With its stunning scenery, surprisingly mild climate, and new 14 percent reimbursement program for all filming expenses, Iceland is attracting major movie productions.

"Flying in over the black sand beaches and lava fields, I could see that Iceland had the rugged and unusual look we needed for our film, “Flags of Our Fathers”. I soon learned that Iceland also has friendly, hard-working people with a refreshing can-do spirit. The open roads and undisturbed countryside remind me of the way America was fifty years ago. With such gorgeous scenery, delicious fish and even golf, Iceland made for a terrific filming location."

Director Clint Eastwood is using Iceland´s black beaches and volcanic craters as stand-in for island fortress Iwo Jima in his latest movie, based on James Bradleys bestelling WWII epic "The Flags of Our Fathers" - telling the tale of the six flagraisers on mount Suribachi.

Iceland is one of only 9 countries in the world categorized as "low risk" for filming according to the detailed map "2005 Risks in Global Filmmaking", published by Aon - Albert G. Ruben insurance and risk management services.

Guy X, starring Jason Biggs (American Pie), was filmed in Snaefellsnes West Iceland in the beginning of this month. Other leading actors in the film are Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park) and Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show). They were all present during the shooting in Iceland. The film is directed by Saul Metzstein (Late Night Shopping). The movie is based on the novel “No one thinks of Greenland ” by John Griesemer and is a black comedy in the spirit of Catch 22 and M.A.S.H. The film is a Canadian, UK and Icelandic cooperation. It is expected that the largest part of the movie will be filmed in Iceland. Among Icelandic actors in the film is Hilmir Snær Guðnason (101 Reykjavik, Angels of the Universe).

Shooting for the fifth Batman movie, Batman Begins, took place in Iceland last week. The scenes were filmed in South-east Iceland with the country's biggest glacier serving as a background. According to Sagafilm, the production service company in Iceland, about two hundred people were working on the set, around half of them being Icelandic. Two of the film’s leading actors, Christian Bale (Wayne/Batman) and Liam Neeson, who plays Wayne’s mentor, Henri Ducard, were present during the shooting in Iceland.

The EON production of James Bond has created more interest than ever for filming in Iceland. Shooting such an international hit movie here as Die Another Day displays to the rest of the world the potential of Iceland and how easily and inexpensively its off-the-wall landscape and colourful scenery can be “wrapped” with scenes in totally different countries or planets. This is in addition to financial gain from the 12% refund package.

Scenes for a feature-film version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, based on the famous novel by Douglas Adams, will be filmed in Iceland this year. Shooting will take place in either July or August, although the exact location has yet to be decided.  Preparations for this movie have been underway for several years. About one hundred people will be working on the set, about half of whom are expected to be Icelandic, and production costs in this country are estimated to reach at least USD 1 million. The film is scheduled for release in 2005. Garth Jennings will direct the film - his debut movie. He is best known for his musical videos presenting REM, Blur, Fatboy Slim, and Badly Drawn Boy. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will be produced by Nick Goldsmith, in cooperation with Walt Disney Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. The British actors Bill Nighy and Martin Freeman, from Love Actually, have already signed to take on two of the leading roles.

Scenes for the fifth Batman movie will be filmed in a few weeks' time in the glacial landscape of South-east Iceland, close to the iceberg-filled lagoon of Jökulsárlón, where Die Another Day was also filmed.

The Icelandic film Cold Light, directed by Hilmar Oddson and produced by the Icelandic Film Corporation, will be the opening film at the Gothenburg Film Festival 2004 in Sweden. The film will compete in the best Nordic film category. Last year, the Icelandic film "Noi the Albino" won the first prize at the Gothenburg Film Festival.

Niceland, directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and produced by Zik Zak Filmworks, is currently being filmed in Iceland and Germany. The British actors Gary Lewis and Martin Compston play the lead roles. While Lewis is best known for his performance in Billy Elliot, as Billy Elliot’s father, other roles also include a recent appearance in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. Compton made his debut performance in Sweet Sixteen and was nominated for Best Actor at Cannes in 2002. Other well-known actors appearing in Niceland include Kerry Fox, Peter Capaldi and Kelly McDonald. Many Icelandic actors are also to feature in the film. Taking place in an imaginary country called Niceland, the film portrays a naive young man embarking on a trip to seek the meaning of life, convinced that he will find the answer through the companionship of a strange loner. Niceland is expected to premier at the end of this year. The movie will benefit from the 12% refund offered by the Icelandic government on all production costs incurred in Iceland.

