Reykjavík City Council today unanimously voted in favor of selling a large plot and industrial buildings to director Baltasar Kormákur’s production company to set up a Hollywood-style studio lot.
RVK Studios will buy four buildings at Gufunes in Grafarvogur, a suburb of Reykjavík. The purchase is worth ISK 301 million (EUR 2.15 million/USD2.41 million)—plus and additional ISK 2 million as intent to purchase on an additional 19,200 square meters east of the buildings.
The buildings in question are part of an old fertilizer factory.
The purchase will be paid in two equal parts: one when the buildings are taken over by RVK Studios this August, and the second half next February.
In between the two payments, a survey will be carried out to determine if the ground is polluted and the City of Reykjavík will pay for any necessary clean-up operations resulting from the fertilizer factory. If it is determined that he ground is too polluted to be used, RVK Studios will be able to pull out of the deal altogether, RÚV reports.
The waste management company Íslenska Gámafélagið also uses the site and is contracted to remain there for the next six years. The two companies will have to coexist peacefully in the meantime.
The stated goal of RVK Studios is to build a culture and/or film village on the site, with all the necessary services on offer.
Baltasar Kormákur requested negotiations with the City last summer about the possible purchase of the abandoned fertilizer factory. It is hoped that one of the projects the ‘village’ will be used for will be a blockbuster Viking movie Baltasar has been working towards for the last decade. He says that with the help of American partners, the filming could start soon.
