasitic twin that emerges from the stomach of its big brother (Marshall Bell). Looking like a hideous-but-nonetheless-wizened baby, Kuato imparts psychic advice. The effect was created by putting Marshall Bell in a body prosthetic, alongside other shots of an animatronic recreation of the actor. 'Rob Bottin had to build an entire robot,' says Johnson. 'Paul didn't want it, he said it would look fake. So, Rob built it, shot a scene, and showed it to Paul. Paul was furious and said to Marshall Bell, 'When did you shoot this without me?!' Marshall said, 'I didn't do it!' Paul realised it was a robot and he couldn't tell the difference!' Between the mutants, fake Arnie heads, and the recreation of Mars, Total Recall is one of the great last gasps of pure practical effects, though it features some early CGI, as Quaid walks through an X-ray machine and we see his full skeleton. Filmed over six months, Total Recall was an immense production – one of the most expensive films ever at the time. The actual budget was never confirmed though. Mario Kassar puts the budget around the $30-$40 million mark, though reports at the time said $60 million. Verhoeven guessed $50 million. 'It went a little bit over, like every movie,' says Kassar. 'We went to Mexico to try and save as much money as possible. You're in the hands of your director. There's not a week that you don't argue about the budget with Paul. He's such a creative talent, he's not thinking about numbers, he's thinking about the movie… I've never heard of a director who wants less!' According to Goldman, Schwarzenegger used his star power to champion their vision – no matter how expensive it was – and when Carolco wanted to send Ronald Shusett home, because Shusett argued against budget cuts, Schwarzenegger stood up for him. 'He said, 'If you send Ron home, I'm going too!'' says Goldman. Thirty-five years on, Kassar gives Shusett, who died in 2024, his due credit. 'Without Ron there would be no Total Recall,' Kassar says. 'He was also a very opinionated man. But he came up with the idea. You've got to give him credit.' Mel Johnson Jr witnessed Schwarzenegger flex some backstage muscle during a publicity meeting with marketing executives. 'It was obvious to me that these execs were patronising him a little, as if he didn't know about marketing,' says Johnson. Arnold chomped on a cigar as the suits made vague PR promises – 'We're gonna do this and that for you,' Johnson remembers them saying – but Arnold stopped them and calmly reeled off a list of actors and all the magazine covers they got to publicise films. 'Now, are you getting those for me? Are those things happening?' Arnold said. 'The whole room changed,' says Johnson. 'He was on his game. He didn't raise his voice, didn't do it angrily. He just said these are the facts and I know the facts, so don't talk to me like I don't know what's going on. I had great respect for him.' Elsewhere, Schwarzenegger was a gregarious prankster. When the crew held a fancy dinner to mark the midpoint of the shoot – an 'almost halfway there' party – Schwarzenegger arranged for baskets of Styrofoam balls to be delivered. The dinner erupted into a Styrofoam snowball fight. 'The crew was throwing them at their crew chiefs, the actors were throwing them at Paul,' says Johnson. 'When we exhausted it, we were all just hysterically laughing. It was the biggest release and coming together. That was all Arnold.' Yet Total Recall might not have hit its eventual $260 million box office without that ever-elusive satisfying conclusion. To fix the longstanding problem, Goldman proposed an inspired twist: in chasing down his past and true identity, Quaid discovers that his old self – Carl Hauser – was, in fact, in cahoots with Cohaagen and wants his identity restored. The real man, the film's MacGuffin, is a villain; the fake identity – an artificial construction – comes out of it as the hero. 'It's the good Arnold having to give his body back to the bad Arnold,' says Goldman. Total Recall opened on June 1, 1990. Schwarzenegger's films had grossed $1 billion in the Eighties, but Total Recall was his biggest box office film to date. The following year, Terminator 2 – another Carolco production and an even bigger hit – solidified him as a cultural juggernaut. The question of whether it's all a dream or reality still works – 'The answer to that question,' says Mel Johnson Jr, 'is however you feel about it' – but real or not, Total Recall is as strong as peak Schwarzenegger gets.
