13 July,2010 03:41 PM IST | | IANS
New Zealand is the new Switzerland. After I Hate Luv Storys, which was partly shot in Queenstown in New Zealand, Abbas-Mustan's remake of the Hollywood movie The Italian Job is scheduled to be filmed in NZ towards the end of the year. A crew of 90 to 100 from India will fly down for about 50 days of shooting, a New Zealand Tourism statement said.
The project will have a budget of around NZ$43 million (US$30 million/Rs 1.4 billion). Abbas-Mustan say that no compromises will be made to make sure the latest version of The Italian Job is as good as the original.
"We're going to Indianise The Italian Job. We'll add roles for two heroines. We might even have an American actress in the film. And the villain will be played by one of the top heroes. We want to make it better than the original," Abbas-Mustan said.
Michael Caine starred in the original 1969 version of The Italian Job. A 2003 remake with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Donald Sutherland was also a commercial success.