Hungary Vies for Euro Film Crown

Home to the world's first nationalised film industry and first journal of film, Hungary is now setting its sights on becoming the Hollywood of the new Europe.

The Hungarian producer Andy Vajna, who was jointly responsible for a number of Hollywood blockbusters, announced in Budapest that he was building the world's biggest film studio on a disused military base south-west of the city.

Mr Vajna improved the bank balances of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone by producing the Rambo movies and Terminator 3.

Now he hopes to restore Hungary's long pedigree in the film industry and steal the thunder of east European film rivals such as Prague and Bucharest by building studios on a a 26-acre (just over 10 hectares) site.

It will be called after Sir Alexander Korda, a pioneering giant of the British film industry and its first mogul to be knighted. Korda, who was born Sandor Kellner on the Great Hungarian Plain in 1893, left Hungary at the age of 26, never to return, and eventually settling in England.

Mr Vajna told journalists that he was teaming up with a Budapest shopping mall magnate to build the studios at the cost of £100m on the disused base at Etyek, less than an hour from the city.

The Hungarian government is seeking to revive the film industry by offering tax breaks. That, combined with cheap and skilled labour in a country that has just joined the EU, is expected to boost its chances of attracting Hollywood productions.

"Film makers are moving to the east," said Mr Vajna, who produced the film version of Evita, shot in Hungary. "World film-making needs bigger and bigger studios. There are not enough of them."

Hungarians have long left heir mark on Hollywood with such artists as Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca, and its domestic directors such as Istvan Szabo are admired by European cinema buffs.