BUDAPEST – A prop axe was brought in as crew members set the scene for a horror movie being filmed in Budapest’s former psychiatric institute, one of numerous Hollywood productions under way in the Hungarian capital. But it is Hungary’s flourishing one-billion-dollar-a-year movie industry that has been dubbed “Hollywood on the Danube” that could soon face the axe in the form of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. “It’s like a meteor heading towards Earth. Either it passes, or it hits us,” top Hungarian tax firm Andersen’s managing director Karoly Radnai told. “There is no way to adapt. If Trump introduces tariffs, that will be very bad for us.” Interesting locations, cheap labour costs and a generous cash rebate scheme have made the central European country of 9.5 million people an attractive shooting location. Among the large variety of foreign productions filmed here are epic sci-fi blockbusters like the “Dune” franchise to arthouse period dramas, such as four BAFTA and three Golden Globe-winner “The Brutalist”.
Hungary’s ‘Hollywood on the Danube’ faces Trump tariff threat




