A sequel to the 2020 Netflix thriller Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, will reportedly be heading to Prague this autumn after facing Covid-19-related production delays in Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the move this morning, quoting an anonymous source involved with the production.
Prague production agencies have yet to confirm the move, but the producers of Extraction 2 have a strong recent history with shooting in the Czech capital. Extraction and its sequel are written and produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, who shot the Netflix blockbuster The Gray Man in Prague earlier this summer.
Released in the spring of 2020, Extraction instantly became one of Netflix’s most-watched original films with more than 90 million viewers. A sequel was immediately put into production, written by Joe Russo and directed by Sam Hargrave, who also helmed the first movie.
While the first movie was shot in India, Bangladesh, and Thailand, production on the sequel was slated to film in Sydney this autumn. But according to a source involved with the production, Covid-19-related production delays have made it impossible to film in Australia before November, when star Hemsworth is contracted to shoot the next Mad Max film for director George Miller.
“A source close to the production but not authorized to comment publicly said the Covid-19 crisis and pandemic restrictions meant it was no longer possible to film the sequel to 2020’s action-thriller Extraction in Sydney before November when Hemsworth was due to begin filming Furiosa, the next installment in the Mad Max franchise,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
“The source said the movie will be made in Prague, in the Czech Republic, instead.”
Prague recently hosted production for The Gray Man, which starred Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, Hemsworth’s co-star from the blockbuster MCU movies Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
One of the most expensive movies to ever shoot in Prague, The Gray Man came with a reported budget of $250 million. Only three weeks of filming took place in the Czech capital, however, with primary studio filming taking place in Los Angeles.
The film was the latest production in a record-breaking year for the Czech film industry, which also included shoots of White Bird: A Wonder Story with Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren, and Spaceman, starring Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan. Chevalier, a new biopic starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Samara Weaving, is slated to kick off production in Prague from September 7.
The two biggest international projects to ever shoot in the Czech Republic, the Amazon fantasy series Carnival Row and The Wheel of Time, have also continued their Prague shoots this summer; both series are currently filming their second seasons after Covid-19 delays. Other international productions such as Hanna, Dangerous Liaisons, Alma & Oskar, Extinction, Totems, and All Quiet on the Western Front have also shot in Prague this year.
While the pandemic continues to disrupt shoots in the United States and other countries, Prague has seen a surge in the number of large-scale productions. The Czech Republic currently has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in Europe.
“Hundreds of actors and technicians were hanging on and crossing their fingers hoping that international film productions could go ahead, but the current outbreak has meant they will not go ahead,” a spokesperson for New South Wales’ Arts and Heritage Ministry told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“While it is always disappointing when productions change filming locations, it is quite common practice,” said New South Wales Arts Minister Don Harwin.
In Extraction, Hemsworth starred as a black-market mercenary hired to rescue the son of an Indian drug lord from a rival crime syndicate.
Story details for the sequel have yet to be confirmed; the movie may be rewritten to accommodate its move from Sydney.
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