The film, from Dimitri Logothetis, will be shot entirely in Cyprus.
“Jiu Jitsu,” a sci-fi martial arts movie, will involve Nicolas Cage having to fight against a super-strong alien which comes to Earth on a mission to destroy. The cast includes Frank Grillo, Alain Moussi, Rick Yune, Marie Avgeropoulos and JuJu Chan.
It will be the first high profile production under recent incentives aiming to establish Cyprus as a filming destination under the name Olivewood.
The €24.6 million film will be shot entirely in Cyprus, taking advantage of a programme that gives productions the option to choose between cash rebate or tax credit, and also benefit from tax discounts on investments made on equipment and infrastructure. The cash rebate programme is a rebate of 25-30 percent on eligible expenditure.
The film’s producer and director Demetris Logothetis told CyBC TV that he already has plans to shoot a second film on the island written by Gary Scott Thompson of Fast and Furious fame.
The entire film will be shot in two Cypriot villages near the capital of Nicosia.
The villages of Mammari and Lympia will host the crew of the production team, and their surrounding landscapes will provide the entire backdrop of the movie.
The area of Mammari is home to some breath-taking limestone caves, something that makes it ideal for shooting this type of movie, with its dramatic themes of an alien takeover.
According to reports, the filming on Cyprus will last for approximately three weeks.
Cage received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as an alcoholic Hollywood writer in Leaving Las Vegas (1995).
Here’s to many more movies made in OLIVEWOOD… so very Cypriot!
