The concrete skeleton comes to life through filming, Ostrava has rented it to filmmakers

Ostrava - The unfinished concrete skeleton next to the regional office in Ostrava will come to life in the coming days with film shooting. The construction site excited the producers of the sci-fi film Babylon A. D., in which Hollywood actor Vin Diesel stars, and some action scenes will be filmed there. The Ostrava city council has already agreed to the lease of the skeleton, Mayor Petr Kajnar told reporters today. The film has been in production since December in a Czech-American co-production at the Barrandov studios.
    Filming in Ostrava will start on Sunday, specifically on the Main Street in the Poruba district. Some scenes will also be shot in the listed industrial area in the Lower Vítkovice region.
    Kajnar stated that Ostrava signed a contract for the lease of the concrete construction site with the Prague company OKKO Production, which provides services to filmmakers. The crew will shoot on the skeleton for a maximum of two days at an unspecified date by January 24, with footage expected to resemble the infamous New York borough of the Bronx. Ostrava will earn 10,000 crowns for this. According to Kajnar, the rental amount was not decisive.
    "We wanted to accommodate them and allow filming," he said, noting that it is good for the city to gain recognition. "It's nice that they chose Ostrava; maybe Americans will discover that they can create a new Barrandov here," he added. Besides Prague and outdoor locations in the Czech Republic, Babylon will also be filmed in Canada, specifically in Montreal and Quebec.
    The plot of the French-American film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, known for the film The Crimson Rivers starring Jean Reno, takes place in the not-too-distant future when the first cyborgs are emerging. The main character is former Serbian soldier Thoorop, who works as a mercenary and receives a risky task - to get a young woman from Russia to Canada. However, during the journey, he discovers that she has been infected with a virus and technology that someone could misuse to create a genetically modified Messiah. French star Gérard Depardieu will also appear in the film, but reportedly will not come to Ostrava.
    The concrete skeleton, which has marred Ostrava since 1989, is something the city intends to sell according to Kajnar. It was purchased in the summer of 2001 for nearly 29 million crowns from the company Carolina. So far, two to three interested parties have requested to buy it, but according to Kajnar, conditions must first be established.