Prime Minister Perry Gladstone Christie confirmed Saturday that the government has signed an agreement with Disney Motion Picture Company, for the filming of two movies on Grand Bahama Island.
Mr. Christie’s comments came as he addressed the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce during its Installation of Officers banquet, in the Convention Centre of the Our Lucaya Resort.
The move is being viewed as a further attempt to bring more focus on Grand Bahama Island.
In addition to the motion picture endeavor the Prime Minister talked about the hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in Grand Bahama’s tourism, and industrial sector.
The agreement with Disney Motion Picture Company, according to Prime Minister Christie, calls for the substantial portion of two movies, Pirates of The Caribbean II and Pirates of The Caribbean III to be filmed on Grand Bahama Island between May 2005 and January 2006.
“The Minister of Tourism has advised me that so far, Disney is committed to 16,000 room nights as a part of this production.
“It is anticipated that the room nights could exceed 30,000 as additional technical people are brought in for these production,” the Prime Minister stated.
He said that from the estimates, those two motion pictures will cause some $30 million to be spent on Grand Bahama Island.
He said the government is grateful to Paul Quigley for his continuing vision to build sound stages and a film studio on Grand Bahama.
“In fact, were it not for his commitment to build a critical water tank in Grand Bahama for this film and other productions, we would not be in this happy situation today.
“I am told that what Mr. Quigley and his Gold Rock Creek partners have done is likely to lead to a parade of motion picture productions in Grand Bahama, especially those that require use of such a tank since there are few in existence around the world. So on your behalf, I thank you Mr. Quigley for not giving up on vision,” the Prime Minister said.
Simon Lewis, Bahamas Information Services
