Lights, action, camera! We’re back in the spotlight, caught in the lens again. Yes, we’ve all seen the weird looking lights hanging over the city at night as if there are two moons in Dubrovnik. The flow of black vans on Pile looks like a cruiser has arrived in Gruz and the photos of English actress Emily Blunt, who somewhat stole the show over her husband who is the main character in this latest production.
This whole contemporary circus of films and serials really started with Game of Thrones, and this was both a blessing and a problem. A blessing, well that’s clear, as the city’s tourism industry had overnight more exposure than the Superbowl and more publicity than the Kardashians.
Not only were we firmly on the middle of the radar for the millions of fans of the show during filming but still today, three years after the final episode was aired, are still living from this past glory. Just take a walk around the city and count the souvenir shops, the tours and the T-shirts.
So what’s the problem you cry? Well imagine that your first car was a Ferrari, your first girlfriend a Victoria’s Secret model, your first drink a bottle of magnum of Dom Perignon and your first pay check $1 million. You’ve set the mark pretty high and everything after that we be somewhat of a climb down. Dubrovnik came in at the very peak rather than slowly building up. A little like starting to climb Mount Everest from the top down to base camp.
And just to make matters worse, or better, we went from the most popular serial of all time to the most popular movie franchise of all time, Star Wars.
After these two “starters” then of course the main course and dessert have got a lot to live up to. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great that Amazon have decided to film the Jack Ryan serial here.
It’s not a serial that I watch but I’ll probably tune in to see the city as the “leading lady” again. It’s also a huge bonus that the cast and crew have come to us in the dead of winter. There is a clearly a reason that our tourism numbers went from 400 and 500 for the last few weeks to almost a thousand last weekend. A double up due to one serial.
Obviously, attracting any kind of major event in the off-season is welcome. And that is the brilliant versatility of Dubrovnik, both as a filming destination and a tourist destination.
On the filming front Dubrovnik has, in recent years, been a city in a periodic fantasy drama from the 15th century in Game of Thrones, an English castle in Nottingham in Robin Hood, a faraway planet in a sci-fi movie in Star Wars, a Muslim castle in the Crusades in Knighfall, the luxurious French Riviera and even in a couple of Bollywood flicks.
The versatility knows no borders. We even at one point acted as a boiling hot desert, complete with sand dunes and burning sunshine, in fact it was probably the only desert in the world with a view of a Lidl and Pevex. And before all this we were even the location for a Superhero flick, Captain America, although the less said about this movie the better. And now we find ourselves in the middle of an American political action thriller television series, with the CIA on the Stradun!
And not even a global pandemic can stop international productions from filming here! Just imagine if this same flexibility and creativity was shown in the tourism industry. Whilst we are convinced that tourism should only happen when the sun shines we are seeing clearly that with a little thinking outside the box we could be an all-year-round destination. But that’s a drum that I’ve been banging for years and so far all I can hear is an echo of silence.
So welcome Jack Ryan, welcome another TV series and welcome all the strange bright lights hanging over the city and lighting up the February night sky.
That’s a wrap!
Read more Englishman in Dubrovnik…well, if you really want to
