The potential of the Serbian film industry has been further demonstrated with the recent decision of River Road Entertainment to film a modern day version of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” in Serbia.

Ralph Fiennes will direct and play the lead in the film and was part of a group that evaluated Serbia as a location for shooting this film in July.

The film is a tragedy based on the life of the legendary Roman leader, Gaius Martius Coriolanus in modern times.

Filming will start in March 2009. “What this means for Serbia is about $10 million in direct investment, and almost unlimited free publicity around the globe as viewers of the movie will see Belgrade and Serbia in a major Hollywood A-list production”, says Ana Ilic who leads the film and production sector in the USAID Competitiveness Project.

This USAID project worked closely with the Serbian film production company “Work in Progress” to secure this project for Serbia.

“Ralph Fiennes, Frank Hildebrand, Producer, and Mark Geraghty, Production Designer, were impressed with the diversity of locations available in Belgrade and the professionalism of the crew from “Work in Progress”.