Several years ago, Hollywood took a stand against North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” HB 2 and its successor HB 142 targeting transgender people by pulling production out of the state, including the high-profile decision by Netflix to move what became one of its biggest YA hits, Outer Banks, to South Carolina.
Film and TV studios are now facing a similar moral dilemma with Hungary, a country that has become a leading European filming location. Two of this year’s Best Picture nominees, Dune: Part Two and The Brutalist, were shot there.
Fast-tracked anti-LGBTQ legislation last month that banned LGBTQ+ public gatherings — including the annual Budapest Pride — and sparked street protests, was codified this week with a constitutional amendment. It passed overwhelmingly at the Hungarian parliament, which is controlled by a coalition led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
This is the latest in a string of moves targeting the LGBTQ community in the country over the past several years, including a previous amendment that prohibits same-sex adoption and “child protection” legislation that bans the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to anyone under 18.
There hasn’t been an immediate Hollywood reaction to the latest legislation in the vein of the public outcry over the North Carolina bills. None of the studios, production companies or streamers approached by Deadline who have films and TV series filming in Hungary are commenting, with current productions staying put in the Central European country and no filming or pre-production impacted by the ongoing unrest there.
That includes the Legendary-Warner Bros tentpole Dune starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, whose interior sets are on soundstages in the Hungarian capital Budapest. They will continue to be used for the upcoming third movie in the franchise, slated to begin production in late summer, sources said.
Also said to be staying in Budapest for its upcoming second season, now in pre-production, is the HBO/Legendary series Dune: Prophecy, a prequel to the Denis Villeneuve films.
Apple Original Films’ Matchbox from Skydance and Mattel Films, starring John Cena, is wrapping production in Hungary this week, while cameras on Walden Media’s Cold War thriller Billion Dollar Spy starring Russell Crowe have just started rolling in the country, we hear.
A pan-European co-production, Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System is Down, which features American stars such as Keanu Reeves and Kirsten Dunst, also has been filming in Budapest where it built an elaborate airplane set around a real Boeing 747.
On the TV side, the upcoming Peacock/Universal TV Cold War thriller series PONIES, starring Emilia Clarke, is currently filming in Hungary, with Apple TV+/Skydance’s heist series 12 12 12, headlined by Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan, slated to begin shooting in May, sources said.
Production on Netflix’s sci-fi drama 3 Body Problem is believed to be moving to Hungary from the UK for seasons 2 and 3, which are rumored to be shooting back-to-back. The streamer has not confirmed start of production or location, but Season 2 is said to be in pre-production in Hungary, with filming expected to begin later this year.
Hungary also served as a main filming location for the first season of Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal with Eddie Redmayne. It is unclear yet where Season 2 will be shot.
Similarly, Sony’s planned Starship Troopers feature reboot from Neill Blomkamp, which doesn’t have a cast or production start date, has been exploring Hungary as a filming location but no final decision has been made.
That decision may be one of the first indications whether Hollywood would be swayed by the latest encroachment on LGBTQ rights in the country or whether the financial upside of shooting in Hungary would prove too appealing.
Hungary has a very competitive tax credit, estimated to be around 30%, including above-the-line costs. Unlike other places that offer tax incentives, Hungary is known to pay out its credit upfront, which is advantageous for producers. It also has experienced local crews available.
“Something draconian would have to happen to the tax credit for Hollywood to abandon the country,” one producer said.
Possibly adding to the muted reaction to the events in Hungary is the fact that Hollywood types say they believed a boycott of North Carolina would help bring change. (The state’s controversial HB 142 expired in December 2020 and has not been revived.) They don’t think such a public stance would be effective in the case of Hungary, where Orbán has been in power since 2010 on a platform that frequently targets the LGBTQ community.
Additionally, while Hungary went a lot further, denying people the right to peacefully assemble for Pride and other LGBTQ+ events under the new constitutional amendment — with facial recognition deployed to track down participants and dual citizens facing citizenship suspension — it is probably harder to condemn the country for attacking LGBTQ+ rights when a similar process has been underway in the U.S. under President Trump, an Orbán ally.
The new constitutional amendment voted on in Hungary on Monday includes a clause that is virtually identical to an executive order Trump signed at the start of his second term that recognizes only two sexes: male and female.
Still, it is possible that top Hollywood talent won’t be comfortable filming in Hungary under the current conditions — and some LGBTQ+ cast and crew may be afraid to go work in a country where they could be targeted — leading to fewer productions setting shop in the country.
Hollywood studios will also face the challenge of trying to keep their LGBTQ+ employees safe under the new laws. They will likely be more inclined to make the call to shoot elsewhere on future projects than they have been on existing films and TV shows — like the ones listed above — that already had spent millions of dollars prepping and building stages in Hungary, making a last-minute move costly.
“The local production services and arts crew are very upset,” a person on the ground in Hungary tells Deadline. “They know people aren’t going to come back here to shoot movies. They know it’s going to reduce their business.”