Entertainment

Panama popular for films

Ministro de Turismo Rubén Blades said yesterday that two more movies will be filmed in Panama after production wraps up on the James Bond sequel in February.

Blades said he spoke with the director of one of those movies in Los Angeles and was told that production will begin in Panama as soon as the screenwriters guild strike ends.

"The team is the same one that produced The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford. It's a high standard movie. It will not shed a bad light on Panama," Blades said.

His comment was a thinly veiled reference to The Tailor of Panama, which was produced and directed by John Boorman and starred Pierce Brosnan. That movie pictured Panama as a heaven for money launderers and called Panamanian banks "laundry machines."

According to Blades, the two projects will be action and adventure films. One of them is based on John Perkins's novel "The Economic Hitman." The second one will use the Panama Canal as a backdrop.

When asked if he will participate in any of the movies, Blades, who has worked in Hollywood, said he prefers to refrain from doing so because it would be unethical.

Blades said that the producers of James Bond movie offered him a role but he turned it down.

"I don't believe that it is a good idea since I work for the government," he said.