Newsweek
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Patrick Schwarzenegger Says His Dad Is Having a 'Midlife Crisis'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Patrick Schwarzenegger said his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was going through a particular type of "midlife crisis" during a recent podcast interview. Newsweek reached out to Arnold Schwarzenegger's representative via email for comment on Friday. The Context Arnold Schwarzenegger, 77, actor and former governor of California, has played in such movie hits as The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall and True Lies. The Golden Globe Award winner shares four kids with his ex-wife, Maria Shriver: daughters Katherine and Christina and sons Patrick and Christopher. In 2011, he revealed that he has another child, son Joseph Baena. Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, is an actor as well and has had roles in The Staircase and American Sports Story, and currently stars in The White Lotus. What To Know On Thursday's episode of Literally! With Rob Lowe, host Rob Lowe brought up Patrick Schwarzenegger's famous father and his love of animals. "I love that Arnold has the mini horse and the pig... it makes me want to do that," The West Wing star, 61, said. "He has totally embraced this new act of life. It's just, he's such a Doctor Dolittle meets kind of like this midlife crisis, but happiness and calmer side of life. It's really funny," Patrick Schwarzenegger said. (L) Patrick Schwarzenegger attends The Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala on October 19, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (R) Arnold Schwarzenegger attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix's "FUBAR" on May 22, 2023 in Los... (L) Patrick Schwarzenegger attends The Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala on October 19, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (R) Arnold Schwarzenegger attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix's "FUBAR" on May 22, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. More; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic The California native continued: "You've seen it, but this picture of him holding court at his dinner table with a cigar in his mouth and the miniature donkey behind him on the right side, and the miniature pony on the left side, and the pig right below his feet eating, and then the little Chihuahua on his lap, and then the massive 180-pound malamute husky over there next to the horse. And then the other—what's it called?—dog. That's 150 kg. It's just like they have all of them surrounding Arnold." Patrick Schwarzenegger added that his dad's animals are cooked homemade meals. "He has certain meals, he has the oatmeal cookies, the homemade oatmeal cookies that are good for the horses. He's got special meals for the dog. He's got the soup that the pig loves. It's just it's out of a movie. It really is." Lowe shared that Brian Grazer—a producer with credits on films like Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind—"has a movie he's developing about Arnold and the animals." "Every time I see Brian—I've had Brian on the show—I keep saying, 'What's going on with the Arnold animal movie?' Because honestly, I don't know anything I'd rather see than a movie about Arnold and his animals. I really don't. I am so down to see that." "I saw him literally yesterday and he brought it up," Patrick Schwarzenegger replied. "I'm hoping that it happens." The pair then went on to tease Arnold Schwarzenegger about his dress sense. "When did Arnold start dressing like Adam Sandler? When did that happen?" Lowe asked. "I make fun of Arnold more than anyone for the outfits he wears," Patrick Schwarzenegger said, before noting that his father went to a recent photo shoot for Netflix's FUBAR without wardrobe, so they shot him "how he's dressed." "I was like, I bet you he has a cigar and he's got a T-shirt of himself on. And he sent the photo, and it was literally a photo of himself with the shirt of himself, with a photo of himself in the background. I was just like, it doesn't get any, any better." "There's no one I love more for living his best life than your dad," Lowe said. What People Are Saying Lowe promoted the podcast on Instagram, and fans shared their excitement over the interview in the comments. Instagram user hermanator70 wrote: "Fun podcast." @jessicaskelton13 shared: "This is amazing." @mattvanleer21 said: "Just seen this one. Loved it so much Mr Lowe. We just [finished] watching White Lotus season 3. [Your] friend was mind blowing in it." @trulyafitz chimed in: "FINALLY!" What Happens Next FUBAR Season 2 will be available on Netflix on June 12. All episodes of The White Lotus are currently available to stream on Max. New episodes of SiriusXM's Literally! With Rob Lowe are available every Thursday on the SiriusXM app and wherever podcasts are available.