Star Wars Adds Shine to Croatian 'Pearl' Dubrovnik

The new Star Wars movie will be part-filmed in the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik in March, bringing the city additional prestige among film fans and marketing potential.

Andro Vlahusic (left) posing with R2-D2 and C-3PO. | Photo: town of Dubrovnik

After weeks of feverish speculation, the Croatian City of Dubrovnik on Friday confirmed that part of the latest Star Wars movie is to be filmed there in March.

Filming of the eighth Star Wars movie will bring additional prestige and marketing visibility to the world-famous destination, often called the “Pearl of the Adriatic”.

After hosting one of the best-viewed TV series of all time, HBO’s fantasy drama, Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik’s medieval walls will now be the backdrop for another blockbuster.

In Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik served as the setting for the capital of “King’s Landing”, one of the fictional kingdoms in the series.

Game of Thrones attracted a host of new fans to the city, wanting to check out the locations where it was filmed.

Although the filming will last only for a week and it is now known what planet in the saga the city will represent, the link will do wonders for its image among movie-goers.

Dubrovnik Mayor Andro Vlahusic went to San Francisco on Thursday to meet Star Wars producers Lucasfilm ltd., the production company named after its founder, the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas.

Disney bought Lucasfilm for 3.5 billion euro in 2012, which then became its subsidiary.

The new Star Wars movie will hit the cinemas in December 2017.

The seventh Star Wars sequel, The Force Awakens, premiered last December and has already made more around 1.8 billion euro, making it one of the most profitable movies of all time. Disney officials estimate that the eighth film will bring in even more money

The first Star Wars film, A New Hope, which premiered in 1977, in fact was chronologically the fourth episode of the saga.

Episode five, The Empire Strikes Back, and episode six, Return of the Jedi, followed in 1980 and 1983 respectively. Lucas went back to film episodes one to three, which were released between 1999 and 2005.

The series has created a host of enduring fictional characters, such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Lea, Chewbacca, Darth Vader and droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.