MSR Media is announcing plans to shoot up to thirty-five films in five years in the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis. The news comes following a meeting this week with the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew, and MSR Media whose Philippe Martinez produced several films in the region, including One Year Off, Assailant, A Week in Paradise, Christmas in the Caribbean and Us or Them.
The latest project at the top of the list for Martinez and the company will be the action thriller Fast Sea, to be directed by Leigh Scott from a script he wrote with Sean Michael Argo, with cameras set to roll in January. The move will offset a campaign that will include hiring 150 people over the next four months and finalizing the purchase of a leading hotel in Basseterre, St. Kitts, which will create 100 new jobs when the hotel reopens, in addition to current efforts to hire 50 young college graduates to work in their film division, and opening a new film academy in all disciplines in St. Kitts for nationals.
According to the announcement, MSR Media’s total investment in this new deal with St. Kitts will be $150 million over five years.
“In the past 18 months, MSR Media has invested and produced eight (8) films in the Federation. The creation of the Ministry of the Creative Economy is a wonderful initiative by the Prime Minister and his Government that will help companies like ours to continue creating many more jobs and portray this beautiful country in our films to a worldwide audience.” said Martinez, in an interview with Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis The Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew on Sunday, October 30 at Kittitian Hill.
“We have always thought that St. Kitts and Nevis has what it takes to present itself to the world in the way that it will be presented with these movies. We are developing here what you call the orange economy where we are developing the Arts, and this definitely fits into that” said Dr. Drew.
“What’s really important for me and for the other actors that are involved is that we really feel that we are working within communities that seem so open to have us as filmmakers, that seem to be very keen to be involved…we’ve now integrated and we have so many local people learning all the different trades, backstage, in the film and in front of the camera and that’s a wonderful thing for us to see” added Hurley, who stars in Martinez’s upcoming Christmas In The Caribbean.
“You will definitely have our support and we will develop this industry” replied the Prime Minister.
Scott is also in the works co-directing upcoming thriller Black Noise with Martinez, which was announced last month.