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Cruise says Ana de Armas' John Wick spin-off Ballerina "kicks ass"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Tom Cruise is full of praise for new John Wick spin-off Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas as the titular dancer-turned-assassin. "It's gonna be a fun summer. A lot of movies," Cruise said during a red carpet appearance at the UK premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in London, which you can watch below. One title mentioned was Ballerina, which hits theaters next month, and Cruise immediately responded enthusiastically. "I saw the movie, it just kicks ass," he said. "It's right in that tone, it's right in that Wick world. You're gonna love it." Directed by Total Recall remake helmer Len Wiseman, the movie is written by John Wick 3 and 4 screenwriter Shay Hatten and follows de Armas' character Eve as she trains with the Ruska Roma so she can get revenge for her father's death. Set between the third and fourth John Wick movies, the cast includes several familiar faces from the Wick-verse, including Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane as New York Continental manager Winston, a posthumous appearance from Lance Reddick as concierge Charon, and the return of Anjelica Huston's the Director. The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, Hereditary's Gabriel Byrne, and Dune's Sharon Duncan-Brewster also star. As for Cruise, his next big-screen outing is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which sees him take on the role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt for the eighth and last time. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is out on May 21 in the UK and May 23 in the US, while Ballerina arrives in theaters on June 6. For more on the rest of this year's best upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2025's biggest movie release dates at a glance.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Arnold Schwarzenegger cracks rare joke about Maria Shriver — and the film residuals she still asks for
He's got jokes. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a rare comment about ex-wife Maria Shriver while promoting his newest holiday movie, 'The Man With the Bag,' at Amazon's Upfront 2025 Presentation in New York City on Monday. The 77-year-old 'Terminator' star likened the upcoming flick to another Christmas classic he starred in, 'Jingle All the Way.' He then poked fun at Shriver, who filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger in 2011 after 25 years of marriage. Advertisement 8 Arnold Schwarzenegger made a rare comment about his ex-wife, Maria Shriver, on Monday while in New York City. GC Images 8 Shriver filed for divorce from the 'Terminator' star in July 2011 after 25 years of marriage. FilmMagic ''Jingle All the Way' was the greatest Christmas movie of all time,' he said during the event, per People. 'They play it the whole month of December.' Advertisement 'I know,' Schwarzenegger added, 'because my ex-wife calls me about the residual.' Schwarzenegger previously opened up about his split from Shriver, 69, in September 2023 before the release of his 'Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life' motivational book. 8 Schwarzenegger joked that Shriver still 'calls me about the residuals' for his 1996 holiday movie 'Jingle All the Way.' Getty Images 8 The 'Total Recall' star and Shriver on their wedding day on April 26, 1986, in Hyannis, Mass. Getty Images Advertisement Although Shriver filed for divorce from the 'Conan the Barbarian' star in 2011, the pair didn't finalize their split until December 2021. 'We never left the chapter,' he explained to People at the time. 'Because remember, it's not like we had a feud. We didn't have a fight. It's just my f–k up, right?' 'She said, 'Okay, this is what it is,' and then she decided to make a split,' Schwarzenegger continued, 'so it was her decision.' 8 A family picture of Christopher, Katherine, Christina and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Katherine Schwarzenegger/Instagram Advertisement 'But the fact is,' he added, 'we always made it very clear that the kids should not suffer because of that.' Shriver filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger two months after he revealed he fathered a secret son, Joseph Baena, now 27, in 1997 with the family's housekeeper, Mildred Baena. The 'Total Recall' actor and Shriver have four children together: Christopher, 27, Patrick, 31, Christina, 33, and Katherine, 35. Despite their split, the pair is still happy co-parents to their adult kids. 8 Schwarzenegger and Shriver during the 'Conan the Barbarian' actor's inauguration as governor of California in January 2007. AP 8 Schwarzenegger in 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' in 1991. Everett Collection / Everett Collection 'My chapter with Maria will continue on forever,' the former governor of California said in September 2023. 'Even though it's a different relationship, there's no reason for me to feel anything other than love for her.' As for Shriver, she opened up about the couple's shocking split this year with the release of her 'I Am Maria' book. She called the divorce 'brutal,' and admitted that she was left 'terrified' in the wake of the 'devastating' and 'life-altering blow.' Advertisement 8 Shriver opened up about her split from Schwarzenegger in April with the release of her 'I Am Maria' book. Getty Images 'It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me,' the former journalist wrote. 'Without my marriage, my parents, a job – the dam of my lifelong capital-D Denial just blew apart.' 'Honestly, it was brutal,' she added, 'and I was terrified.' Advertisement Shriver also clarified that she is now in 'such a good place' after the initial shock of the divorce, and that she and Schwarzenegger are 'still in conversation' thanks to their children and grandchildren. 'We laugh a lot about our kids, our grandkids, ourselves, and we are proud of the fact that we are still in conversation,' she said in March. 'For almost 50 years!'
