Filenews 30 September 2021 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
The producers and the director of the well-known film Jiu Jitsu, which was shot in Cyprus starring the famous Award-winning Hollywood actor Nicholas Cage, took legal action against the members of the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (KOPE) as well as against the Director General of the Ministry of Finance.
According to their lawyer Yiannos Georgiadis, two lawsuits have already been registered, one for defamation against the Auditor General and one against the Republic, the president and the director of KOPE, claiming damages of more than €30 million, for alleged violation of the terms of the Audiovisual Industry Promotion Plan, negligence and deception.
The addition of the above persons was deemed appropriate, according to Mr. Georgiadis, since they were the responsible persons who managed the requests for cash rebate of his clients both for the film "Jiu Jitsu" that had been processed and released internationally with great success, without even being attributed the approved "cash rebate" and for the film "Man of War" which was to be shot in Cyprus but due to the manipulations of the competent authorities. and the alleged defamation unleashed by the Auditor General, collapsed and with it all the other four ready-made films that the producers planned to return to Cyprus with total expenses in excess of €150 million.
Among the reprehensible behaviours that, according to the lawyer of the applicants, forced the producers to take legal action and abandon their second major production in Cyprus, are the continuous reports that came mainly from the Auditor General and the revelations in the media, that allegedly the film Jiu Jitsu was linked to the scandal of the golden passports and that it was expected that soon a relevant report of the Auditor General containing the relevant details of the alleged "n of a big scandal" in relation to passports and the film. It turned out in retrospect that this was not the case.
The lawsuits will support the great publicity given in Cyprus after the film was distributed by paramount company with huge success, while in America it was released by the Netflix platform.
