Canadian hotel and real estate entrepreneur Derek Elliott announces Emi Group’s Sun Village Resort & Spa in Cofresi, Puerto Plata will host an international film festival in November. Elliott is inspired by the DR’s 2003-2005 successes in attracting major films to be produced in the DR or the recent Dominican films box office hits.
Elliott Motion Pictures recently made its industry debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September, where it co-hosted a party with production partner Media & Entertainment. Media & Entertainment has produced such acclaimed films as “Monster” (for which actor Charlie Theron won an Academy Award in 2003), and more recently “The Upride of Anger”, starring Kevin Costner.
To date, Elliott Motion Pictures has two films: “Lovewrecked”, a teenage romantic comedy starring Amanda Bynes that was filmed at the Sun Village resort and other areas in Puerto Plata, and “Man about Town”, whose cast includes Rebecca Romijn, John Cleese and the box-office cursed Ben Afflect. Both are scheduled for spring 2006 releases.
The plan is for the film festival to preview Elliot Motion Pictures’ latest entertainment offerings to vacationers. “It’s promotion of Sun Village, it’s recognizing the amount of films that are being done in the DR, and it ties the film business into our resort business, obviously,” Derek told Canada’s National Post in an interview. He envisions the festival becoming the Caribbean version of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
In addition to Sun Village in Puerto Plata, the company recently purchased the former 260-room Melia Juan Dolio and is renovating this for an opening as the Sun Village Juan Dolio next spring. The company expects to expand in the Cofresi area where it is located adjacent to the Ocean World marine park, marina and casino, and also plans to expand to the East Coast prior to venturing to other Caribbean islands.
See http://dr1.com/directories/hotels/sun_village.shtml