Terry Jones and Björk have joined the cast in the animated film Anna and the Moods, currently being developed at CAOZ Ltd. in Reykjavík. The music will be composed by Julian Nott and performed by the Brodsky Quartet. Björk will provide the main character’s voice and Terry Jones, from the Monty Python team, will narrate. The film is scheduled for release at the end of 2004. Digital animation has gained a foothold in Icelandic film production, as Icelandic production houses and studios have through the years gained internationally recognised expertise in the field of digital animation and graphics. Motion pictures and television programmes using digital animation are eligible for a 12% refund on all production costs incurred in Iceland. The production company CAOZ, whose background is in digital animation for films and commercials, received a first-place award in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the computer animation and digital video category, as well as two Icelandic EDDA awards last year for the short film The Lost Little Caterpillar. The film has also been nominated for several other awards, for example as Best Children’s Film, in Frederikstad, Norway.  The CAOZ Managing Director, Hilmar Sigurdsson, has stated that working on digital animation in Iceland is cost-effective in comparison to Europe and North America, due to Iceland's pool of highly talented people using state-of-the-art equipment, besides the attractive 12% refund arrangement. 

Nickelodeon Television Company and Lazytown have agreed on producing the children's series Lazytown in Iceland. The contract involves producing forty 30-minute episodes for the series, which will be released through Nickelodeon next year. Nickelodeon is the most popular children's television network in the United States, viewed in 86 million homes.  The series as a whole involves approximately one hundred people, with a US$ 15 million budget and will be produced in Icelandic studios. This demonstrates the wealth of talent available in Iceland, as well as competitive production costs, making it possible to almost double US$ screen value to actual cost. The main scriptwriter of Rutgrat, Nickelodeon's most popular programme, will cooperate in the production, along with former staff of the Jim Henson Company and the producers will fly in talents from US and Canada as needed. Both Icelandic and American actors will star in Lazytown and the music will be by Icelandic artists. Production will start in November and is expected to be finished by next June. Through production in Iceland, the TV programme can benefit from the 12% refund package and therefore receive a refund of that amount on all production costs incurred in Iceland or even in EU countries. Lazytown is based on a children’s fiction book by the Icelander Magnus Scheving, President and co-founder of Lazytown Entertainment. Lazytown’s philosophy is to inspire children to live a healthier lifestyle without actually lecturing to them. According to Brown Johnson, Vice President of Nickelodeon’s preschool division, the timing is right for marketing the Lazytown concept, since many articles have been published in the U.S. lately regarding children’s obesity and their lack of physical activity. She says that a TV series allowing children to discover the benefits of fitness and healthy lifestyles will undoubtedly contribute significantly to the subject. See: www.lazytown.com

Noi the Albino, feature film of the Icelandic director Dagur Kári Pétursson, received the Nordic Film Award at the Gothenburg film festival in Sweden last Saturday. In addition to the first prize, the film also received the FIPRESCI award and the Church of Sweden Film Award. Noi the Albino has already won six prizes at three different film festivals. The other three awards include best film and best music at the Premiers Plans Film Festival in Angers, France, and MovieZone-audience award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in Netherlands.

The 20th installment of the James Bond film series, the longest running and most successful film franchise in cinematic history, provides a glimpse of Iceland, a land of fire and ice that is only a five-hour flight from New York and three-hour flight from London. Die Another Day is shot in various countries such as Maui, Hawaii and Iceland. The climax of the film is a dramatic confrontation between Bond and the villain, taking place in Iceland. “The trickiest sequence was Bond’s showdown with Zao, villain Gustav Graves’ loyal henchman. Director Lee Tamahori decided to put the car-to-car battle on ice, on the frozen lagoon outside Graves' Icelandic lair.”  (Time Magazine). The remarkable car chase between Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish V12, Zao's Jaguar XKR was filmed on a glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón, on Iceland’s southeast coast. “The ice chase sequence was amazing“ second unit director Vic Armstrong says. “The whole sequence flows in a continuous movement – it’s like a ballet.” The team needed 30 cm thick ice but at the start they only got rain. Some of the team even went to Alaska to scout out possible locations, “but the cost of getting everyone and everything to a location there would have been monumental." (Time Magazine). But finally it started to freeze and the weather stayed cold for the three weeks the crew filmed in Iceland.

The animated film The Lost Little Caterpillar, produced by CAOZ,  was released in Reykjavík at the end of August. CAOZ is also planning to create a 26x5 series of the film, based on the original story by writer Mr. Fridrik Erlingsson.

In a recent study, “Business Costs in Iceland” published by KPMG International, Iceland showed good results in content development and advanced software operations. These operations are knowledge-intensive, with the majority of the workforce consisting of digital-graphics artists and employees with very high technical software design skills. Therefore, Iceland is a good option for companies such as Pixar and Dreamworks, and other digital animation production companies.The Lost Little Caterpillar, produced by Caoz, is an example of an Icelandic digital animated film. The KPMG study is a comprehensive guide for comparing the relative costs of operating various types of business in cities in North America, Europe and Japan. For further information on the study see www.invest.is.

James Bond has returned to Iceland, as scenes for the 20th Bond movie are now being filmed in the south east of Iceland, on a glacial lagoon of Jökulsárlón. EON productions selected Iceland, since winter landscapes were needed for the film.