"Filming has now started in Budapest of the latest Steven Spielberg epic, Munich, based on the bloody aftermath of the 1972 Olympics, when Israeli athletes were attacked by Palestinian terrorists.

As reported by The Budapest Sun last week, Spielberg and his crew moved to Hungary from Malta.

On Sunday (August 14) evening , Andr?ssy ?t was closed to traffic to allow the crew to get to work.

The closure was apparently unannounced - it certainly took some taxi drivers by surprise and meant some of those going to the Opera House for the evening's performance of La Traviata, part of the Budafest summer festival, had to be escorted through a film set.

The Grand Boulevard, meanwhile was being turned into 1970s Paris, with a cavalcade of vintage cars from the period waiting to do their bit as extras.

But earlier in the week, on Wednesday, August 10, residents had complained that Hungarian production company Flashback Kft was towing cars away from Andrassy without giving enough warning.

Budapest City Hall denied that, however. Dorottya Czuk, the press department's office manager, told The Sun, We informed the residents of it in time."" She added ""Film shooting such as this is always very important for the city.

Munich, which stars Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Eric Bana (Troy), is just the latest international film to be shot here.

The Day of Wrath, a period piece starring Christopher Lambert (Highlander), recently finished shooting in Fot, near Budapest, while Copying Beethoven, with Ed Harris (Pollock) and Diane Kruger (Troy), was completed earlier this summer and is now in post-production. (See Beethoven in Budapest, The Budapest Sun, June 2).

According to hungarianfilm.com, several other films are in pre-production before shooting in Hungary starts, including Fever, Love is a Survivor, and The Last Unicorn, starring veteran actors Tony Curtis, Christopher Lee and Susannah York.

Curtis is of Hungarian decent and York has visited several times to perform at the Merlin International Theater.

The dramatic increase in interest in Hungary as a film location has something to do with the look of the city - which has been passed off as Berlin, Buenes Aires, Paris and Vienna (and occasionally even Budapest) in the past - and the countryside, but also, and arguably more importantly, a law passed in December 2004, that offers a 20% rebate to foreign productions on all expenses in Hungary, provided a local partner is involved.

Source: /www.budapestsun.com"">BudapestSun Auhtor: Robin Marshall"