Greek bureaucracy has always been criticized by both Greek and foreign investors and rightfully so. Screenwriter for the new movie “Hercules”, Evan Spiliotopoulos, sheds some light on this problem. According to Evan, producers had considered Greece as a possible location for the movie, even sending some location scouts to Greece. Unfortunately however, due to, “bureaucracy, lack of incentives for the production, and a non-existent motivation from the Greek state, they filmed the movie in Budapest”.
Countless blockbuster movies based on Greek mythology have been released such as “Troy”, “Alexander”, and now “Hercules”, yet none have been produced in Greece which no doubt has a beautiful landscape. Even Suzanne Collins who wrote the Hunger Games trilogy claimed that she was inspired by the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Nonetheless, most of those movies were produced in Malta, England, or Morocco. Greek bureaucracy has proved to be a terrible obstacle that is not worth dealing with due to its inefficiency and high taxes, costing the Greek economy millions of dollars and good exposure for the country which would benefit tourism.
The movie “Hercules” which had an estimated budget of 110 million dollars, helped generate 60 to 70 million dollars for the Hungarian economy. Moreover, Malta has proven to be the designated country for movies that require a “Mediterranean environment”. Hundreds of movies have been filmed in Malta due to a more cooperative government which even promotes filming locations on visitmalta.com. In addition, companies in Malta such as U-Film offer a range of filming services and locations within the country.
Meanwhile, the Greek economy continues to struggle and evidently one of its biggest obstacles is the country’s incapable bureaucratic system. Millions of dollars that could have helped boost the Greek economy, have found their way to countries such as Hungary and Malta proving once more that the country’s inefficiency has hurt the country itself and its citizens.