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Nostalgic teen musical 'Made in Hungária' to rock Hungary |
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Written by Gábor Osváth
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
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 Hungary has a big tradition of film musicals, but almost all of these movies were made during the Socialist regime, mostly in the 1950s and 60s. After 1989, the local film industry was on shaky grounds and the first breakthrough hit was a musical. In 1996, Csinibaba directed by Péter Tímár connected with audiences thanks to its comedic andnostalgic look at the 1960s and the many popular songs from that era. Something similar is about to happen in 2009 as pre-production on Gergely Fonyó's Made in Hungária is already underway. Based on the hit stage musical of the same name, Made in Hungária will tell the true story of Miklós Fenyö, who, at the age of 18, moved back to Hungary from the US and became the rock 'n' roll king of the country. The teen-spirited movie will tell the story of the foundation of his band Hungária and their first successes, as well as some teen rivalry and a love story. The film will feature the band's biggest hits, possibly re-arranged. This will be Gergely Fonyó's fourth feature film; his previous works include the 2006 hit teen comedy Tibor vagyok de hódítani akarok ("Young, Dumb and Full of Love"). The movie is a co-production of Next Station Productions (S.O.S. Szerelem! / S.O.S. Love!), HCC Media Group (Andrei Konchalovsky's The Nutcracker) and newcomer Sunny Film. Filming on Made in Hungária is set to begin on July 15 in Budapest, on a budget of €2 million. The film will be released on February 14, 2009 and producers are hoping to reach a Csinibaba-kind of success. The 1996 musical had more than 502,000 visitors during its theatrical run – a number only three movies have surpassed since: A miniszter félrelép (Ray Cooney's Out of Order) with 662,000 visitors; Valami Amerika (A Kind of America) with 529,000 visitors and Szabadság szerelem (Children of Glory) with 506,000 visitors. |
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