13/09/2012 - Two films based on popular children’s books, Dražen Žarković's The Mysterious Boy and Silvije Petranović's The Brave Adventures of Lapitch start shooting in Croatia

The Mysterious Boy is a sequel to last year's local blockbuster Koko and the Ghosts [+see also:
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The first film was directed by the author's son Danijel Kušan, who will keep creative control of The Mysterious Boy and two future sequels in what looks like a promising franchise. Antonio Parač, Nina Mileta, Ozren Gabarić and Dijana Vidušin will reprise their roles from Koko and the Ghosts.

Budgeted at €850,000, the film is produced by Kinorama and Croatian Radiotelevision. It will shoot from September 12 until the end of October. Theatrical release through Continental Film is scheduled for March 2013.

The Brave Adventures of Lapitch is based on the 1913 novel by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, which is well known around the world. Written and directed by Silvije Petranović, the film and TV series have an all-star cast including Goran Navojec, Milan Pleština, Hristina Popović, Bojan Navojec, Nikola Kojo and Mustafa Nadarević. Production company Maydi Film from Zagreb announces it as a "film for the whole family".

Shooting began last week in Baranja and will continue until November 15 at several locations in Croatia. The film TV series are expected to be finished in 2013, exactly one hundred years after the initial publishing of the source novel.

"These are the eighth and ninth feature-length films to begin shooting in 2012, but certainly not the last," said the director of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre Hrvoje Hribar. "Others were intense, festival films, whereas the ones announced here open the theatres to a wider audience."