LA film crews descend on far-flung parts of Europe. Get the celery juice smoothies ready
VILNIUS, Lithuania — The kitchen staff in one of this city’s newest chic hotels, housed in a 15th century palace, knew Hollywood had arrived when film crews flown in from California started calling room service to demand smoothies — juiced celery and all.
Yet most Americans can’t find this Baltic nation on a map. The people of Vilnius, the medieval capital of cobblestone streets conquered easily by foot, don’t feel slighted even if they make it a point to understand the health fads of Los Angeles.
But the American film industry — three decades after this sliver of country broke free of the Soviet Union — is bringing about a change here few would have predicted.
“Hollywood has landed in Lithuania,” says Jurate Pazikaite, a former international investment worker who, for the last decade, has had the job of luring America’s streaming companies and film studios to shoot their scripts and spend their dollars. After years of working solo and watching big names pass over her native land, she brags these days about why she is hiring new staffers.
“HBO, Netflix, they are all coming.”
Attracted to places like Vilnius, where Moscow and Paris collide at a fraction of the cost — and tens of millions of dollars in production rebates are quickly granted — Hollywood is setting its sights on lesser-known corners of the globe. Expensive studio lots and permit-heavy American landscapes are being traded for the Baltics, Mediterranean and Eastern Europe, where the dollar goes further, workers cost less, crew hotels are cheap and a history of war and conquest means cityscapes from D.C. and Denmark can be easily conjured.
“It’s a country that kind