Euronews
11-05-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Hungarian filmmakers in the shadow of Trump's tariff threat
Earlier this week, the US President Donald Trump posted on his social media site that he plans to impose a 100 per cent tariff on films produced outside the United States. "The US film industry is dying at a rapid pace. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to lure filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. (...) Therefore, I am authorising the Department of Commerce to immediately begin the process of imposing a 100 per cent tariff on all foreign-made films coming into our country," Donald Trump said in his post. Back in 2010, soon after becoming Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán overhauled the film support system after 2010, with Hollywood producer Andy Vajna (Rambo, Total Recall, Evita) at the centre of the reforms. Vajna set up a new system of state support for Hungarian films, with a greater emphasis on saleability. He also used his connections to bring Hungarian artists into the fold, resulting in a new Hungarian Oscar after decades and a good showing for Hungarian films at the Cannes Film Festival. The Hungarian state gave a corporate tax credit of 25 per cent and then 30 per cent on production costs in Hungary, with the aim of benefiting the domestic production base. Several large studios were set up, professional crews strengthened, and income from foreign labour increased. Vajna's death in 2019 has left a noticeable dent in the support system for Hungarian films, which has recorded fewer international successes. Still, the growth of Hungarian production companies has not slowed. Between 2018 and 2023, service revenues quadrupled, with government film commissioner Csaba Káel estimating they will reach nearly $1 billion. Around 85-90 per cent of Hungarian film spending is US-sourced, writes Károly Radnai, managing partner of Andersen Adótanácsadó Zrt. Despite accounting for 90% of the revenues of the Hungarian film industry, which employs 20,000 people and is also identified by Prime Minister Orbán as a strategic sector, film industry players reached by Euronews are taking a wait-and-see stance. "The intention to make more films in the United States and export fewer films overseas is not something that has just been invented, but has been heard louder and louder for 4-5 years," Mihály Tóth, marketing director of Origo Flmstúdió, told Euronews. The current situation is an exclamation mark: we understand that there is such a need. We also want more films to be shot in Hungary. " "The decision to shoot American films in Hungary was not made by us, but by American filmmakers, on the simple basis of where a film can be produced most efficiently. Nobody understands the kind of customs clearance system that is now being suggested, because you can't tax a cultural product in this way," added Mihály Tóth. He also had questions for Gergő Balika, producer of Mid Atlantic Films, who told Euronews that he did not know the basis for the duty. What qualifies as a foreign-made film? Would the duty apply only to cinema films, or would it also apply to works made for streaming? Balika also stressed that even a film shot in Hungary has a myriad of work processes in the US. Overall, he said that this is now a tentative announcement, which shows the direction of US intentions, but details are still to be seen. The problem is also theoretical at the moment because making a film is a long process. According to Mihály Tóth, Origo's clients are undoubtful, and that the work in progress must continue. How the rules will change along the way and the timing of these changes remain to be seen, but work has to continue in the meantime. "Today's rain will affect the filming outside more than this announcement," Mihály Tóth told Euronews. Like him, Gergő Balika also sees it as unlikely that production of big productions that are already booked (such as the next two seasons of the 3-body-problem) will be brought back to the US. However, several sources have pointed out that the global film industry cannot be pinned down. A Mission: Impossible or a James Bond movie is not shot in one country, and that will not change. "For example, filming a Harry Potter movie requires a medieval castle. It costs more money to build that than to go to a castle and shoot a scene there. To suddenly have medieval castles in a country where there are none, you can't expect that, because economically it doesn't go anywhere," said Mihály Tóth. Csaba Káel, the head of the Hungarian National Film Institute, the central organisation of the Hungarian film industry, expressed a similar view in a one-paragraph statement. "Hungarian film studios are currently full of international and domestic productions. Working out the details of possible US safeguard tariffs affecting the domestic film industry and their introduction is a longer process. In the meantime, we are discussing further cooperation and co-production opportunities with our foreign partners on several continents around the world that will benefit the Hungarian film industry." The fluidity of the issue is reflected by the fact that President Trump later promised to hold talks with representatives of the US film industry, and the White House said that no final decision on tariffs for films made abroad has yet been made. Responding to questions from journalists, Trump stressed that film production and the relocation of filming abroad had "decimated" the US film industry and that he wanted to help, not harm, the industry, which receives financial and other support abroad. "We are watching the international news. What I was really looking forward to was the reaction from the United States, and the governor of California said that California has a successful support model, so why don't they take it to the federal level? This kind of reaction is a good message, structural problems should be addressed locally," said Mihály Tóth. However, Gergő Balika thinks the US government may eventually pressure studios to keep more of their film production work at home. According to Károly Radnai, managing partner of Andersen Adótanácsadó Zrt, the real target may not be Hungary, but Canada, the UK and Australia. As it is a service, the problem cannot be dealt with by classical customs measures, which means that Hungary can negotiate with the US independently of the EU for facilitations or exemptions. "It would be important," Radnai writes, "for the Hungarian government to act as soon as possible and use the good relations with the Trump administration to assert our country's interests diplomatically." Is Harry Styles now living in Berlin? According to the German daily tabloid Bild, the British singer has bought a flat in the capital - and TikTok users report having spotted him in Berlin-Mitte: dressed in blue, friendly, generous - he is even said to have paid for taxis for strangers. But why is Harry Styles really in Berlin? A source revealed to Britain's The Sun newspaper that the pop star is currently working on a new album. And why Berlin of all places? Styles is following in the footsteps of one of Britain's greatest music legends: David Bowie. The singer has been spotted several times with producer Kid Harpoon - the man behind his hit album Harry's House from 2022, including the global number one hit "As It Was", the best-selling song of the year worldwide. "Harry wanted to take a break after the mega-success of his last tour and the release of Harry's House," says the inside source. "Now he's working hard on his next album - and like Bowie once did, Berlin seems to inspire him. Harry loves the mysterious. Just like Bowie used to." David Bowie lived in Berlin's Schöneberg neighbourhood between 1976 and 1978 - a time that shaped him both musically and personally. His iconic song "Heroes", inspired by a pair of lovers at the Berlin Wall, was written during this period. Berlin was a place of retreat for Bowie: far away from the cameras in London and Los Angeles, and far away from the addiction problem that increasingly burdened him. Together with Iggy Pop, he lived in a small flat at 155 Hauptstraße, painted, composed - and sought peace and quiet. "I think Bowie wanted to find himself again in Berlin - and he succeeded," says director Francis Whately, who produced the documentary Bowie in Berlin. Of his so-called "Berlin trilogy", "Heroes" is probably the best known. It's also worth mentioning the atmospheric instrumental piece "Neuköln" (with only one "l"), which has been described by critics as a picture of the mood. Bowie remained connected to the city. In 1987 he returned to play a live concert in West Berlin - so close to the border that many East Berliners gathered along the wall to listen. Bowie heard people on the other side singing along and later called it "one of the most emotional performances I've ever experienced." Bowie also produced the entire soundtrack to the iconic Berlin film Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, which tells the story of drug-addicted teenagers from Gropiusstadt. The comparison is obvious. Like Bowie, Styles also breaks with gender norms in fashion, wearing skirts, pearl necklaces and silk blouses. But not everyone is convinced. Bowie's former producer criticised the attempt to sell Styles as a "modern Bowie" suggesting the context and zeitgeist were too different. Styles himself, however, has repeatedly described Bowie as a role model; an "absolute hero" who "can do no wrong". Does he consciously place himself in Bowie's tradition? Perhaps. But Berlin today is no longer the Berlin of yesteryear. While Bowie was able to live almost anonymously in Schöneberg, Styles is unlikely to go unnoticed for long in Mitte. Apparently, most Berliners knew who Bowie was - and didn't care. Perhaps Styles, who has already been spotted in Berlin without bodyguards, is hoping for the same kind of anonymity?
